Q & A with author and speaker Rabbi Steve Leder and San Diego Writers Festival

SDWF: Your book More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us has helped thousands of people. What inspired you to write it?
SL: I had been a rabbi for 27 years before writing the book and had helped thousands of people through very painful experiences both physical and emotional.  Then, I suffered severe physical and emotional pain from a very frightening car accident that resulted in spinal surgery, opioid addiction, and depression.  It was then I realized that there was a great deal more to understand pain than I had ever shared with others during those first 27 years.  This book is my way of setting the record straight on pain for everyone who suffers, and that means all of us.  Sooner or later, we all go through some sort of hell.  This book is meant as a literary field guide for anyone suffering pain and/or anyone who wants to help someone who is suffering.  Yes, we all go through hell, but the point is not to come out of hell empty-handed.     

SDWF: Can you tell us about your recent work to develop the Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s urban campus?
SL: I have spent the past decade raising funds to complete the master plan for the entire city block on which the Temple sits.  The plan is almost complete, with the final building, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Rem Koolhaas and his associate Shohei Shigematsu opening in January of 2020.  This modern masterpiece will be called The Audrey Irmas Pavilion and will serve as a gathering place for all of Los Angeles.  It will also be home to the Annenberg Foundation’s new initiative to redefine purposeful again in Los Angeles and beyond.  At that point, the campus will include the perfectly restored historic sanctuary renovated in 2013, two completely renovated school buildings that are home to our early childhood center and elementary school as well as our Sunday school, a parking structure for 500 cars with a rooftop sports complex and the Karsh Family Social Service Center where we provide free dental and vision care, free food security, legal aid, and mental health services for our needy neighbors, all in Korean, Spanish and English.  We have raised 225M to date, which was a lot more difficult for me than writing books!

SDWF: What was the last great piece of writing that you read?
SL: As research for the book I am currently writing I just reread Christopher Hitchen’s Vanity Fair article about losing his voice as he battled cancer.  Wow…

SDWF: Do you have any fishing stories you’d care to share?
SL: As a matter of fact, I do!  Last June, while fishing in northernmost Manitoba, I caught (using a barbless hook and then released) a 42″ Northern Pike.  It qualified as a Master Class Trophy size fish; my first.  I was sooooo happy!  

SDWF: Thank you, Rabbi Leder.

Follow Rabbi Leder on Instagram  @Rabbi_Steve Leder, check out his website at www.steveleder.com, or contact him at wbtla.org