Rabbi Ed Feinstein is senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California. He serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the University of Judaism, the Wexner Heritage Foundation, and the Synagogue 3000 initiative. He is a columnist for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles and lectures widely across the United States. His first book, Tough Questions Jews Ask – A Young Adult’s Guide to Building a Jewish Life, published by Jewish Lights in 2003, was one of the American Library Association’s Top Ten Books on Religion for Young Readers and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. He is the editor of God Within and Between –A Conversation on Jews and Judaism at the Beginning of the 21st Century, which will be published by Jewish Lights in 2007.Rabbi Feinstein was raised in the back of his parents’ bakery on the frontiers of the West San Fernando Valley. He graduated with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Judaism, Columbia University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained in 1981. In 1982, Rabbi Feinstein became the founding director of the Solomon Schechter Academy of Dallas, Texas, building the school’s enrollment from 40 to over 500 in eight years, and winning national recognition as center of educational excellence. In 1990, he assumed the directorship of Camp Ramah in California, the largest Jewish camp and conference center in the Western United States. He came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1993 at the invitation of the renown Rabbi Harold Schulweis. Rabbi Feinstein lives in the epicenter of the San Fernando Valley with his wife Rabbi Nina Bieber Feinstein. Nina was the second woman ordained by the Conservative Movement. The Feinsteins are blessed with three teenage children. Every Friday afternoon, Ed bakes brownies from a recipe revealed to his ancestors at Mount Sinai.