Jonathan Freund has a B.A. in Theatre from Oberlin College and an M.A.Ed. in Jewish Studies from American Jewish University. He is an annual lecturer at Claremont School of Theology and Columbia Theological Seminary, and a speaker and consultant on antisemitism, the Holocaust, interfaith dialogue, and Jewish Studies to congregational, community, and youth groups. In 2021, he was the Ralph Bunche Guest Scholar at Los Angeles City College. During sixteen years at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Jonathan was Senior Director of Israel Education and the Holy Land Democracy Project, an intensive weekend seminar and first-hand experience in Israel for educators and administrators from non-Jewish secondary schools, colleges, and organizations. Prior to that, he was the first Director of Educational & Interreligious Programs at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, where he implemented interfaith missions to Europe and Israel, programming for clergy and community, and three years of the One People, One Book literary program. Jonathan served as President of the Interreligious Council of Southern California; with the Mayor’s Task Force on the Middle East and the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, as well as the Institute for Faith-Based Diplomacy, and the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. He was an editor of the weekly British publication, The Official Star Trek Fact Files for its entire seven-years; he also wrote or edited the 9,000-entries in its "Star Trek A-Z” encyclopedia. Jonathan worked in theater, film, and television production and development in New York and Los Angeles for the first fifteen years of his professional life.Jonathan and his wife live in Los Angeles and are blessed to have their adult daughters nearby. The family visits Vermont as often as possible.