Southern California Board Of Rabbis

As public debate over Proposition 8 heated up last fall, few religious leaders in California fought the ban on same-sex marriage as tirelessly as Rabbi Denise L. Eger. The Reform rabbi and lesbian denounced the ballot measure at news conferences. She pressed fellow rabbis to join the cause. She performed dozens of weddings for gay and lesbian couples -- sometimes five a day.

For a soft-spoken man, Rabbi Robert Gann has set his sights on an ambitious and potentially boat-rocking role for the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. Gann, the new president of the board, is calling on the panel to speak out on vexing political and social issues facing not only the second-largest Jewish population in the United States but also the state and nation.

In an address that frankly acknowledged a long history of anti-Semitism in the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told the Board of Rabbis of Southern California on Tuesday that Jews and Catholics should use three decades of interfaith understanding to build toward "deeper reconciliation" in the new millennium.