For many Trojans, faith is not only a personal matter, but also a basis of community. For Max Rubenstein and Zainab Malik, taking on the role of community advocacy liaison for their respective faiths is a way to return the support.

The role officially debuted in January with Rubenstein, a junior in his final semester majoring in international relations, and Malik, a junior in her final semester majoring in journalism, as the liaisons. 

Rubenstein, the Jewish community advocacy liaison, credited former USG senator Brandon Tavakoli for proposing the idea of a designated Jewish advocate at USC. The April 2025 bill also established the path to create a community advocacy liaison position for any religious community that wanted one.

Malik, the Muslim community advocacy liaison, is also the president of the Muslim Student Union. Malik said that in her time working in advocacy, she has learned the importance of asking people what they need instead of assuming what they want.

“The most important thing when laying groundwork is [identifying] what the current barriers are,” Mailk said.

Both liaisons said their communities contain multitudes and that proper advocacy means recognizing and including those whom the liaisons might not represent in an individual capacity.

“Good advocacy doesn’t create exceptions; it just allows for more voices to be heard,” Malik said. “This religious liaison position is about just that.”

The advocacy liaison position is not new, but it is typically affiliated with a USG programming assembly. As the religious advocacy liaisons do not represent a specific organization, they are based in the USG advocacy department but report primarily to Varun Soni, the dean of Religious Life at USC. The liaisons still have access to USG resources and work under the USG chief diversity officer.

“My role is to equally try and advocate for all Jewish students across the board. So I think that’s why it made the most sense for it to be housed in ORSL, because that’s more of a neutral space,” Rubenstein said.

As graduation approaches for both of them, the two liaisons said they plan to spend the next three months establishing the foundations of the role for future liaisons.

“I want, when they nominate and confirm the next individual, to be able to sit down with them and say, I’ve spent the last few months … working on rosters of different organizations to reach out to or creating a transition document,” Rubenstein said.

One such project for Rubenstein is making kosher options regularly available in the dining halls, which he said he is currently prioritizing.

Malik said collaborating and communicating between organizations is key to acting with direction. She said the decision to prevent 2024 valedictorian Asna Tabassum from giving an address at commencement and how the administration handled the Spring 2024 pro-Palestine encampments are examples of action by the administration born out of reactivity.

“Direction requires you to know where you’re going before something happens. A lot of advocacy is often preventative,” Malik said. “You’re making sure that misunderstandings or current dynamics are not going to turn into barriers or conflicts … that means clear communication with administration and really being more proactive instead of reactive.”

For Rubenstein, proactivity translates to interfaith work. He recalled conversations with friends discussing growing up in their respective faiths and said it was a huge goal of his to build relationships.

“I feel really lucky that the Jewish and Muslim community advocacy liaisons are both coming into being at the same time,” he said. “We, the Jewish individuals and Muslim individuals, have way more in common than tears us apart. I think it’s really important that we are actively creating spaces where that sort of dialogue can be taking place.”

Rubenstein said creating those spaces requires tabling geopolitics, focusing on engaging with people from different backgrounds and having nonadversarial conversations about faith.

“I think [the goal is] creating spaces where faith is a topic of discussion, but that we’re [also] really exploring our similarities more than our differences,” Rubenstein said. “Acknowledging that there are very real geopolitical issues that involve Jews and Muslims and that there are academic or maybe protest-like spaces for those conversations. … I’m imagining that we try to step away from the politics and just talk about who we are as people.”

Samantha Caldera, a sophomore majoring in cinema and media studies, said she believes religious liaisons should use their platforms to make students feel more included, not to leverage political views.

“Regardless of what you believe, someone will always have a commentary on it and their own argument,” Caldera said.

Emily Viramontes, a sophomore majoring in journalism, said she thinks religious liaisons should act as mentors to students and help make them feel safer on campus. She said she hopes to see the liaisons host events to create a welcoming environment.

“At the end of the day, this [role] is just a reflection of good community work, which is the ethos of this university,” Malik said.

Disclaimer: Max Rubenstein served as an assistant news editor in Spring 2024. Rubenstein is no longer affiliated with the paper.

Clarification: This article was updated Feb. 25, 2026 at 8 p.m. to reflect that the religious advocacy liaisons are part of the Undergraduate Student Government advocacy department alongside their connections to the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.