 Glassman was a Dharma successor of the late Taizan Maezumi-roshi, and gave inka and Dharma transmission to several people.Glassman was known as a pioneer of social enterprise, socially engaged Buddhism and "Bearing Witness Retreats" at Auschwitz and on the streets.According to author James Ishmael Ford, in 2006 he 
Bernie Glassman was born to Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York in 1939.