Rabbi Susan Goldberg during Shabbat service

Nefesh is an open-hearted, spiritual outreach community welcoming all of the identities that make up who we are and who we love. Born in the multicultural beauty of LA’s east side neighborhoods, Nefesh cultivates empathy, love, and justice. Nefesh is an open doorway to the wisdom, ritual, and melodies of the Jewish tradition – a place to find and be found.

Nefesh brings the songs of the self, the song of the other, the song of the community, and the song of the world into a sacred song. We know there are times when we elevate one or the other in our lives. Nefesh reminds, supports, and provides teachings and practices to help us hold all four. As a community, we hold our inner lives and spiritual growth; we hold care, responsibility, and knowledge of others; we hold the repair of the world.

Nefesh is an intentional, outreach community: we place the margin at the center. We center the folks who have struggled to find Jewish community and their authentic, valued place within it. This includes women, multicultural Jews, Jews of Color, spiritual seekers, queer and trans people, Deaf Jews, Jews by choice, young adults, elders, interfaith families, and people who have felt excluded from or devalued within Jewish spaces.

 

 

We are a middot-driven community elevating the deepest values of the Jewish tradition as the grounding framework for our spiritual learning, practice, and growth.

 

 

We are a transdenominational community connecting people through ritual across identity, belief, and lived experience.

 

 

We are a participatory community drawing on the collective skills, efforts, talents, and resources of those who are creating Nefesh together. Our sliding scale membership model, known as Kinship, was developed in a community process in order to reflect our values of accessibility and responsiveness.

We are a community of care dedicated to participating in healing justice for ourselves, the people we love, and the places we live, through lay-led community organizing.

Whether you seek a meaningful Jewish experience or a spiritual home you are welcome at Nefesh.

Rabbi Susan Goldberg

Rabbi Susan Goldberg

Rabbi Susan Goldberg isn’t going to stop reminding you about the good stuff. That’s her now, shouting from the rooftops about empathy, love and justice. It’s not just her message, it’s part of an infectious and joyful worldview that has transformed each community she touches. Through spirituality, creativity and wisdom, her leadership inspires care for both the inner world and the world around us.

Nefesh team

Rabbi Aaron Leven

Rabbi Aaron Leven

ASSOCIATE RABBI

Contact Aaron

Aaron has spent most of his life deeply involved in Jewish community and education. He dedicates his rabbinate to creating dynamic Jewish experiences as rich as those with which he grew up.

Duvid Swirsky

Duvid Swirsky

HAZAN & Music Co-Director

Duvid has been with Nefesh since the beginning and we are lucky to have him as the Nefesh music director. He is a musician, producer and singer-songwriter from Israel living in Los Angeles.

Sally Dworsky

Sally Dworsky

Music Co-Director

Sally is incredibly inspired and honored to be making music with Duvid Swirsky and the rest of the Nefesh band and community, which has become the spiritual home she longed for and would have chosen, regardless of her official role.

Sasha Perry

Sasha Perry

Rabbinic Intern

Contact Sasha

Sasha is a white Trans/queer working-class Ashkenazi jew who organizes in earth/animal liberation spaces. They are a third-year Rabbinic student in the ALEPH Ordination Program and graduated in the first cohort of their Earth Based Judaism program.  Sasha is a Tzedek Lab member, a former Jeremiah Fellow for social change, and 6-Points Artist Fellow.

Jordana Fraider

Jordana Fraider

Executive Director

Contact Jordana

Jordana Fraider is a strategic, collaborative, and deeply compassionate non-profit executive.

She comes to Nefesh from the world of arts and culture, bringing with her 10 years of experience in theater, contemporary visual art, and resource mobilization for community-based social justice initiatives to bear on both community and institution building at Nefesh. 

Ellen Kennedy

Ellen Kennedy

program director

Contact Ellen

Ellen has had a multifaceted career as a TV producer, a show creator, a local kindie-rock star, an early childhood music specialist, a Torah school educator. Ellen Kennedy is a multifaceted part of Nefesh.

Sonya Mendoza

Sonya Mendoza

Web & Social Media

Contact Sonya

Sonya Mendoza is a community organizer, professional dog walker and pet sitter, and messaging maven for a few different neighborhood organizing groups in Los Angeles. She handles designs, web site front and backend, and social media accounts for Nefesh, and organizes with Never Again National, Tzedek Lab, and the Los Angeles Abortion Support Collective. 

Melissa Martin

Melissa Martin

DEVELOPMENT & ADMIN ASSOCIATE

Contact Melissa

Melissa Martin is native to the mountainous San Gabriel Valley. She has a deep passion for all art and animals but especially theatre, ceramics, and cats. She coordinates complex projects, is personable in relationship building, and keeps highly detailed records. Melissa’s love of the arts intertwines with her social justice passions, driving her to use her hands to build a better world, mind to create change, and voice to speak for those who cannot.

Ari Herstand

Ari Herstand

Musician

Ari has been with the Nefesh service since its inception. As Nefesh has grown, Nefesh became an important part of Ari’s Jewish identity.

Nefesh is not just a gig anymore for Ari. It is a place where he feels connected spiritually, culturally and communally.

Leah Zeger

Leah Zeger

MUSICIAN

Leah Zeger is from a family of professional classical string players. She won a position in the Austin Symphony at 19 and got her BA in opera from University of Texas. She began her LA music career in 2010 quickly winning a position in the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and film and tv scoring sessions. She has toured as a solo violinist with Miley Cyrus, ELO, Annie Lennox, Cee Lo Green, Stevie Wonder, and is currently a solo violinist/vocalist for Hans Zimmer. Zeger is also a songwriter, And has several albums, all available on most listening platforms. (Spotify, ITunes, CD Baby etc. )

Noah Kennedy

Noah Kennedy

SOUND TECHNICIAN

Noah Kennedy is a Los Angeles based artist, producer, recording, and mix engineer. Having grown up surrounded by music, he found a love and attachment to the world at an early age, and jumped right into freelance recording straight out of high school. He always tries to make sessions fun and comfortable for all artists, and loves working with the Nefesh band and team.

Nefesh Board

Rabbi Susan Goldberg

Gabby Klatsky – President

Alexander Kargher – Secretary

Patricia Baum – Treasurer

Zackary Drucker

Daniela Gerson

Piper Kamins

Paula Manzanedo

Sylvia Paz

Tali Pressman

Joey Soloway

 

Institutional Supporters