Who We Are

  • Rabbinic Intern

    Jacob Perl (he/they) is a first-year student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. Born in West LA and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Jacob is a proud product of sunny Southern California. After a gap year in Israel, they earned a BS in Management Studies from California State University: Northridge.

    While in school, Jacob began working in the restaurant industry where they soon established a niche as “the Jew at the deli” – first in Calabasas, CA and later in Denver, CO. Some of their culinary passions are Ashkenaz gastronomy, slow food, and natural fermentation.

    In addition to their restaurant career, Jacob has more than a decade of experience facilitating informal and supplemental Jewish educational programs in grades K-12 and beyond as a religious schoolteacher, youth advisor, community organizer, and urban gardener.

    Jacob, while new to screwing in the lightbulbs at Der Nister, is eager for the opportunity.

  • Spiritual Leader

    Henry was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and holds a Masters in Education from the School of Education at American Jewish University. He received a BA from the College at Columbia University in the City of New York long ago. He has been a bookseller specializing in books of Jewish interest since the pre-internet age. He was a lay leader at Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco for many years and taught parshanut, Mishnah and Talmud there.

    Henry is a product of the East Coast, born in Boston and largely raised in Rochester, New York. He emigrated to San Francisco early and has now made the move south. He is a history junkie, focusing on Jewish history, California history and the confluence of the two. He has a long standing interest in modern poetry and in the avant-garde art movements that flourished between the 1890s and the 1980s. He is deeply involved in the screwing in of light bulbs at Der Nister.

  • Executive Director/Cantorial Soloist

    Zach was ordained as a rabbi at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles in 2020, and received his BA at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN in 2013. Zach has given sermons and lectures from Stockholm to Vladivostok, performed as a cantorial soloist for multiple High Holiday services across the country, taught Hebrew to rabbinical students and Yiddish at Yiddishland California. He is currently a Yiddish and Hebrew teacher across Southern California.

    He was previously the Deputy Yiddish Editor of the Forward (Forverts), and the general manager of Aradolu America, an e-commerce company importing Turkish products.

    Zach is a native of Long Beach, CA, and has explored Downtown LA for as long as he can remember. His passions are (in no particular order) the renewal of Yiddishkeit, languages, graphic design and screwing in lightbulbs at Der Nister.

  • Cultural Director

    Rabbi Ye’ela Rosenfeld is a native Israeli who has lived in Los Angeles since 2006. She currently serves as Rabbi and Cultural Director at Der Nister - Downtown Los Angeles Jewish Center, and officiates services and life cycle events for unaffiliated Jewish families all across Greater Los Angeles. She is also serving as Temple Beth Israel of Highland Park’s Director of Education and Community Engagement.

    Other than serving as a Rabbi, Rosenfeld is also a film and theater writer and director who is a Graduate of the MFA film directing program of the American Film Institute conservatory in Hollywood. She has directed films and theater in Israel, the Czech Republic and the U.S. Her films screened in festivals worldwide and won numerous awards. For the theater, she has directed the works of Vaclav Havel, Friedrich Durenmatt, Jean Paul Sartre and Howard Zinn. Rabbi Rosenfeld lives in Eagle Rock with her husband David and her children Ori and Libi. She is a passionate teacher and writer, and an unapologetic bookworm.

    Ye’ela has been gently pushing the need to screw in lightbulbs at Der Nister, while using Cold War references as encouragement.

  • President

    Immigration Attorney with Adam L. Fleming Law, PC

  • Secretary

    Director of Libraries and Beit Midrash at American Jewish University

  • Treasurer

    Executive Director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association

  • Consultant in Entrepreneurship, Finance and Accounting

  • Executive Director of Kultur Mercado

The Board

Our volunteer board is made up of community leaders who want to guide and grow Der Nister.