Leonard Fein is a writer and teacher. He founded the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy, and was co-founder and for 12 years editor of Moment Magazine.
He is the author of four books, editor of two, and has written extensively for newspapers, magazines, and journals. Since 1990, he has written a syndicated weekly OpEd column for the Forward newspaper. Fein is also the founder of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger is an American nonprofit agency dedicated to preventing and alleviating hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds...

, a Jewish hunger-relief organization, started in 1985.

Teaching

Fein taught Political Science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 at MIT in the 1960s. At this time he was also the Deputy Director of the MIT/Harvard Joint Center for Urban Studies. He joined the Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

 faculty in 1970 as a Professor of Politics and Social Policy and the Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies.

Publications

Fein's books include Where Are We? The Inner Life of America’s Jews, and Israel: Politics and People. He has written for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, The New Republic

The New Republic

The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...

, Commentary

Commentary (magazine)

Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...

, Commonweal

Commonweal

Commonweal is a American journal of opinion edited and managed by lay Catholics. It is headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City.-History:...

, The Nation

The Nation

The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

, Dissent and the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

.

Awards

• Ameinu Dreamers and Builders Award, November 2009.
• Honorary doctorate from the Hebrew Union College
  Hebrew Union College
  The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
  
  , 1991
• National Foundation for Jewish Culture award for achievement in Jewish scholarship, 1994.
• Jewish Council on Public Affairs, Chernin Award for lifetime contributions to social justice, 1999.
• University of Chicago Alumni Award for “creative leadership in public service that has benefited society and reflected credit on the University,” 2000.

External links

• Behavior: Two Voices: A Dialogue on Dissension. Time Magazine, Jan. 31, 1969. Fein and educator Rhody McCoy are interviewed on the relationships between ethnic communities.