Nefesh Intro to Judaism Class
2025-11-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Register for Intro to Judaism

Join Rabbi Aaron for 20 sessions as we dive into Jewish learning together. We will engage with primary texts, ritual, prayer, Jewish history, and culture while engaging with some of Nefesh’s core Middot (Jewish values).

In addition to gathering for weekly Wednesday evening classes, there will be opportunities to gather as a cohort to celebrate Shabbat and holidays throughout the year. Local folks will meet in person and we will make the class available over Zoom for folks joining us from out of town.

Weekly Parsha Study
2025-11-06 14:00 - 15:30, 2025-11-13 14:00 - 15:30, 2025-12-04 14:00 - 15:30 | CA
Join Rabbinic Intern Sarah Livschitz for a weekly lunch and learn every Thursday on the Parsha (Torah portion) of the week.

12pm on Thursdays at Mazal in Lincoln Heights, 110 N. San Fernando Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90031.

Sign Up for Weekly Parsha Study

Nefesh Friday Shabbat in Echo Park
2025-11-07 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | St Paul’s Commons, 840 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90026, United States
Come join Nefesh for a special Friday Shabbat together in person or online

Join us on Zoom

RSVP for in person Shabbat

Nefesh Friday Night Shabbat services are on the first and third Fridays of the month – all are welcome! Bring a dessert to share.

In Person Check in starts at 6:30pmLivestream opens at 6:55pmErev Shabbat Service starts at 7pmDessert Potluck Oneg follows the service

Location: St. Paul’s Commons, 840 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles CA 90026

Health & Safety: There will be indoor and limited outdoor seating. Masks are encouraged and at your discretion – please protect yourself and others!

ASL and Childcare provided. Nefesh provides an ASL interpreter at our Shabbat services. If there is no one in attendance either in person or remotely who needs ASL within the first 60 minutes of the service, we will release the interpreter. We also provide closed captioning in person and online. If you want to follow the captions, we suggest you grab a seat in the front row on the left section, closest to the monitor. Speech and music are almost entirely amplified – there are moments in the service when you are invited to speak directly to the people sitting near you.

Service animals are welcome; please leave other furry friends at home.

Parking: Garage parking is available with elevator access to the gathering space on Level 1, where all surfaces are paved or carpeted. Please enter the garage at 850 Echo Park Avenue and press 001 to be buzzed in. Street level access is on Echo Park Ave by staircase (2 flights) or elevator. Biking, carpooling, walking, etc. are also encouraged. NOTE: For the safety of our community, please do not attempt to enter or exit through the back gate on Laguna Ave.

Don’t miss a Shabbat: Join the Nefesh mailing list for once-weekly updates

Nefesh Saturday Shabbat in Echo Park
2025-11-08 09:30 - 12:00, 2025-11-15 09:30 - 12:00 | St Paul’s Commons, 840 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90026, United States
Come join Nefesh for a special Saturday Shabbat Morning Family Jam and Service together in person or on Online

Join our Saturday Shabbat Zoom

RSVP for in person Shabbat

Nefesh Shabbat Morning Services are on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month – all are welcome!

In Person Check in starts at 9amLivestream opens at 9:25am Family Jam starts at 9:30amShabbat Morning Service starts at 10amOneg follows the service

Location: St. Paul’s Commons, 840 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles CA 90026

ASL interpretation. Nefesh provides an ASL interpreter at our Shabbat services. If there is no one in attendance either in person or remotely who needs ASL within the first 60 minutes of the service, we will release the interpreter. We also provide closed captioning in person and online. If you want to follow the captions, we suggest you grab a seat in the front row on the left section, closest to the monitor. Speech and music are almost entirely amplified – there are moments in the service when you are invited to speak directly to the people sitting near you.

Childcare provided from 10am-12pm. Family Jam is a Shabbat morning service for young children and their families filled with prayers, lively music, and storytelling. Caregivers are warmly welcome to stay for the Shabbat Morning service while the kids do crafts and hang out until 12pm.

Health & Safety: There will be indoor and limited outdoor seating. Masks are encouraged indoors and at your discretion – please protect yourself and others!

Parking & Accessibility: Garage parking is available with elevator access to the gathering space on Level 1, where all surfaces are paved or carpeted. Please enter the garage from Echo Park or Laguna Avenue and press 001 to be buzzed in. Street level access is on Echo Park Ave by staircase (2 flights) or elevator. Biking, carpooling, walking, etc. are also encouraged. NOTE: For the safety of our community, please do not attempt to enter or exit through the back gate on Laguna Ave.

