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Michael Satz new assistant rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel
 SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — Members of Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) have welcomed Rabbi Michael Satz as the congregation’s new assistant rabbi.
“We are extremely pleased to have found an intelligent, warm, gentle person who genuinely enjoys working with teenagers and young adults,” said Rabbi Michael Berk, CBI’s senior rabbi on Satz's arrival last month. “Rabbi Satz emerged from our extensive search process as the clear frontrunner and the best match for CBI’s needs.”
Rabbi Satz was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati campus in 2007. He recently served Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. where his duties included teaching confirmation, coordinating the youth group advisors and leading his synagogue’s annual confirmation trip to Israel in April.
While in Rabbinic school, Rabbi Satz was lead guitarist in the school rock band, “The Minor Prophets.”
Rabbi Satz grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Rabbi Satz earned his undergraduate degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he majored in Jewish Studies and International Relations.
During his junior year at Tulane, he traveled to the Ukraine to help local Jewish college students lead Passover Seders for communities which had very little contact with Jewish life for most of the Twentieth Century. He is married to Rabbi Janice Elster, who is currently the Jewish student life coordinator at Hillel (the Jewish students’ organization) at the University of Pennsylvania.
Congregation Beth Israel is San Diego's oldest and largest Jewish congregation with roots dating to 1861 when San Diego was a frontier settlement. A Reform Jewish synagogue located in University City, it has a membership of about 1,300 f
Jewish LGBT leadership speak out against Tel Aviv murders
San Diego's Seth Krosner among signers of letter
NEW YORK (Press Release)—On behalf of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) synagogues and Jewish organizations, we wish to express our deep sadness, outrage, and commitment in the wake of the horrible attack {August 1} on the "Bar No'ar" LGBT youth drop-in center in Tel Aviv.
We are first and foremost saddened by this terrible attack on innocent young people, in a place devoted to their safety and security. Our prayers are with the families of Nir Katz z"l, 26, and Liz Trobishi z"l, 16, as well as with the many now recovering from their injuries in Israeli hospitals. This pigu'a -- this terrorist attack -- was against all of us, Jewish and non-Jewish, straight and gay, who cherish the values of diversity, democracy, and pluralism. But we in the LGBT Jewish community feel this pain especially, for we know that it was an attack on us specifically as well, and that it could have been any of our organizations, any of our members, supporters, or loved ones, who were targeted.
We are also outraged. While we do not yet know the identity or motivations behind this attack, we do know that it occurred in the context of months -- indeed, years -- of vitriolic, incendiary rhetoric directed against the LGBT community in Israel. Tragically, some of the harshest words against us were spoken by some of our Jewish spiritual leaders. Whether these words motivated a hate crime, or whether they motivated an act of self-hatred or personal hatred, we know from experience that racist, sexist, or homophobic speech begets racist, sexist, or homophobic violence. We therefore
condemn not only the attack itself but also the climate of hatred that some political and religious leaders helped create.
Yet we are also committed: committed to a just society, to dialogue with those with whom we disagree, and to the right of everyone to act in the image of God and love one another. We will not stop or slow our advocacy for full legal equality, in the United States and Israel, for LGBT people. We will not be deterred from building support groups and safe spaces, congregations and community centers, social programs and
spiritual havens, of the very type that was attacked last week. And most of all, we will not allow this attack to strip us of our humanity, and our capacity to love. We know that it is love that matters, not the gender or sex of one's beloved, and we know that our tradition teaches us the innate humanity of every person, a Divine quality most visible in our capacity to love.
At this time of mourning, we affirm all of these -- our sadness, our outrage, and our commitment -- and stand with Israel's people and its government as it works to bring the
perpetrator of this crime to justice. The blood of the victims cries out from the Earth, mixes with the salt of our tears, and inspires us to pursue justice, seek the holy, and walk in the pathways of love.
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Signed,
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, New York, NY
Jay Michaelson, Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture & Spirituality
Rabbi Joshua Lesser, Congregation Bet Haverim
Rabbi Lisa Edwards, Congregation Beth Chayim Chadashim, Los Angeles, CA
Congregation Etz Chaim, Wilton Manors, FL
Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood, CA
Rabbi Lawrence Edwards, Congregation Or Chadash, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Camille Shira Angel, Congregation Shaar Zahav, San Francisco, CA
Joel Kushner, Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
Gregg Drinkwater, Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity
Seth Krosner, J*Pride of San Diego, San Diego, CA
Asher Gellis, JQ International
JQYouth
Keshet
Nicole Nussbaum, Kulanu, Toronto, Ontario
LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay and the
LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.
Rebecca Wax, The Rainbow Center, Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Benay Lappe, SVARA, Chicago, IL
Howard Solomon, World Congress of GLBT Jews
CBI elects Ronald Simon president
 SAN DIEGO (Press Release)-- Members of Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) recently elected Ronald I. Simon, Ph.D., as president of the congregation for a two-year term during the annual membership meeting.
Simon, an expert in business finance, told the congregation that he wants to use his time as president to continue CBI’s successes and to make it an even stronger synagogue by increasing membership and contributions.
“Nothing is more important to the long-run health of CBI than a strong and growing membership that feels committed to its its goals and objectives, and I will do all I can to accomplish this,” he said.
Simon and his wife Anne have been members of CBI since 1972. In remarks to the congregation after being elected, he recalled the many family events that tie the Simons to the synagogue, including the joint Bar and Bat Mitzvah of their three children, weddings for two of the children and baby namings of most of their seven grandchildren. But Simon also strove to create even stronger ties by serving the temple; his efforts were lauded when he was named Volunteer of the Year in 2005.
Simon also is active in the wider San Diego community, serving as the current president of San Diego Country Club and as a member of the audit committee of the San Diego Zoological Society.
He was born in Cairo, Egypt, to parents who were from Baghdad. The family moved to New York in 1942. He and Anne began dating as teenagers, and married after he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard. Most of his professional life has been in finance of public and private businesses, and he currently is on the boards of three companies. He continued to study after beginning his career, and also has a master of arts in Modern European History and a Ph.D. in Business, both from Columbia University. The family moved to San Diego in 1972, settling in La Jolla.
At the annual meeting, Simon praised predecessor Amy Croton. “The job of president of Congregation Beth Israel is not an easy one, and Amy has done it with a smile, tremendous energy and dedication and has accomplished a lot that will permanently benefit CBI and its members,” he said.
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