[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21949]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATIONS TO RABBI LEVIN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 6, 2004

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I want to take the time to 
recognize Rabbi Moshe Levin, the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner 
Tamid in the Sunset, San Francisco. Rabbi Levin is being honored by the 
Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice for his contributions to worker 
justice and worker rights.
  Rabbi Levin came from San Francisco to San Diego, where he served as 
the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth El in La Jolla for 15 years. Two 
years ago, he was named Rabbi Emeritus of that prestigious 
congregation, and began commuting to San Francisco to serve the people 
of Ner Tamid.
  Rabbi Levin was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of 
America, the central pillar of Conservative Judaism in the United 
States. He served as an Air Force chaplain for the first 2 years of his 
rabbinical career, and was stationed in Southeast Asia during the 
Vietnam War. His pulpit experience spanned 30 years, including 2 years 
on the Island of Curacao in the Dutch West Indies.
  Rabbi Levin was born in Brooklyn, NY, graduated from Brooklyn College 
and spent 2 years at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, majoring in 
economics and philosophy, and studying the Bible with the famed Nehama 
Leibowitz and archeology with Yigal Yadin. At the Jewish Theological 
Seminary, Rabbi Levin was privileged to study with such giants of the 
last century as Abraham Joshua Heschel and Chancellor Louis 
Finkelstein.
  Over the course of his career, Rabbi Moshe Levin has been active in 
Zionist causes, social action projects, interfaith activities, as well 
as furthering the creative continuity of American Jewish life. He is a 
founding member of the Palestinian-Jewish Dialogue of San Diego, which 
has been featured in the Christian Science Monitor, and has served on 
numerous boards, most recently the American Jewish Committee and the 
Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. In 1992, he was named Civil 
Libertarian of the Year by the San Diego and Imperial Chapters of the 
ACLU.
  Rabbi Levin's writings include: the Ethical Orgins of Kashrut, Near- 
Eastern Birthrights and the Eassau Jacob Narrative, Sexuality in Jewish 
Law and Tradition, and the Rabbinate for the 21st Century. It is a 
privilege to honor Rabbi Moshe Levin.

                          ____________________