Rabbi Mark Diamond, Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Rabbi Mark Diamond is Executive Vice President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. In that position, he directs a multi-denominational organization of 290 rabbis, and serves on the senior management team of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
Prior to assuming this position in August 2000, Rabbi Diamond served as rabbi of congregations in metropolitan San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York. He founded and coordinated “Ask a Rabbi,” an acclaimed cyberspace forum answering online questions from America Online subscribers.
As the Board’s Executive Vice President, Rabbi Diamond has created innovative transdenominational programs for colleagues and the community, including the Los Angeles Synagogue Leadership Institute (a course for emerging congregational leaders), Lilmod Ve’la’asot (professional growth and development workshops for rabbis), Torah Lishmah seminars with master text teachers, and the Critical Issues Series featuring experts in the religious, educational and political spheres. The rabbi is quoted frequently in local and national media and is a leader in intrafaith and interfaith dialogue and collaborative projects.
Rabbi Diamond is a member of the Ethics Resource Committee of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the executive committee of the United Jewish Communities Rabbinic Cabinet. The rabbi is a past chairman of the Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders, and led the Council’s February 2005 interfaith trip to Israel. In April 2006, the rabbi brought 40 AME pastors, rabbis, synagogue and church members on a relief mission to rebuild homes and lives devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Rabbi Diamond headed an interreligious delegation of 23 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders on a January 2008 mission to the Vatican, Rome and Israel, highlighted by an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
The rabbi is a past president of the East Bay Council of Rabbis and is the founder of the “Why Be Jewish?” conferences for interfaith families and Jews-by-Choice. Rabbi Diamond has delivered addresses at the national conventions of the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education, the Council of Jewish Federations and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. He has lectured and taught at Pepperdine University, Fuller Theological Seminary, Baylor University, Mount St. Mary’s College, and the Los Angeles campuses of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the University of Judaism and the Academy for Jewish Religion.
Rabbi Diamond is the author of numerous articles on Jewish life and thought. His sermons have been published in Torah Aura’s “Learn Torah With” series. His articles and book reviews have appeared in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, the Northern California Jewish Bulletin and the Washington Jewish Week.
Rabbi Diamond received his Master of Arts degree in Jewish studies and rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He was awarded the Seminary’s Lillian M. Lowenfeld Prize in Practical Theology and the Dr. Michael Higger Prize in Talmud. The rabbi is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. He is married and the father of three children.