ASL interpretation will be provided at our Shabbat Family Jam on Saturday mornings. For those who would like to request interpretation for the entirety of the Shabbat morning service, please reach out to Melissa Martin at melissa@nefeshla.org

Speech and music are almost entirely amplified – there are moments in the service when you are invited to speak directly to the people sitting near you. Please reach out to info@nefeshla.org with any accessibility questions and concerns.

Don’t miss a Shabbat: Join the Nefesh mailing list for once-weekly updates

Makom
2025-11-09 10:00 - 12:30, 2025-12-07 10:00 - 12:30 | CA
Learn more about Makom

Middot Connections with Rabbi Susan Goldberg
2025-11-09 10:45 - 12:00 | CA
Sign up for Middot Connections

At Rosh Hashanah this year, each of us was asked to select a middah (a core spiritual value) to be a guide for your year. We will have opportunities to learn more and develop our practices of the middot together throughout the year, starting with a Middot Connections gathering led by Rabbi Susan on Sunday, November 9th at 10:45 AM at St. Be’s in Eagle Rock (RSVP above). This will include a special teaching and further exploration of your middah. This gathering is designed both for those who have practiced Mussar (Jewish wisdom perspective and a discipline of spiritual practice) before, and those who are new to the learning and practice.

Tuesday Shacharit
2025-11-11 09:15 - 10:00, 2025-11-18 09:15 - 10:00, 2025-11-25 09:15 - 10:00, 2025-12-02 09:15 - 10:00, 2025-12-09 09:15 - 10:00 | CA
Starting May 13, both to meet a request from our community for more regular daily prayer practice and to create a supportive space for mourners who are saying Kaddish, including Rabbi Susan and her family, we are launching a weekly Tuesday Morning Shacharit Minyan. You can join in person at St. Paul’s Commons or on Zoom.

Sign Up for Tuesday Shacharit

Here are the details:

When: Tuesday from 9:15-10am

Where: Jonathan Daniels Room on the 2nd floor of the South Building at The Commons (840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90026) or on Zoom (additional details below)What: We will gather for a brief Shacharit morning service to pray in community, share some words, and say Kaddish. We will need a minyan of 10 people for each gathering. What is Shacharit?

Please sign up for as many dates as you would like to participate.

Suggested Contibution: $18-$36/per person, no one turned away for lack of funds.

Health & Safety: Masks are encouraged if you are indoors but are not required.

Parking & Accessibility: Garage parking is available with elevator access to the gathering space on Level 1, where all surfaces are paved or carpeted. Please enter the garage at 850 Echo Park Avenue or 850 Laguna Ave and press 001 to be buzzed in. Street level access is on Echo Park Ave by staircase (2 flights). Biking, carpooling, walking, etc. are also encouraged. NOTE: For the safety of our community, please do not attempt to enter or exit through the back gate on Laguna Ave unless you have an accessibility issue.

Service animals are welcome; please leave other furry friends at home.

Please reach out to info@nefeshla.org with any accessibility questions and concerns.

Nefesh Intro to Judaism Class
2025-11-12 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-19 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-03 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Join Rabbi Aaron for 20 sessions as we dive into Jewish learning together. We will engage with primary texts, ritual, prayer, Jewish history, and culture while engaging with some of Nefesh’s core Middot (Jewish values).

In addition to gathering for weekly Wednesday evening classes, there will be opportunities to gather as a cohort to celebrate Shabbat and holidays throughout the year. Local folks will meet in person and we will make the class available over Zoom for folks joining us from out of town.

Class is full for 5786. Email Melissa@nefeshla.org to inquire about registration for 5787.

Makom Shabbat 5th-B'nai
2025-11-15 10:00 - 12:30 | CA

Laundry Love
2025-11-19 17:30 - 21:00 | CA
Laundry Love

Sign up

Nefesh and our interfaith partners in Echo Park will begin Laundry Love on the evening of Wednesday, September 18. This is volunteer-led, monthly laundry help for those in need of this support at Luxe Laundry in Echo Park. We are very much looking for volunteers!

Laundry Love first session at Luxe Laundry in Echo Park: Wednesday, September 18, 5:30pm, 1448 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90026

Weekly Parsha Study
2025-11-20 14:00 - 15:30 | CA
Join Rabbinic Intern Sarah Livschitz for a weekly lunch and learn every Thursday on the Parsha (Torah portion) of the week.

2pm on Thursdays at Mazal in Lincoln Heights, 110 N. San Fernando Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90031.

