After nine months on the job at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Rabbi Leah Fein still can’t believe she’s back in Los Angeles. “I feel lucky Wilshire was looking when I was looking,” she said. But how could Wilshire resist hiring a member of its own family – even if she had been on the East Coast nearly 20 years?
Those family ties helped bring her back. Starting with her grandmother’s 1947 Confirmation class, Rabbi Fein is the fourth generation at the city’s oldest synagogue. Her family knew Jodi Berman, now at Stephen Wise Temple, when she was the associate executive director at Wilshire. The rabbi explained that Berman “has been close with my family for many years, and from being a gabbai with my mom at Torah in the Round, Rabbi Sherre Hirsch’s service. We have stayed in touch over the years.” It was Berman who let her know about Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s opening.
Her return to Los Angeles last July has “far exceeded my expectations.” Although she’s been back less than a year, she feels like it has been a homecoming in multiple ways. “I am literally home with family and friends,” she told The Journal. “But I am also at home here at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. My son Asher (almost two) is fifth generation. His classroom is downstairs in this building” on Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s sprawling Westside Irmas Campus on Olympic Boulevard. “This is the greatest gift,” she said.
Although her parents were very involved at Wilshire when she was growing up, there were no schools at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, so she went to school at Sinai Temple. She had a wonderful experience there, one that set her on her career course. “While I was a student at Sinai, Rabbi Sherre Hirsch became the first female rabbi at Sinai.” Fein pointed out that Hirsch inaugurated a minyan there, Torah in the Round. “My Mom, being a feminist Jewish mother, said ‘There’s a female rabbi at Sinai, and we are going to her services.’”
Between Sinai’s day school and Rabbi Hirsch, Fein’s family became thoroughly involved in the Hirsch minyan. “My Mom became a gabbai, assisting in Rabbi Hirsch’s minyan — that was really amazing.” Rabbi Hirsch also influenced Fein’s choice to study at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). Hirsch was an alumna, which Fein said was the most persuasive factor for her choosing JTS. “I really loved learning with her for my bat mitzvah,” Fein said. “I went to Brandeis undergrad. Some of my professors there had gone to JTS. A lot of rabbis I was connected with were JTS grads – Sinai, Brandeis and Camp Ramah.”
Fein was ordained at JTS in 2015. After rabbinical school, Fein and her husband Alex moved to Syracuse for four years while he was in med school. She led Syracuse Hillel. When they returned to Manhattan, she worked at the Columbia/Barnard Hillel. They had a long-term plan. “We decided he would do all of his medical training in New York,” she said. “When he was done, we would move back here to be with my family.”
That family is an engaging blend of all major streams of Judaism. “My husband grew up Modern Orthodox” in the Orthodox stronghold of Monsey, N.Y. “My parents, my family – all Reform. I went to Conservative schools. So we are a little bit all over the place — it’s reflected in me professionally and with my family.”
At the Irmas Campus, Fein was engaging and enthusiastic in describing her duties. “A big part of my job is engagement and relationship-building,” she said. “I meet with congregants on this side of town since I am based here on the Westside. All generations. My goal now is just to get to know people, the community. I am new here. Part of (Senior) Rabbi Joel Nickerson’s vision — one of the reasons I was excited to work here — is that he talks about Wilshire Boulevard Temple being a large community. Our work as clergy is to make it feel small and to make sure our congregants feel known.”
One of the great lessons she learned at Hillel is “you can’t wait for people to come to you, and you can’t expect people to come to you,” so Rabbi Fein tries to be everywhere. “I am with our Religious School, I am with the ECC, with our Day School, I am involved with our Young Professionals programming. I am on the bimah for most Shabbatot and holidays. I do lifecycle events, too. … I love that every day looks different, and I get to do all of these things.”
One of the great lessons she learned at Hillel is “you can’t wait for people to come to you, and you can’t expect people to come to you,” so Rabbi Fein tries to be everywhere.
As rabbi, “you need to reach out, offer something personal. So when I reach out to congregants, I am just trying to get to know people, not trying to sell anybody on anything.
Her formula is direct. “I just ask questions,” the rabbi explained. “I am curious about people, hearing their stories. My favorite books are memoirs and biographies – about show business, religious, political – all of them.”
She just tries to get to know people and connect them to one another in an intentional way. After that, “I can help them plug into what is going to be meaningful and interesting for them within Jewish life here.
Jewish Journal: What is a favorite Wilshire Boulevard Temple memory from your childhood?
Rabbi Fein: Sitting in the sanctuary at the Glazer Campus with my family for High Holy Day services. I love visual art, and I remember being struck by the murals, the dome, the size of the sanctuary, reading and understanding the Hebrew on the walls.
J.J. What is your career goal?
Rabbi Fein: To help individuals and families connect to Judaism, Jewish life and living in ways that are right and meaningful for them, to experience joyful Judaism in community.
J.J.: Is there one moment every week you are eager to repeat?
Rabbi Fein: My favorite moment is on Friday mornings when the ECC comes to the chapel for Shabbat. Here comes my son Asher, almost 2. When we open the Ark and start bringing around the Torah, seeing the joy on the kids’ faces, and especially on my son’s face as he kisses the Torah — that is the best part of my week.
