Leonard Beerman was founding rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, where he served for 37 years. Long active on issues of peace and social justice, he co-chaired the Los Angeles Jewish Commission on Sweatshops, and co-founded the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race. He serves on the boards of Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, the Jewish Peace Fellowship, and is a member of the bioethics committee of St. Johns Hospital, and the Institutional Review Board of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and is a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities.