After receiving his degree in writing and graduating CumLaude from Northwestern University, and time studying at Trinity College,Oxford University, Rabbi Leder received a Master’s Degree in Hebrew Letters in1986 and Rabbinical Ordination in 1987 from Hebrew Union College. Hecurrently serves as the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, aprestigious synagogue in Los Angeles with two campuses and 2,400families. Rabbi Leder is currently concluding his 225 million dollarcampaign to develop the congregation’s historic urban campus encompassing anentire city block. The campus is soon to include a new building byPritzker Prize winning architect Rem Koolhaas.In addition to his many duties at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Rabbi Leder taught Homiletics for 13 years at Hebrew Union College in LosAngeles. He is a regular contributor and guest on The Today Show, writesregularly for TIME, Foxnews.com, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, contributed achapter to Charles Barkley’s book Who’s Afraid of a Large BlackMan?, and has published essays in Town and Country, the LosAngeles Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal wherehis Torah commentaries were read weekly by over 50,000 people. His sermon on capital punishment was included in an award winning episodeof The West Wing. Rabbi Leder received the Louis Rappaport Award forExcellence in Commentary by the American Jewish Press Association and theKovler Award from the Religious Action Center in Washington D.C. for his workin African American/Jewish dialogue and in 2012 presented twice at the AspenIdeas Festival.In the New York Times, William Safire called RabbiLeder’s first book The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things “uplifting.” Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein said he “is everything wesearch for in a modern wise man; learned, kind, funny, and non-judgmental, heoffers remarkably healing guidance.” Rabbi Leder’s second book More Money Than God: Living aRich Life Without Losing Your Soul received critical and media attentionincluding feature articles in the New York Times, Town and Country andappearances on ABC’s Politically Incorrect, NPR, and CBS ThisMorning. His third book More Beautiful Than Before; HowSuffering Transforms Us was reached #4 on Amazon’s overall best sellerslist in its first week. It remains a best seller in several categoriesand has been translated into Korean and Chinese. More Beautiful ThanBefore has helped tens of thousands of people suffering from emotional orphysical pain and continues to receive prestigious media attention includingCBS This Morning, The Talk, The Steve Harvey Show, and four appearances onNBC’s Today Show. His fourth book The Beauty ofWhat Remains; What Death Teaches Us About Life, was published by PenguinRandom House in the spring of 2021, and his latest, For You When I Am Gone, will be released June 7, 2022.Newsweek Magazine twice named Steve one of the ten mostinfluential rabbis in America but most important to Steve is being Betsy’shusband and Aaron and Hannah’s dad. He is also a Jew who likes tofish. Go figure. Steve lives in Los Angeles, CA.
