[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 13149-13150]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  IN RECOGNITION OF STEPHEN S. PEARCE

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 2, 2013

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Dr. Stephen S. Pearce, the 
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Senior Rabbi, who is retiring after serving 
Congregation Emanu-El for 20 years. Rabbi Pearce's inexhaustible 
empathy and commitment to others has touched and inspired thousands of 
people across this country. It is for good reason that Newsweek has 
recognized him as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in the U.S. on 
three successive occasions.
  One of the issues Dr. Pearce is determined to solve is hunger in the 
Bay Area. He recently received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at 
the University of San Francisco for challenging the Emanu-El 
congregation and the community to address this pressing topic by 
reflecting on how faith is translated into action. Dr. Pearce took on 
hunger soon after he joined Emanu-El in July 1993. In September 1994, 
he initiated the High Holy Day food drive benefitting the San Francisco 
Food Bank. In April 1995, the Pe'ah Garden started raising vegetables 
for the Food Bank, Hamilton Family Center, Dream House and Raphael 
House. In February 2013, the Emanu-El Food Pantry on Geary Boulevard 
opened. In April 2004, he began a partnership with Dr. William Cobb 
elementary school to improve literacy and later expanded it to a food 
pantry. As you can see, once Dr. Pearce takes on an issue, his 
commitment is lasting.
  He also joined and won a drawn-out fight in 1997 to preserve one of 
the last remaining old-growth redwood groves in California. He 
organized an interfaith task force to help save the Headwaters Forest 
in Humboldt from chain saws. The effort won him the nick name ``Redwood 
Rabbi.''
  Under Rabbi Pearce's long and distinguished leadership, congregation 
Emanu-El established a preschool and an adult education center, held 
fundraising concerts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and for the work 
of American Jewish World Service in Darfur, helped young adults 
transition out of foster care, participated in the Pride Parade, 
launched a pulpit exchange with the Muslim community, and was involved 
in countless other projects.
  Stephen Pearce was born in Manhattan in 1946 and grew up in Brooklyn. 
He graduated with a BA in Psychology from City College of New York in 
1967 and was ordained at the New York School of the Hebrew Union 
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972. He earned his PhD in 
Counselor Psychology at St. John's University in 1978 and was awarded 
an honorary DD by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 
in 1997.
  Before Rabbi Pearce joined Congregation Emanu-El, he served at Temple 
Sinai of Stamford, Connecticut for 16 years and Temple Isaiah of Forest 
Hills, New York for five years. He was a faculty member at the Rabbinic 
School of the Hebrew Union College for 20 years and has also taught at 
the University of Connecticut, St. John's University and the University 
of San Francisco.
  He is a board member of Palo Alto University and an advisory board 
member of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture. He formerly 
served on the board of the Graduate Theological Union and is a past 
president of the Northern California Board of Rabbis.
  Rabbi Pearce is a renowned lecturer and has written a tremendous 
number of articles and poems for publications such as the New

[[Page 13150]]

York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Jewish Spectator. He is 
the author of Too Short and Sweetness of Honey, two children's books, a 
psychology textbook, and the coauthor of Building Wisdom's House. He is 
the former editor of the Journal of the Central Conference of American 
Rabbis, wrote a column for the Jewish News Weekly of Northern 
California and produced a weekly radio show for KUSF.
  His tireless engagement inside and outside his congregational duties 
has earned him universal admiration, utmost respect and many awards, 
including the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association's 
Silver Spur Award for interfaith community dialogue and engagement; the 
national Jefferson Award for inspiring worshippers to fight hunger; the 
San Francisco Food Bank Community Partner Award for inspiring member of 
Congregation Emanu-El to donate over 90,000 pounds of food in the last 
two decades; and the San Francisco Interfaith Council's recognition for 
encouraging green sustainability at the temple.
  Rabbi Pearce has been married to his wife Dr. Laurie Pearce for 36 
years and they have two children, Sarah and Michael Pearce.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to rise with me to 
honor an exceptional human being, someone I admire greatly. His 
influence will forever be felt in San Francisco, the Bay Area and 
across the country. Rabbi Pearce has shaped his congregation and 
created a haven for collaborative worship, life-long education, social 
welfare and cultural offerings. He is retiring, but Rabbi Pearce is the 
type of leader who never truly retires. We wish him well in his next 
adventure in life.

                          ____________________