Wise Shabbat services to honor Melton Director Rabbi Karen Strok
On Friday, our Stephen Wise Temple Shabbat Evening Services will honor the contributions of Rabbi Karen Strok, who will be stepping down as Director of the Stephen Wise Temple Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. We hope you will join us for the in-person outdoor service on Nahmias Plaza (or streaming live online at WiseLA.org/Online), as we pay tribute to Rabbi Strok for her tireless 12 years of service to the [...]
Stephen Wise Temple’s 70 Faces of Torah celebrates women rabbis
Our 70 Faces of Torah Shabbat Evening services on Friday were a celebration of women rabbis. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the historic ordination of Rabbi Sally J. Priesand, women rabbis from across Los Angeles led an evening of music, meaning, and learning in Katz Family Pavilion. Our celebration of women rabbis featured Rabbi Sari Laufer, Senior Cantor Emma Lutz, Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning at Wise's Rabbi Karen [...]
Stephen Wise Temple blood drive collects 25 pints
On Wednesday, the American Red Cross and Stephen Wise Temple blood drive collected 25 pints of blood, thanks to the selfless generosity of our community. The nation is in a dire blood supply shortage, making each pint all the more important. Each pint can save up to three lives, and as we read in the Mishnah: "Anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world" (Sanhedrin 4:5). With [...]
Search for Meaning Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts Dr. Afshine Emrani
Note: This episode was recorded in February, 2022. In the latest edition of his Search for Meaning podcast, Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback hosts cardiologist Dr. Afshine Emrani. Just 12 years old when the Revolution swept Iran, Dr. Emrani and his family moved to England, where he had a doorstep bar mitzvah, courtesy of the local Chabad. After three years, the family moved to Los [...]
Busy week for Wise School includes heroes, awards, Sacramento trip
The end of the school year for Wise School is always a busy and exciting time. Between Maccabi Games, our Heroes Presentation, field trips, and graduation, there's a lot to keep track of. Last week, our sixth graders held their annual science fair, presenting projects to the other grade levels and to their parents. Students developed hypotheses using research, wrote and followed detailed procedures to make their experiments fair and controlled, collected [...]
VIDEO: Rabbis Laufer, Balin discuss history and future of women in the rabbinate
On Monday, May 23, Stephen Wise Temple Rabbi Sari Laufer and the Stephen Wise Temple Center for Jewish Life hosted Rabbi Carole Balin, Ph.D., in a webinar discussion as we celebrate 50 years of women in the American rabbinate. With the anniversary of Rabbi Sally J. Priesand's monumental 1972 ordination approaching, the rabbis reflected on their own careers, the journey to Rabbi Priesand's ordination, Rabbi Balin's forthcoming book, the centennial of the [...]