Ryan Bauer is an assistant Rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El. He was born and raised in the hills of Portola Valley, California. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied Psychology with an emphasis in Political Economies of Industrialized Societies. In the past, Rabbi Bauer served as a chaplain intern at UCLA Medical Center, worked as the Co-Director of Teen programs at the Center for Jewish Living and Learning in Oakland, assisted with a Fulbright research project in Israel that examined violence in Jewish and Palestinian schools, and wrote for the Jewish Iranian newspaper in Los Angeles. In his final year of rabbinical school, Rabbi Bauerıs academic research focused on exploring Hasidic views of how one cleaves to God. In 2007, he was ordained by the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. He currently resides with his wife, Alisa, and new daughter in Marin County.