Rabbi Gary Greenebaum
Interim Sr. Rabbi
Rabbi Gary Greenebaum has had a long and varied rabbinic career. He was ordained in 1978 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, having received a Masters in Hebrew Letters and a Masters in Jewish Communal Service from the Los Angeles HUC campus.
He served as Assistant Rabbi at Temple De Hirsch-Sinai in Seattle, then headed San Francisco Hillel Foundation beginning in 1980, and later became the first Director of San Francisco Hillel Council, overseeing 14 Hillel campuses including UC Berkeley, Stanford and San Francisco State.
In 1990 he returned to Los Angeles to become the Western Regional Director of American Jewish Committee, the oldest human relations organization in the United States. While working at AJC, and in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, Greenebaum was asked by the Mayor of Los Angeles to serve as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, where he served from 1993-1995.
During his tenure as AJC Director in Los Angeles his areas of involvement included public policy, urban issues, national, statewide and local politics, international relations and interreligious affairs. He also worked to develop national and local board leadership. After 16 years leading AJC in LA, Rabbi Greenebaum was asked to become the National Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations for AJC which he did for four years, traveling throughout the US and internationally in that role.
After retiring from AJC, Greenebaum became certified as an executive coach and has been coaching and consulting, utilizing many of his experiences and expertise in organizations and synagogues.
Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh
Associate Rabbi
Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh has served as Temple Israel's Associate Rabbi since her ordination from HUC-JIR in 1996. Rabbi Missaghieh also holds a BA in Art History and Women’s Studies from University of Michigan (1989) and a Master's Degree in Jewish Education from HUC-JIR, LA (1994). She enjoys teaching people of all ages and empowering them to participate in Jewish living. She takes special interest in working with individuals for conversion, creating environments where TIOH members gather for intergenerational neighborhood Shabbat dinners, and others where members connect to discuss issues of ageing, parenting or preparing for end of life issues. She has introduced many innovative programs to TIOH like Sukkot in the City, Neighborhood Shabbat, Tashlich on the beach, the standing-room-only participatory High Holiday minyan services, and she has trained over 30 men and women to be on TIOH’s Chevrah Kadisha (a group who prepares deceased bodies for burial). In the greater community, Rabbi Missaghieh serves on the board of LA Family Housing, the Executive Board of the Sandra Caplan Community Bet Din (the only pluralistic Bet Din in the United States) and the Southern California Muslim Jewish Forum. She is also on the Rabbinic Advisory Board of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and a member of the ARZA Rabbinic Counsel. She and her husband, Bruce Ellman, a psychologist in private practice, are the parents of three children Jael, Sivan and Ezri.
Rabbi Jocee Hudson
Associate Rabbi
Rabbi Jocee Hudson is an Associate Rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood, where she has served since 2009. Her mission is to uphold Torah’s central teaching that all people are created in the divine image and are deserving of dignity, equality, and justice.
Jocee loves that on any given day at TIOH she can be found leading prayer, studying with community members, sitting with folks as they prepare for lifecycle events, hiking Runyon Canyon while connecting with temple members, telling stories on the rug of a Nursery School classroom, and collaborating with temple leaders (and often all of the above!). Jocee has served as a rabbinic leader of TIOH’s social justice efforts since 2014 and was instrumental, in partnership with lay leaders, in the creation of the temple’s Social Justice Coalition. Rabbi Hudson finds profound meaning in daily opportunities to pray, learn, connect, take action, and grow with Temple Israel’s members. Along with her pulpit and social justice responsibilities, Jocee oversees Membership Engagement efforts and the B’nai Mitzvah Education program.
Rabbi Hudson and TIOH Social Justice Coalition members are active in LA Voice, the California Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Black Jewish Justice Alliance, and many other justice groups, believing that justice work is most effective when it is done in collaboration. Together they have been deeply involved in statewide campaigns on criminal justice reform, affordable housing, and climate change. She is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights. In 2017, Temple Israel was awarded the Religious Action Center’s Irving J. Fain Award for exemplary social justice work.