Sign Up for Weekly Parsha Study

Makom Day of Service
2025-11-23 10:00 - 12:30 | CA

Dreams in Torah with Rabbi Mel Gottlieb
2025-11-25 19:00 - 20:15, 2025-12-02 19:00 - 20:15, 2025-12-09 19:00 - 20:15 | CA
Sign Up for Dreams in Torah

Join Rabbi Mel Gottlieb on a deep exploration of some of the great dreams in Bereshit (Genesis). Combining insights from classical Torah commentators with psychology, philosophy, and mysticism, we will dive into the psycho-spiritual dimensions of the weekly parshas that we will be studying together.

Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, Ph.D., was ordained at Yeshiva University and holds a doctorate in Mythology/Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is President Emeritus of the Academy for Jewish Religion – California and served as well as the Dean of its Rabbinical School. Rabbi Gottlieb has also taught at Columbia University, Yeshiva University, and the University of Southern California Graduate School of Social Work, and served as Hillel Director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University.

Rabbi Mel recommends that you purchase his book, Torah Travels: A Psycho-Spiritual Journey Through the Weekly Torah Portion, in advance of the class. You can purchase it HERE, or from many other online retailers.

Dates: Tuesday evenings 11/25, 12/2, 12/9

Time: 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm

Location: On Zoom only (Link will be sent after you register)

Suggested Contribution: $54

Tikkun Collective: Protective Presence
2025-11-30 11:00 - 17:00 | CA
Protective Presence Sign-up Sheet

Our friends and partners at St. Stephens are asking us to show up in protective presence as they celebrate the first anniversary of the community of San Marcos officially joining St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood. There will be a special Oaxacan mass, complete with Youth Orchestra. After that service, there will be a feast of a celebration with tons of delicious Oaxacan food, and capped off with a traditional shot of Mezcal. The organizers of the celebration anticipate 200 to 300 people in attendance, and with current ICE raids threatened against churches, it is a time they would like for us to come be with them.

We have three 2-hour shifts starting from 11:15 until the event ends at 5pm that we need 8 people for each. You can sign up by leaving your name on the sheet above and one of our volunteer coordinators will approve it.

If you haven’t yet joined us and aren’t sure what it’s about, hear from a few of our recent protectors:

“Participating in protective presence was really meaningful for me. Showing up as a visible source of safety for our Christian neighbors felt like a small but real way to use my privilege, and as a little bonus, spending time with other Jews committed to showing up for our community was genuinely nourishing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

“Last Sunday, my 3-year-old Ezra and I joined our Nefesh “protective presence” group at Grace Lutheran church. When Ezra asked what we were doing, I said that we were helping our neighbors to feel supported and cared for. I love that Nefesh provides such a simple, yet meaningful opportunity for us to be of service to our fellow Angelenos who are especially vulnerable right now.”

When: Sunday, November 30, 11am – 5pm

Where: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 6125 Carlos Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028

Tikkun Collective End-of-Year Meeting & Dinner
2025-12-01 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
RSVP for Tikkun Collective Meeting & Dinner

Gather with the Tikkun Collective, catch up on our organizing cycle, and take action for Los Angeles and the world. We’ll discuss our immigration solidarity work, activate our local community around voting on Prop 50, climate work, upcoming vigils, Tikkun Book Club and more.

When: Monday December 1st, 7-9pm

Where: Clockshop, 2806 Clearwater St, Los Angeles, CA 90039

Holding Liat Film Screening with Jewish Story Partners
2025-12-03 19:00 - 21:30 | CA
RSVP for Holding Liat

Nefesh, Jewish Story Partners, NewGround & New Israel Fund present a special screening of Holding Liat, a new, critically-acclaimed documentary following an Israeli-American family grappling with the kidnapping of their daughter Liat and her husband Aviv on October 7th.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmakers Brandon and Lance Kramer, Aziza Hasan of NewGround and Joe Goldman of New Israel Fund, moderated by Rabbi Susan Goldberg and with an introduction by Roberta Grossman of Jewish Story Partners.

More about Holding Liat:

Liat Atzili was kidnapped from her kibbutz on October 7. What begins as a chronicle of her parents, sister, and children’s efforts to secure her return, becomes a portrait of conflicting impulses towards anger, indifference, and compassion straining the bonds of one grieving family.

Date: Wednesday, December 3rd

Time: 7pm

Location: Laemmle Glendale, 207 N Maryland Ave, Glendale, CA 91206

Suggested Contribution: $8 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds)
