Rabbi Joshua Dorsch

Rabbi Joshua Dorsch comes to us from Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, New York. Rabbi Dorsch earned a Master of Arts degree in Jewish Education and a MA degree in Midrash and Scriptural Interpretation from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Talmud and Rabbinics from JTS. While at the Seminary, Rabbi Dorsch was selected to participate in the esteemed Schusterman Rabbinic Fellowship and participated in the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Fellowship Program, through which he served as the rabbinic presence at Temple Emanu-El, in Reno, Nevada. He also had the privilege of participating on a Rabbinical Student delegation to Senegal with the American Jewish World Service. After completing a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education, Rabbi Dorsch worked as a Chaplain at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC.

Prior to his position at Beth El, Rabbi Dorsch spent two years working as the student rabbi at the Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut, and as the rabbinic advisor to the Hillel at the University of Hartford. During his year of rabbinical school in Israel, he served as a rabbinic intern for a Masorti (Conservative) congregation, Tiferet Shalom, in Tel Aviv. After his year in Israel, he remained for the summer where he worked as a group leader and tour guide for Ramah Seminar in Israel.

Originally from Philadelphia, Rabbi Dorsch grew up attending, and then staffing, Camp Ramah in the Poconos, where he served as a unit head and prayer coordinator. He still enjoys spending time every summer at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. He was (and still is) very active in USY. He is a retired competitive Table Tennis player, having played in tournaments at the highest level, including the Maccabi Games.

Rabbi Dorsch describes himself as a socially minded, creative, and enthusiastic rabbi who is focused on community building, youth engagement, and lifelong learning. His goal is to help community members find meaning and connection through their relationship with the Jewish community, Jewish traditions, Israel, and God.

Feel free to email Rabbi Dorsch (rabbidorsch@tiferethisrael.com). Click here for this week’s D’var Torah.

Cantor Hanan Leberman

We are pleased to have Cantor Hanan Leberman join us for extended periods of time during the year, including throughout the High Holy Days. Cantor Leberman join us from Israel and always looks forward to visiting San Diego and reconnecting with his Tifereth Israel family. With each visit, Hanan will participate in Shabbat and holiday services, engage with our schools, offer unique learning opportunities, and more.

Hanan Leberman has always followed his heart and passions. Born in Chicago and raised in Philadelphia, Hanan started his musical career at age 10 playing the flute and, as a teen, playing the leads in high school musicals. After Hanan finished high school he spent a year in Yeshivat Eretz Hazvi in Jerusalem. At age 20 he pursued his Zionist dream and moved to Israel where he served three years in the I.D.F undercover counter terrorist unit Duvduvan. After three years of hard but meaningful service as a fighter, and also often serving as the unit’s chazan, he decided to pursue his passion for music and singing.

In 2011, he began his studies at The Jerusalem Academy of Music. Since 2012 Hanan has not only continued to lead tefillah as a cantor but also has become a professional opera singer. He sings mostly in his home city of Jerusalem but has also sung in the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in England. This summer, he traveled to Italy to play the role of Tamino in The Magic Flute. Hanan can be heard on any given Shabbat in Jerusalem leading groups in Kabbalat Shabbat. He is a cantor for the Masorti movement in Israel and has led congregations as a guest Cantor in Israel, England and America.

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal z”l, Rabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal was a native Californian and grew up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

While attending High School he also attended the Los Angeles Hebrew High, and was involved with numerous synagogue and youth activities. Rabbi Rosenthal received his B.A. from the University of California in San Diego and attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem during his junior year.

After graduating college he entered rabbinical school at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, where he received a B.L. degree. He continued his studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he received his M.A. and rabbinic ordination. Rabbi Rosenthal served congregations in New Jersey, Florida and Orange County, California before becoming rabbi of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego, California, where he has served for over twenty nine years.

He was an Executive Board member of the Pacific Southwest Region of the Rabbinical Assembly and a Past President of the San Diego Rabbinical Association.

He and his wife, Judy, have three children: Adina, and her husband Jeremy; Adam, and his wife Sarah; and Margalit; two grandsons, Neriya Yitzchak and Zecharya Heschel Rosenthal and twin granddaughters, Michal Yedidya and Esther Netanya Rosenthal; and twin grandsons, Elijah Lev and Zev Augustus Gerstle.

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