Meet Our Clergy
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Senior Rabbi
Cantor Emma Lutz
Senior Cantor
Rabbi David Woznica
Rabbi Ron Stern
Rabbi Sari Laufer
Rabbi Josh Knobel
Rabbi Eli Herscher
Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin (1920-2018)
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., and raised in Omaha, Neb. He graduated from Princeton University in 1991 and was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in 1998. He trained as a Jewish educator at HUC’s Los Angeles campus, where he received a M.A. in Jewish Education.
He served Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, Calif., as a rabbi and educator for 11 years, until moving to Israel with his family in 2009 to become the director of HUC’s Year-in-Israel program. In addition to overall management of the graduate level program, he served as an instructor in Jewish Liturgy.
Rabbi Yoshi came to Wise in 2012 as the Head of School at Wise School and was named the third Senior Rabbi of Stephen Wise Temple in 2015.
Rabbi Yoshi is a lecturer at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, and a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is also the volunteer Executive Director and Founder of Kavod, a non-profit tzedakah collective which is dedicated to protecting human dignity.
Rabbi Yoshi is also an author, musician and composer. His publications include the teacher’s guide to Shalom Ivrit II; Day of Days; and Days of Wonder, Nights of Peace: Family Prayers in Song for Morning and Bedtime. As part of Mah Tovu, he has released three albums, published two books, and performed across the United States.
He is married to Jacqueline Hantgan and, together, they are the proud parents of three daughters.
Senior Cantor Emma Lutz
Cantor Emma Lutz was born and raised in Walnut Creek, Calif. where her family and community instilled in her a deep love of Judaism and music. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Davis with degrees in Religious Studies and Music. Cantor Lutz received her Master of Sacred Music in 2015 and was ordained in 2016 by the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, N.Y. She has proudly served Stephen Wise Temple since July 2016.
Before attending HUC-JIR, Cantor Lutz worked as a soloist and teacher for synagogues throughout the Bay Area and was also a performer with numerous theatre companies, including Center REPertory Company, Diablo Theatre Company, and the Napa Valley Opera House. In addition, she spent time volunteering in Israel with the IDF through Sar-El, the National Project for Volunteers for Israel.
During her first year of cantorial school at HUC-JIR, she worked as cantorial intern for Kehillat Tzur Hadassah, a vibrant Reform synagogue just outside of Jerusalem. While studying at the New York campus, Emma enjoyed internships at Congregation Oheb Sholom and Union Temple, and she also served as a chaplain for Mount Sinai-Roosevelt Hospital. Cantor Lutz is the recipient of both the Rabbi Rick Jacobs Award in Innovative Worship (2015) and the Rhonda and Jerome Malino Prize in Bible Studies (2013). She is an active member of the American Conference of Cantors and a life member of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.
Cantor Lutz is married to Rabbi Adam Lutz, a Los Angeles native, whom she met during her Year-In-Israel studies at HUC-JIR. Together, they are the proud parents of Ruby Mira and Gwen Shoshana.
Rabbi David Woznica
David Woznica began his rabbinate at the 92nd Street Y in New York and was named Founding Director of the 92nd St. Y Bronfman Center for Jewish Life. Under his direction for over a decade, the center grew exponentially and received international recognition. He is credited for creating and overseeing what is widely regarded as one of the most lively and distinguished hubs of Jewish life in the United States.
Rabbi Woznica joined the clergy of Stephen Wise Temple in 2004. He created the Center for Jewish Life at the temple. The Center’s lecture and dialogue series has attracted some of the most highly sought-after and provocative thinkers and leaders from America and Israel and is attended by thousands of congregants and members of the community each year. The mini courses and learning in your neighborhood courses regularly engage hundreds of congregants in study. And the Melton School for Adult Education is among the largest of any synagogue in the country.
Rabbi Woznica is on the National Jewish Federations of North America Lecture Bureau, the Young President’s Organization (YPO) Lecture Bureau and has been on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. The YPO features him as “The Best of the Best of YPO” a listing of their highest rated speakers.
He has served as scholar in residence and guest speaker in synagogues throughout the United States, Canada and South America and given addresses to virtually every national Jewish Organization.
