Rabbi Michael Lerner was a student and disciple of Abraham Joshua Heschel when Lerner studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He earned a ph.d in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and a second ph.d in clinical psychology at the Wright Institute. He subsequently formed the Institute for Labor and Mental Health where he did research on the psychodynamics of American politics, and discovered the immense hunger for "meaning and transcendent purpose for life and work" that became the hallmark of what he calls "a poltiics of meaning." Lerner founded and is Editor of Tikkun Magazine and Chair of The Network of Spriitual Progressives.