Rabbi Lennard R. Thal served as the Vice President of the Union for Reform Judaism from 1996 to 2001 when he was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President by Union President Rabbi Eric Yoffie. In July 2003, he agreed to accept the additional responsibility of Chief Development Officer, relinquishing his responsibilities as Director of Regions.
Rabbi Thal was the regional director of the Union’s Pacific Southwest Council from 1982 to 1995 and served as the Associate Dean at the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 1973 to 1982. He was the Staff Director of the Union’s Long Range Planning Committee, the Chairman of Los Angeles’s Council of Religious Leaders, and an executive board member of the CCAR and the Los Angeles Board of Rabbis.
While in Los Angeles as the Union’s Regional Director, Thal worked extremely hard within the Jewish community of Los Angeles to enact social change and aid local synagogues. He chaired LA’s Council of Religious Leaders, the Los Angeles Board of Rabbis’ Committee on the Jewish Family, and the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles’s Commission on Outreach to Intermarried Couples and Commission on Synagogue Affairs. For his efforts, he was awarded the Rabbi Erwin Herman Award, and was an honoree of the Fund for Reform Judaism.
Rabbi Thal has been the Visiting Rabbi (for the High Holy Days) at the United Hebrew Congregation of Singapore since 1993. A graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University Law School, in 1973 he was ordained as a rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is the recipient of numerous academic and community awards and has a lengthy and distinguished list of organizational affiliations. He is a devoted husband and father, a good friend and advisor to his colleagues and staff, and has a widespread reputation for congeniality and wit. He and his wife, Linda, have two married children.
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