Baroness Julia Neuberger holds an unusual double distinction as both a rabbi and a member of the House of Lords. Born Julia Schwab, Neuberger studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, before receiving ordination from Leo Baeck College, Great Britain’s reform seminary, the second woman to do so. She served as rabbi of South London Liberal Synagogue from 1977–1989 and taught at Leo Baeck College for twenty years, from 1977–1997. She was chancellor of the University of Ulster from 1999–2000 and served as chief executive of the King’s Fund, a think tank that organizes conferences and funds charities focused on health issues, from 1997–2004. Made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003, she was made a Baroness the following year. As a Member of Parliament, she has been active on the Science and Technology Committee, where she helped draft the bill regulating the use of human tissue and embryos in 2008. She was also the prime minister’s Champion of Volunteering from 2007–2009. In 2011 she became senior rabbi of the West London Synagogue, where she still serves as of 2016.