Rabbi Kalman Topp - Senior Rabbi
Rabbi Marc Mandel - Associate Rabbi
Rabbi Adir Posy - Assistant Rabbi
Allen Ishakis - Executive Director
Executive Board
Hugo Rose - President
Steven Tabak, M.D. - Chairman of the Board
David Shapell - First Vice President
Marvin Goldsmith - Vice President for Membership
Josh Weinberg - Vice President for Youth
Ruchie Fried - Vice President for Volunteer Services
Mark Goldin - Vice President for House & Security
Aviva Tivon - Vice President for Programming
Jack Fenigstein - Treasurer
Aryeh Goldberg - Financial Secretary
Judy Friedman - Recording Secretary
Jeff Stern - Men's Club President
Michele Poltorak - Sisterhood President
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Beth Jacob is a Modern Orthodox congregation which has played a pioneering role in the development of Jewish life in Southern California. We are dedicated to creating a community of engaged, Torah educated, socially conscious, Zionistic and caring Jews. Beth Jacob strives to provide members of all generations, and the broader Jewish community, a spectrum of spiritual, educational, social, chesed, and cultural opportunities.
We provide diverse davening opportunities for all of our constituent groups within the framework of halacha.
We promote serious Torah study and enhance lifelong educational growth at all levels, for men and women, and for young and old.
We encourage members to devote time, energy and financial resources to Beth Jacob and its members.
We offer a variety of social activities for the congregation as a whole as well as for various generational and social groups within the shul.
We participate with the larger Los Angeles Jewish community in acts of chesed, culture and learning.
We promote support for the State of Israel, its institutions and its people.
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In 1925 a group of 33 people decided that Jews who lived in the West Adams section of Los Angeles needed a synagogue with a Talmud Torah and social center close to their homes. This small group chose the name West Adams Hebrew Congregation. The new congregation purchased a lot at the corner of West Adams Street and Hillcrest Drive. By the following year women of the congregation organized a sisterhood. In 1928, the congregation dedicated its first building. Originally, it was organized as a conservative synagogue, with some calling it "semi-orthodox." Over the years, the West Adams Jewish Community grew, as did the synagogue. Services and Torah studies for adults were held daily. Rabbi Nathan Addelson joined the congregation in 1933 and remained until 1938. In 1938 a newly ordained Rabbi from the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago, Simon Dolgin a"h, followed Rabbi Addelson and led the congregation.
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In 1949, Beth Jacob Congregation established its own day school. In 1954 Rabbi Simon A. Dolgin a"h (left) moved the congregation from West Adams to Beverly Hills, an "exclusive area." Beth Jacob not only moved geographically, but spiritually as well. Rabbi Dolgin a"h gradually moved the congregation to a more meticulos Orthodox practice and the congregation took an increasingly traditional image. With the move to Beverly Hills and the more traditional approach, attendance increased, adult classes flourished, and the growth of Yiddishkeit was in evidence in Beverly Hills.
In 1955, Beth Jacob's day school changed its name to Hillel Hebrew Academy and it moved in 1964 into a new building located one block from the congregation where it flourishs today.
In 1964, Beth Jacob merged with local congregation B'nai Israel. In 1971, Rabbi Dolgin a"h made aliyah and opened a branch of Beth Jacob in Ramat Eshkol section of Jerusalem where it thrives today.
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Rabbi Maurice Lamm (left) succeeded Rabbi Dolgin a"h as the Rabbi and led Beth Jacob until 1984 when Rabbi Abner Weiss (right) succeeded him.
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| Rabbi Steven Weil (left) became Beth Jacob's Rabbi in 2000 and led the congregation until 2009 when Rabbi Kalman Topp (right) succeeded him as Senior Rabbi.
Beth Jacob prides itself as a place of Torah and community. Its membership consists of over 750 families and sees itself as a model for other Orthodox Synagogues across the country.
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