In 1992, Rabbi Woznica initiated the Forum on Critical Values. The intent was to have dialogues with public figures who influence social, political or religious life in America and discuss the underlying values that drive their lives. Among those with whom he had engaged in dialogue are Elie Wiesel (seven times), Alan Dershowitz (four times), Minister Natan Sharansky, Governor Mario Cuomo, Senator Joseph Lieberman, Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dennis Prager, President Chaim Herzog, Pastor John Hagee, Cynthia Ozick, Police Chief William Bratton, David Brooks and dozens of others. The series continues through this day.
His greatest joy comes from his passion that fellow congregants, their families and others in the community see beauty and meaning in leading committed Jewish lives, engage in ongoing study that elevates their intellectual and spiritual growth, celebrate love of Israel, and work to bring the values of Judaism to their fellow Jews and to our world.
Rabbi Woznica shares his life with his wife Beverly Woznica who is the managing director of major gifts for the Jewish Federations of North America and their two sons.
Rabbi Ron Stern
Rabbi Ron Stern is originally from Morristown, New Jersey. He graduated cum laude from the University of Rochester and was ordained in 1990 at Hebrew Union College in New York. He also attended HUC in Los Angeles. Rabbi Stern joined the clergy staff at Stephen Wise Temple in 1998 after serving as Associate Rabbi at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge. Ron is married to Rebecca Sobelman-Stern (Chief Program Officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater LA), the father of Noah (Melody Khorsandi) and Ellie (Matt Landau) and the grandfather of Milo and Ollie.
During his tenure at Wise Temple, Ron founded the Center for TIkkun Olam that provides an address through which all of the temple’s social action and social justice efforts can be channeled. In a large temple, with a diverse population, the CTO presents a wide range of paths to engagement locally, nationally, and internationally through both advocacy as well as episodic acts of tikkun olam. Working closely with the Religious Action Center and LA Voice, Wise seeks to raise our collective voice in support of initiatives for climate justice, poverty alleviation, and housing. By creating partnerships with local and Israel based organizations Wise also supports causes that align with the needs of our communities and interests of the temple membership. Finally, Ron co-founded Wise Readers to Leaders. The first, and only, synagogue sponsored literacy enrichment program for underserved children. Once aligned with the Children’s Defense Fund, WRTL is now an independent 501c3 serving 400 children, engaging the volunteer efforts of 150 high school students, and employing over 50 college and graduate students (and professionals) each summer.
Rabbi Sari Laufer
Rabbi Sari Laufer is the Chief Engagement Officer at Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles. A cum laude graduate of Northwestern University (Go ‘Cats!) Rabbi Laufer was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles in May 2006. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, Rabbi Laufer spent 11 years as the assistant and associate rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City before joining the team at Stephen Wise Temple.
Rabbi Laufer was selected for the PEER program through Synagogue Transformation and Renewal, for the inaugural year of the Rabbinic Fellowship for Visionary Leadership through UJA-Federation of New York, CLAL’s Rabbis Without Borders Fellowship, and the inaugural year of the Maharat/Sefaria Jewish Women Scholars’ Writing Fellowship. Her published works have appeared on Kveller.com, MyJewishLearning.com, and ReformJudaism.org, and she was the rabbinic advisor for the Kveller Haggadah.
Rabbi Laufer is a teacher of those young and young-at-heart, bringing her passion for rabbinic texts, social justice, and Judaism’s wisdom and relevance in the 21st century into the lives of those with whom she is privileged to learn and to share. Rabbi Laufer is prolific Tweeter (@rabbilaufer), avid indoor-cyclist, aspiring epicure, and former Jeopardy contestant. She now lives “in the Valley” with her husband and two children.
Rabbi Josh Knobel
Born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., Rabbi Josh Knobel received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a commission as a second lieutenant from the United States Military Academy in 2001. He served for seven years as a telecommunications officer on active duty, including deployments to Kuwait and Afghanistan, where he learned firsthand the profound impact that Judaism can have upon our identities and the ways in which we meet the opportunities and challenges that await us in all walks of life.
After completing his active duty service in 2008, Joshua began his studies at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Los Angeles. It was at HUC-JIR that he met and married his beloved wife, Lisa, who currently serves as a rabbi at Leo Baeck Temple.