Previously, Rabbi Hudson served as a Rabbi Educator, first at Temple Beth Sholom of Orange County and then at TIOH. She is a former board member of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators. She received rabbinic ordination, as well as Masters in Hebrew Letters and Jewish Education, from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University. She is a contributor to the Women of Reform Judaism’s The Torah: A Women's Commentary. Jocee was named T’ruah’s 2019 Rabbinic Human Rights Hero. Jocee and her partner Rook are the proud parents of Sela, Max, and Solomon, three young people, who keep them on their toes, always humble, and full of laughter and love.
Shelly Fox
Cantoral Soloist
Shelly Fox has served Temple Israel of Hollywood as Cantorial Soloist since 2015 and as Music Director since 2017. Shelly is deeply interested in exploring the balance between tradition and innovation in worship music and encouraging people to discover and develop their own voice in prayer and song.
Before entering the Cantorate, Shelly worked extensively as a professional classical soprano, specializing in Renaissance and Baroque music as both a soloist and vocal chamber musician, having received her Master’s Degree in Voice Performance from Indiana University in 1999. Shelly was a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale for 18 years and for 9 years was the voice faculty for the Early Music Department at University of Southern California. Before focusing on Classical Music, Shelly was a folk singer-songwriter in Upstate New York and Nashville, Tennessee. She enjoys bouncing between styles and in any worship service one can hear her lead the congregation in song with her guitar and also fill the room with old synagogue classics.
At TIOH Shelly is committed to high musical standards in worship services and in the schools. She works with all B’nei Mitzvah students on the musical aspect of their service and joins the Nursery School and Elementary School song leaders for their weekday services. A firm believer in a congregation that sings, Shelly started the TIOH Community Singing Jam, a monthly informal musical gathering that combines text study, tune learning and the joy of singing in community to encourage congregants to bring that joy and knowledge to our music-filled worship services.
Shelly is currently studying for her Cantorial Ordination at Academy of Jewish Religion California. When she’s not at work or in school, she enjoys spending time with her husband Allan Fox, their son Simon, and her stepson Gabe.
Rabbi Heather Miller
Visiting Rabbi
Rabbi Heather Miller is an award-winning spiritual leader and social justice advocate most recently named a 2018 Giant of Justice by Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE-LA). She has served several congregations and Jewish educational institutions across the country, and her writings have been featured in more than 15 publications including the Los Angeles Times, ReformJudaism.org, InterfaithFamily.com and the Episcopal News Service. Rabbi Miller recently released her first book, RESOULUTIONS: A Practical Guide for Self-Repair in September of 2019.
Rabbi Miller was born and raised in an interfaith family in Los Angeles, and earned her BA from Wellesley College, and an MA in Hebrew Literature as well as Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She and her wife were named Leaders to Watch by the Liberty Hill Foundation in 2013, and they enjoy raising their two children in Southern California.
Rabbi John Rosove
Senior Rabbi Emeritus
Rabbi John L. Rosove is Senior Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles having served as Senior Rabbi from November 1988 to June 2019. He is a national co-Chair of the Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet of J Street (2012-16, 2018-present), is the immediate past National Chairman of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), and serves as a member of the Union for Reform Judaism's Israel and Reform Zionism Committee (IRZC).Rabbi Rosove is the author of two books -
Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation with an Afterword by Daniel and David Rosove (Nashville: Jewish Lights Publishing, a division of Turner Publishing Company, 2017) available at Amazon.com.
Why Israel [and its Future] Matters - Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation with an Afterword by Daniel and David Rosove (New Jersey: Ben Yehuda Press, 2019) available at Amazon.com.
John was the 2002 Recipient of the World Union for Progressive Judaism International Humanitarian Award and received special commendation from the State of Israel Bonds. In 2013, he was honored by J Street (a pro-Israel pro-peace political organization in Washington, D.C.) at its Fifth Anniversary Celebration in Los Angeles.
John has written a series of 8 Jewish Life Cycle Guides posted on the Temple Israel of Hollywood web-site (http://www.tioh.org). The Guide Preparing for Jewish Burial and Mourning also appears on the web-site of Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles. (http://hillsidememorial.org/jewish-lifecycle-guide/).
