Rabbi Seth Limmer was born in Rochester, NY, raised in Great Neck, and received a B.A. cum laude in Philosophy from Cornell University. In 1999, Rabbi Limmer received a Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained a rabbi in May 2000. During his seminary years at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Limmer served as the rabbinic intern at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and then served as Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Yisrael of Armonk, NY, for fourteen years. In May 2009, after successfully defending his “The Rabbis as Readers” dissertation, he was awarded his Doctorate in Hebrew Literature. During those same years, Rabbi Limmer served as Dean of Faculty for Eisner and Crane Lake Camps, and as Chair of the Justice, Peace & Civil Liberties committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Rabbi Limmer began his tenure as Senior Rabbi of Chicago Sinai Congregation in July 2014. He served on the Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, on the President's Rabbinic Council of HUC-JIR, and is a member of the strategy team for the Religious Action Center. On behalf of Chicago Sinai Congregation's lead role in organizing the Reform Movement's participation in the NAACP's 2015 America's Journey for Justice, Rabbi Limmer accepted the Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award, the highest honor of the Union for Reform Judaism. 2016 saw the publication of his first full-length book, which he co-authored with Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman, Medieval Midrash: The House for Inspired Innovation by the prestigious Brill Press. He is the co-editor of Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority: Our Jewish Obligation to Social Justice, published by CCAR Press in 2018.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner serves as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He has led the Religious Action Center since 2015. Rabbi Pesner also serves as Senior Vice President of the Union for Reform Judaism, a position to which he was appointed to in 2011. Named one of the most influential rabbis in America by Newsweek magazine, he is an inspirational leader and tireless advocate for social justice. Rabbi Pesner’s work has focused on encouraging Jewish communities to reach across lines of race, class, and faith in campaigns for social justice. In 2006, he founded Just Congregations (now incorporated into the Religious Action Center), which engaged clergy, professional, and volunteer leaders in interfaith efforts in pursuit of social justice. Rabbi Pesner was a primary leader in the successful Massachusetts campaign for health care access that has provided health care coverage to hundreds of thousands and which became a nationwide model for reform. Over the course of his career, he has also led and supported campaigns for racial justice, economic opportunity, immigration reform, LGBTQ equality, human rights, and a variety of other causes. He is dedicated to building bridges to collectively confront anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate and bigotry. His forthcoming book, Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority, published by CCAR Press in 2018. Rabbi Pesner has trained and mentored students on all four campuses of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and gives speeches in interfaith and secular venues all over the world. Rabbi Pesner serves as a board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, JOIN for Justice, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, and the New England Center for Children. He is a member of the Leadership Team for the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. He has served as a scholar for the Wexner Foundation, American Jewish World Service, the Nexus USA Summit, and Combined Jewish Philanthropies, among others. Ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1997, Rabbi Pesner was a congregational rabbi at Temple Israel in Boston and at Temple Israel in Westport, Conn. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Bronx High School of Science.
