Zvi Dershowitz

Rabbi Zvi Dershowitz delivers a speech at a baby-naming ceremony (Jewish life-cycle event) at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles on October 13, 2014.

Rabbi Zvi Dershowitz leads services at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility and the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles on September 21, 2000, shortly before Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). Rabbi Dershowitz served as the Board of Rabbis' chaplain to the L.A. county jail system for many years.

Rabbi Zvi Dershowitz delivers a speech to Sinai Temple's Men's Club on April 3, 2012. In his speech, Rabbi Dershowitz discussed how his escape from the Nazis in 1938 later motivated him to stand up for Jewish refugees from Yemen, Russia, and Iran, and welcome them into the Sinai Temple community.

Zvi Dershowitz (born 1928) is an American rabbi, and is currently Rabbi Emeritus at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.

Early life

Dershowitz was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1928. In 1938, just 33 days before the Nazis invaded, Dershowitz fled the country with his family (when he was just 10 years old). On February 2, 1939, Zvi emigrated to New York along with his parents, Aaron and Ruth, and sister Lili. They settled in Brooklyn, in the Williamsburg neighborhood. There, he learned English, attended Mesivta Torah Vodaath, and became ordained as an orthodox rabbi in 1953.^[1] However, throughout his life, Dershowitz affiliated with the Jewish conservative movement, and to this day considers himself a conservative rabbi.

As a teenager, Zvi was very involved in advocating for a Jewish state. In 1949, he spent a year studying in Jerusalem. There, he helped Jewish refugees from Yemen and other foreign nations settle in the newly established Israel. Dershowitz met his wife, Tova while recruiting in Ithaca, New York for Camp Soleil . They married in 1953.^[1]

Career

Dershowitz later became rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom in Kansas City, Missouri before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota where he became a rabbi at the Temple of Aaron. He later went on to direct many Jewish summer camps, including Herzl Camp in Wisconsin from 1956-1961,^[2] Camp Alonim in Simi Valley, CA, from 1961-1963, and directed Camp Ramah in California for 10 years, from 1963-1973, making him the longest serving director in that camp's history.^[3]

In 1973, Dershowitz became associate rabbi at Sinai Temple. He also served as the interim rabbi for a year before Rabbi David Wolpe was hired.^[4] In his tenure at Sinai, he helped Iranian Jews who were fleeing their country get entry to the United States in 1979. Rabbi Dershowitz is credited with welcoming them to the community and helping them adjust to life in America.^[5] An immigrant himself, Dershowitz said, "I believe every Jew is responsible for every other Jew.”^[6] Rabbi Dershowitz is also credited with serving the congregation well in times of crisis. He retired after 25 years of serving on the pulpit, and currently serves as the congregation's Rabbi Emeritus, thereby making him the longest serving rabbi in Sinai Temple's history. He is currently in his 43rd year at the synagogue.^[7] Dershowitz continues to work with bar/bat Mitzvah students at the synagogue, and also conducts life cycle events including baby namings, weddings, and funerals. He has also served as the chaplain from the local Board of Rabbis of Southern California to the Los Angeles jail system.^[8]

Personal life

Coinciding with popular belief, Dershowitz is cousins with well-known Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Rabbi Dershowitz and his wife, Tova, have four children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

References