Michael Shefrin was born and raised in Los Angeles and is entering his final year of rabbinic training at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  He hopes to be ordained in May o f 2016.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts, Communications at Sonoma State University in 1997 and Master of Arts, Hebrew Letters in 2014 from HUC-JIR.   While in the midst of a career in the entertainment industry, Michael experienced a life-changing shift in his goals after volunteering in the Jewish community.  Today, he finds fulfillment helping people connect to their spirituality and elevate their lives and the world around us through Judaism.  Michael has been honored to serve throughout California as student rabbi at Congregation B'nai David in Visalia, and as rabbinic intern at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel Air and the Santa Monica Synagogue.  He considers it a blessing to begin serving as rabbinic intern at Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood beginning this fall.  Michael looks forward to learning with and from this vibrant community upon his return from Jerusalem, where he is spending the summer helping the new HUC-JIR students begin their journeys, and eating lots of hummus. Michael will be officially joining us in the fall. 

Jeremy Gimbel is a fourth-year Rabbinic-Education student at the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He grew up in the Reform Jewish world, attending URJ Camp Newman/Swig and URJ Kutz Camp, serving as the Religious and Cultural VP for his synagogue youth group, NFTY SoCal, and the North American NFTY Board. Jeremy graduated from UC Davis with a major in Political Science and a minor in Religious Studies in 2008 and was the Youth Director at Congregation Beth Israel from 2008 until his admission to HUC-JIR in 2011. During his time at HUC-JIR, Jeremy wrote, produced, and directed "The Book of Purim" (A parody of "The Book of Mormon), served at Birkat Shalom on Kibbutz Gezer in Israel, and currently is an Education Intern for the Bureau of Jewish Education of Orange County. He also leads Tiny T'filah with Rabbi Joel Simonds at University Synagogue in Brentwood, CA. Jeremy is married to Sarah Gimbel, PhD., who is a post-doctoral fellow at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC, and is the proud father of Ari Caleb. Jeremy has released 3 studio albums of original Jewish music: "A Blessing in Disguise...", "Let it Happen," and the latest, "Neshama Yetera - Additional Soul."

Jeremy will be re-joining us July 1st, 2015 as Student Rabbi and Musical Director.