Rabbi Alex Weisz, senior rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Highland Park, is the first Gen Z rabbi to lead a synagogue in the US according to Beth Israel’s website. Weisz, who is 28 years old and was raised in Pasadena, said that he knew since his childhood that he wanted to become a rabbi.
“[I] was very inspired by my childhood rabbi, who was relatively young, who really showed me that one can be an active member of the Jewish community and still be cool,” Weisz said.
Weisz said that during his tenure, which started in the summer of 2023, the community at Temple Beth Israel has grown from 85 to 175 families. According to Weisz, Beth Israel is intergenerational and does not sort people into boxes based on their age.
“It’s a community that is very warm,” Weisz said. “This is a community that has gone through decades of really not very many Jews in the area. And so when new people come in the door, we don’t take them for granted.”
Weisz said that after graduating from Loyola Marymount University, he attended an executive program that allowed him to gain work experience and receive a rabbinical education simultaneously. Weisz said he took classes over Zoom while serving communities across the West Coast.
“I love the work,” Weisz said. “It would feel so selfish to set all of that aside so that I could study all day.”
Weisz said via email that he attended the executive program for five years, and that his schooling was unconventional.
“That was a very intense way to go to school, but it allowed me to be in the community [and] to become a seasoned professional,” Weisz said. “That has allowed me very quickly to have the life experience to be able to serve lots of different folks, even people twice and three times my age.”
Occidental’s Associate Director for Jewish Student Life Ben Greenberg said ideas about conventional rabbis being older are still widespread.
“There’s this conception that the only people who could sort of tap into [Jewish leadership] are rabbis with old, white beards,” Greenberg said.
Weisz said the rabbinate has become more diverse over time as younger people take leadership positions. He said he believes that diverse representation in Jewish leadership is vital for positive change within communities.
“In the same way that having someone of a new generation is impactful, it’s also important that we have women, nonbinary and trans rabbis, that we have queer rabbis, that we have rabbis of color, that the person in the office brings different things to the table,” Weisz said. “The diversity of the rabbinate is a great thing.”
Rhiannon Lewis, who leads prayer at Beth Israel as a nonbinary cantoral soloist, said the community at Beth Israel is accepting of their identity, even though there are occasionally some challenges to navigate. Lewis said Weisz encouraged them to explore reciting a gender-neutral version of the Hineni prayer, which only provides options for the singer to use male or female pronouns.
“[Weisz] was like, ‘I know that there are people working on a gender-neutral version of the Hineni, is that something you’re interested in?'” Lewis said.
Lewis said that Weisz connects well with attendees at his services, regardless of how long they have been coming to Beth Israel.
“I really, really admire his conversational skills and his way of connecting to people,” Lewis said. “He is always in conversation with someone.”
According to Weisz, about 70 percent of new attendees at Beth Israel who joined in the past year are under 45 years of age. Lewis, who at 24 is the youngest member of the clergy, said Weisz’s presence is encouraging younger people to attend services and become part of the community.
“I feel like there was a group of young people, and then it sort of dissipated,” Lewis said. “The energy has started to come back again with Rabbi Weisz, which is really, really nice.”
Greenberg said that younger rabbis can be an energizing force in their communities.
“It’s also important that there’s young leadership in all communal spaces, people who can bring fresh ideas and new perspectives,” Greenberg said. “I think we all get entrenched in our orthodoxies, not just around religion, but anything.”
Weisz said that the Israel-Palestine conflict has dominated his tenure at Beth Israel. According to Weisz, in-person spaces for Jewish people to gather and converse with one another are essential now more than ever, when online spaces foster misunderstanding and leave people angry. Weisz said that it is easier for congregants at Beth Israel to constructively converse on the Israel-Palestine conflict when not confined to online forums.
“I’ve seen conversations happen between people who would be ripping each other to shreds on a forum,” Weisz said. “They come to realize that they may have different sensitivities and things that are upsetting them in discourse but that when it comes to the actual conflict that’s going on, they agree.”
Weisz said that while he doesn’t speak about his personal beliefs around the conflict while he is on the pulpit, he engages in conversations around the Israel-Palestine conflict with his community after the official service is over.
“It’s important that we have communities that are diverse and are not monolithic,” Weisz said. “This is a Jewish community, but it’s not an echo chamber.”
This article was updated Nov. 8, 3:40 p.m. to reflect that 70% of new attendees at Temple Beth Israel are under 45, not that 70% of all members are under 45.
This article was updated Nov 11, 3:38 p.m. to clarify details about Rabbi Weisz’s executive study program.
Contact Ruby Gower at gower@oxy.edu
