No one has digested the entire Jewish canon and translated it into such accessible, informative literature quite the way that Joseph Telushkin has. More than two decades after the publication of his encyclopedic “Jewish Literacy,” the book remains a foundation text for Jews, non-Jews, and prospective converts alike. An Orthodox rabbi by training, he is a spiritual leader of Los Angeles’ Synagogue for the Performing Arts, which turns 40 this year. In December he addressed the U.N. High Commission on Refugees in Geneva about the need to establish a code of conduct for clergy about how they speak about members of other faiths. Telushkin, 64, is at work on a biography of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Scheneerson, which is slated to be published next year. (Reinstated; 2011: No. 1

America’s Top 50 Rabbis for 2013 (PHOTOS)

Gabrielle Birkner surveys the country for the most influential rabbis in America.

03.21.13 5:45 AM ET