After becoming a rabbi in 2014, he joined the Stephen Wise Temple community and Wise School as a rabbi and Dean of Student and Family Life. In 2019, Rabbi Knobel took on the role as the Director of the Center for Youth Engagement.
Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin (Z”L) – Founding Rabbi
Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin (1920 – 2018) was born and educated in New York City and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College. While in college, he was president of the student Zionist society and was instrumental in introducing Hebrew and Jewish studies into the school’s curriculum. He received his Masters and Rabbinic degrees from Cincinnati School of the Hebrew Union College, and at graduation was awarded the Lazarus prize for being the academically outstanding student in the graduating class. Upon graduation, Rabbi Zeldin became the assistant rabbi of the largest Reform congregation in New Jersey, Temple B’nai Jeshurun, now in Short Hills.
For the next five years Rabbi Zeldin was in academic life, serving as Assistant Dean of the New York branch of the Hebrew Union College. He also served as spiritual leader of Temple Beth Sholom in Bayside, Long Island. In 1953, Rabbi Zeldin came to California to serve in the dual capacity of Director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Western Region, and Dean of the Los Angeles College of Jewish Studies. One year later he became Founding Dean of the Los Angeles branch of the Hebrew Union College.
From 1958-1963 Rabbi Zeldin was spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills. In early 1964, he founded the Stephen Wise Temple, which has become among the largest Jewish congregations in the world. Stephen Wise Temple is a complex of twelve buildings on a 21-acre mountaintop property that serves more than 3000 families. In excess of 2000 children are educated in its various Schools and programs, from Nursery and Elementary School, through middle and high school.
Rabbi Zeldin was Past President of the San Fernando Valley Synagogue Council, the American Zionist Federation of Southern California, the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and the American Zionist Council. He sat on many national and local Boards, including the UCLA medical Ethics committee, and the Zionist Organization of America. He was a frequent contributor of articles on contemporary issues to newspapers and journals. His beloved wife, Florence (z”l), was the author of many children’s books, including What’s The Big Idea, The Importance of One, and a series of Nursery School booklets for the Jewish child, including the recently re-published A Mouse in a Jewish House.
Y’hi zichro baruch, may his memory be for a blessing.
Rabbi Eli Herscher – Senior Rabbi Emeritus
The son of refugees who had fled Nazi Germany, Eli Herscher was born in Tel Aviv just months before Israel became a state. He was still an infant when the War of Independence broke out. The history of the Jewish people during those years of death and rebirth is deeply engrained in Rabbi Herscher’s personal story, as well as the core inspiration for his work on behalf of the Jewish people. The personal and professional have always acted as mirrors for Eli, reflecting his lifetime of work to turn memory —even painful memory—into blessing.
The promise of America embraced the Herscher family as new immigrants in 1954. It was a vibrantly diverse San Jose, Calif., that welcomed them, so that the family’s immigrant “otherness” was never a barrier. The memory of that reception has also been an important source of inspiration and resolve in Rabbi Herscher’s life’s work to welcome and embrace the stranger.
Upon graduating high school, Rabbi Herscher attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his undergraduate degree in English. In 1970, he entered the Hebrew Union College to begin his rabbinic education. He was ordained a rabbi in 1975, and shortly thereafter was invited by founding Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin to become his partner in the growing Stephen S. Wise Temple, leading to an inspiring career spanning 40 years in this one congregation. They were years of extraordinary growth, not only in numbers, but in the Temple’s richness of spiritual and educational program. Throughout the decades, Rabbi Herscher blessed the congregation with his depth of vision, his inspired teaching, his love of Israel and the Jewish People, as well as his innate ability—and mission—to welcome all who entered its doors and make them feel fully at home—Jewish or not, home-born or immigrant, an open tent with an open heart.
Rabbi Herscher met his life-partner Bonnie at the temple. They have been married over 40 years and are blessed with three children, all of whom are graduates of the temple’s schools—Dawn, Adam and Sara—as well as (so far!) three precious grandsons.
Rabbi Herscher was named Senior Rabbi Emeritus in 2015. In his active retirement, Stephen Wise Temple remains his Jewish home. He treasures the countless memories and abundant blessings of the generations, just as he continues to nurture, with deep gratitude, the precious friendships borne out of years of devoted leadership.