Mayim Chaya Bialik is an American actress, author and former game show host. From 1991 to 1995, she played the title character of the NBC sitcom Blossom. From 2010 to 2019, she played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, for which she was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015 and 2017. Bialik shared hosting duties of Jeopardy! with Ken Jennings on a rotating basis between August 2021 and December 2023.
Eric Michael Garcetti is an American politician and diplomat who has been the United States ambassador to India since May 11, 2023. He was the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles from 2013 until 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in the 2013 election, and re-elected in 2017. A former member of the Los Angeles City Council, Garcetti served as City Council president from 2006 to 2012. He was the city's first elected Jewish mayor, and its second consecutive Mexican-American mayor. He was elected as the youngest mayor in over 100 years, having been 42 at the time of his inauguration. Upon nomination of President Joe Biden after a previously failed nomination the year before, Garcetti was finally confirmed as Ambassador to India by the Senate on a 52–42 vote on March 15, 2023.
David J. Wolpe is an American rabbi. He is Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School and the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple. He previously taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College, and UCLA. Wolpe was named the most influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek in 2012, and among the 500 most influential Angelinos in 2016 and 2018. Wolpe now serves as the Inaugural rabbinic fellow for the ADL, and a Senior Advisor for the Maimonides Fund. Wolpe was appointed and then resigned from the Harvard Antisemitism advisory committee in Dec. 2023, in a post that went viral with over 7.5 million views on "X" https://twitter.com/RabbiWolpe/status/1732847411175796747?lang=en. He subsequently appeared widely exploring antisemitism on podcasts like Sam Harris "Making Sense" among many others, and was widely quoted in the news discussing the situation and his decision.
Bradley Shavit "Brad" Artson is an American rabbi, author and speaker. He holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where he is also Vice-President. He supervises the Louis and Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and provides educational and religious oversight for two Camp Ramah campuses, Ojai and Monterey Bay. He is Dean of the Zacharias Frankel College at the University of Potsdam in Germany, ordaining Conservative/Masorti rabbis for Europe.
Valley Beth Shalom is a Conservative synagogue at 15739 Ventura Boulevard in Encino, Los Angeles, California, in the United States. With approximately 1,500 member families it is one of the largest synagogues in Los Angeles and one of the largest Conservative synagogues in the United States.
de Toledo High School, formerly New Community Jewish High School and informally known as "New Jew", is a private Jewish high school in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, in the western San Fernando Valley, California. One of the largest Jewish day schools in the United States, the school adopted its new name as of July 1, 2015.
The Jean and Jerry Friedman Shalhevet High School is a co-educational, college-preparatory, Modern Orthodox Jewish high school in Los Angeles, California.
Aaron Parry was an American synagogue rabbi, counter-missionary expert, and author of several beginners books on Judaism.
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple, known from 1862 to 1933 as Congregation B'nai B'rith, is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 3663 Wilshire Boulevard, in the Wilshire Center district of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. Founded in 1862, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles.
Breed Street Shul, also known as Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles or Breed Street Synagogue, is a former Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was the largest Orthodox synagogue west of Chicago from 1915 to 1951, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Academy for Jewish Religion California (AJRCA), is a Jewish seminary in Los Angeles. It trains rabbis, cantors and chaplains to serve congregations and organizations of any Jewish denomination.
The Sinai Temple is a Conservative synagogue located at 10400 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, in the United States. The Sinai Temple congregation is the oldest and largest Conservative congregation in the greater Los Angeles area.
Stephen Wise Temple is a large Reform Jewish congregation in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. Founded in 1964 by the late Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, with 35 families, the congregation grew rapidly. At various times in its history it has been stated to be the largest, or one of the largest, Jewish congregations in the world, at one time having a membership of approximately 3,000 families, six rabbis, two cantors and two cantorial interns, and four schools on three campuses. As of 1994, it was the second-largest synagogue in the United States. The congregation was founded as the Stephen S. Wise Temple, in honour of Stephen Samuel Wise; and 2014 it was renamed as the Stephen Wise Temple.
Sharon Brous is an American rabbi who is the senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. She was one of the founders of IKAR in 2004, along with Melissa Balaban, who currently serves as IKAR's Chief Executive Officer, and others. Every year since its founding, IKAR has been named one of the nation’s 50 most innovative Jewish nonprofits by the Slingshot Fund Guide, a resource guide for Jewish innovation.
The Louis and Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program is an educational institute based at the American Jewish University in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. It has, since its founding in 1986, helped thousands of students explore and deepen their Jewish roots or prepare for conversion to Judaism. Based primarily at AJU’s Familian Campus in Bel Air, as well as at a number of other Southern California locations and throughout the United States, the Miller Program helps people of all backgrounds find a home in the Jewish community.
J. Shawn Landres is a social entrepreneur and independent scholar, and local civic leader, known for applied research related to charitable giving and faith-based social innovation and community development, as well as for innovation in government and civic engagement.
Jews in Los Angeles comprise approximately 17.5 percent of the city's population, and 7% of the county's population, making the Jewish community the largest in the world outside of New York City and Israel. As of 2015, over 700,000 Jews live in the County of Los Angeles, and 1.232 million Jews live in California overall. Jews have immigrated to Los Angeles since it was part of the Mexican state of Alta California, but most notably beginning at the end of the 19th century to the present day. The Jewish population rose from about 2,500 in 1900 to at least 700,000 in 2015. The large Jewish population has led to a significant impact on the culture of Los Angeles. The Jewish population of Los Angeles has seen a sharp increase in the past several decades, owing to internal migration of Jews from the East Coast, as well as immigration from Israel, France, the former Soviet Union, the UK, South Africa, and Latin America, and also due to the high birth rate of the Hasidic and Orthodox communities who comprise about 10% of the community's population.
Temple Emanuel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 300 North Clark Drive, in Beverly Hills, California, in the United States.
Alissa Thomas-Newborn is an American Orthodox Jewish spiritual leader who became the first Orthodox female clergy member to preside in the Los Angeles, California area when she assumed her post as a spiritual leader at B’nai David-Judea Congregation (BDJ) in August 2015. The announcement of her appointment came on May 2, 2015 from the pulpit by the lead clergyman of the synagogue, Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky.
Hillel Tigay, formerly performing as Dr. Dreidle, is an American musician and chazzan. Influenced by rock, alternative, Spanish, and Middle Eastern music in his childhood, Tigay studied musicology at the University of Pennsylvania before leaving to Los Angeles in the hope of starting a music career. His initial stints with A&M Records and Jewish rap group M.O.T. were unsuccessful, but in 2005, Tigay found success as the chazzan and music director of IKAR, a Jewish congregation. From the IKAR Music Lab, and with the help of congregants influential in the music industry, Tigay has released several albums and launched his own music group, Palms Station.
