Rabbi Daniel Bouskila

Rabbi Daniel Bouskila is widely known in the Jewish community for his dynamic lectures, thought-provoking sermons and creative articles on a wide variety of Jewish topics. His 26-year rabbinic career represents a unique blend of spiritual leadership, intellectual pursuits and Jewish communal professionalism.

From 1993-2009, he was the rabbi of the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los Angeles, during which he was also an instructor in Jewish Studies at Shalhevet High School (fun fact: he coached the Shalhevet Girls Varsity Basketball Team to back-to-back national tournament championships).

In 2009, he assumed the leadership of the Sephardic Educational Center (SEC), an international educational and cultural organization with its own historic campus in the Old City of Jerusalem. Under his leadership, the SEC has become a world renowned Sephardic think tank that translates and teaches the moderate halakhic approach and tolerant worldview of Classic Sephardic Judaism’s major rabbinic figures.

He joined Westwood Village Synagogue as its Spiritual Leader in June 2018, and is excited to be in a community that loves learning, blends halakha with modernity, and advances the place of women in synagogue life – all values near and dear to his heart.

He holds a BA in History from UCLA and Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University. He also learned for 2 years in Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh, served one year in the IDF’s Givati Infantry Brigade, and studied for a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is a regular contributor to the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles on topics ranging from SY Agnon’s literature to issues in contemporary Israeli society. He teaches Talmud and Rabbinic Literature at AJR, and has served as rabbinic consultant to two theatre productions in Los Angeles (The Chosen at the Fountain Theatre and The Immigrant at the Sierra Madre Playhouse). His publications include a commentary to the Passover Haggadah, and he is working on a book translating and explaining the writings of 20th Century Sephardic Chief Rabbis. 

He is married to Peni Tuchman from Brookline, MA, and they are the proud parents of Shira (a musical theatre actress in New York) and Ilan (graduated soldier in the IDF’s Givati Infantry Brigade). 

Rabbi Daniel Bouskila and wife Peni Bouskila

Rabbi Emeritus - Dr. Abner Weiss

World-class Torah scholar and rabbinic luminary Rabbi Dr. Abner Weiss was ordained at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavne by the Chief Rabbi of Israel, later earning a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University in New York.  Occupying important pulpits on three continents, he served as Chief Rabbi of Durban, South Africa and Senior Rabbi of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London; Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills; Riverdale Jewish Center in New York; and most recently the Rabbi of Westwood Village Synagogue for nearly 20 years.  He was Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies at the University of London as well as an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University.  Rabbi Weiss has authored numerous publications and articles, including his most recent book, Connecting To God: Ancient Kaballah and Modern Psychology. Rabbi Weiss and his wife, Yolande, are both licensed marriage and family therapists; they have twenty-one grandchildren, fifteen of whom live in Israel.

Rabbi Dr. Abner and Dr. Yolande Bloomstein Weiss