Source: Los Angeles Times
On October 23, 1999, the Los Angeles Times published an article on Rabbi Jacob Pressman on his 80th birthday. Pressman is largely responsible for the growth of Conservative Judaism in Southern California, which is now home to the nation's second largest Jewish community. He was a founder and the first registrar of the University of Judaism in 1947. He helped to start the Beverly Hills Maple Counseling Center (forerunner of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute), Camp Ramah in Ojai, CA, Akiba Academy, and what became known as the Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy at Temple Beth Am, where he was the senior rabbi for many years. Pressman was also active in the civil rights movement, where he participated in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and he served as an early voice for the plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union. He is also responsible for building the first Holocaust memorial in the United States.