Yehuda Berg is an Orthodox rabbi and founder of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles. He is the author of The Power of Kabbalah, which popularized the ancient Jewish mystic text and its practices to many non-Jews. He has a weekly blog.

Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis leads Congregation Valley Beth Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Encino, Calif. He is the founder of the Jewish World Watch project, which works to raise awareness in synagogues about the genocide in Darfur. Among the many books he has authored, Evil and the Morality of God is considered a classic.

Rabbi Naomi Levy is the founder of Nashuva, a Jewish worship community in Los Angeles. Levy is widely credited with finding innovative and creative ways of engaging unaffiliated and disaffected Jews with their faith.

Rabbi Laura Geller is the principal rabbi at Temple Emanuel, one of the largest Reform synagogues in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was among the first class of women rabbis to be ordained in the Reform movement.

Rabbi Sharon Brous is the founder of IKAR, a Los Angeles-based progressive Jewish community focused sharply on social justice.

Gallia Porat is a lecturer in modern and biblical Hebrew at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. She has developed her own technique for teaching Hebrew to teenagers and adults. She has also taught Hebrew to new immigrants to Israel.

Gilbert Reyes is associate dean of the school of psychology at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. His focus is on crisis intervention and psychological health after disasters.

Salvatore R. Maddi is a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine. He is the co-author of Resilience at Work: How to Succeed No Matter What Life Throws at You (Amacom, 2004) and has studied the quality of “personality hardiness” that allows some people to thrive even in stressful circumstances, such as natural […]

Rabbi Stephen Pearce leads Congregation Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue and San Francisco’s largest Jewish congregation.