Debra Orenstein is a rabbi and leader of Makom Ohr Shalom congregation in Los Angeles. She wrote a Torah portion commentary about teshuvah, the return to God, and weight loss.

Christopher Bader is a professor of sociology at Chapman University. He serves as associate director of the Association of Religion Data Archives and was principal investigator of the first two waves of the Baylor Religion Survey.

Eric Stover is Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California-Berkeley. The center’s research focuses on war crimes, justice and postwar reconstruction, health and human rights, and globalization.

Bill McKinney was president of the Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. for fourteen years before he retired in 2010. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a religion sociologist who is an expert on American Protestantism.

Seyoon Kim is a professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and has written widely on Paul and “the New Perspective.”

The University Muslim Medical Association Community Clinic provides health services to Muslims and others, regardless of ability to pay, in South Central Los Angeles. It opened in 1996.

Muslim Community Services of San Diego provides social and educational services in the area.

Islamic Relief USA is a California-based international Islamic nonprofit agency founded in 1984. It operates projects in education and training, water and sanitation, income generation, orphan support, health and nutrition, and emergency relief in foreign countries and in the U.S. It has a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.

The East Bay Sanctuary Covenant is an organization of faith-based groups in the Berkeley, Calif., area that have pledged to provide sanctuary and other assistance to immigrants.