Sinai Temple Welcomes Rabbi Avi Taff
It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Rabbi Avi Taff as Sinai Temple’s newest Rabbi. Rabbi Taff has spent the last 13 years as a beloved teacher and rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom and we are very excited to welcome him and his family to the Sinai Temple Community. His appointment rounds out Sinai Temple’s exceptional clergy team, who remain focused on building community through meaningful relationships, providing more accessibility and relevance, and cementing our community as the beacon for Conservative Judaism in Southern California. Rabbi Taff will start in July; please stop by to introduce yourself and welcome him to our Sinai Temple family.
To Our New Sinai Temple Community,

My name is Avi Taff and I am honored and excited to become your newest Associate Rabbi, joining your inspiring staff and clergy team already in place. 

For the past 13 years, I have had the distinct honor of serving the Valley Beth Shalom community and while I will miss the children, families, and staff with whom I had the pleasure of working, I am beyond excited to begin the next chapter of my rabbinic career here at Sinai Temple. 

If I had to summarize my rabbinate, I would say that it is the relationships that I have formed and helped to foster which have been at the core of my work. I am eager to continue this sacred work of connecting—with each other, with our tradition, with the people of Israel and the state of Israel and through the holy task of healing our fractured world.  

Pirke Avot Chapter 1 Mishnah 2 teaches:
Shimon the righteous said: "The world stands on three things: Torah, the Temple service (prayer), and acts of loving kindness." 20th Century Scholar, Jacob Neusner (z"l) teaches that the world does not actually stand on these ideals. Rather, the statement is aspirational. We yearn to lift up our world through the study of Torah, through joining together in meaningful prayer experiences and through giving of ourselves to create a world better than we found it.  

After the last two years, the words of Shimon the Righteous and the interpretation of Neusner could not ring truer. I cannot wait to join Rabbis Wolpe, Guzik, and Sherman as well as Cantor Feldman, the incredible staff and lay leadership, and every member of Sinai Temple in dreaming of what Jewish life will look like for ourselves, for our children, and for our children’s children.

I, along with my wife Amy and our children, Ethan (17), Eliana (10) and Noa (8), look forward to joining the Sinai community in July. Until then, have a great summer! As I get acclimated, I would love to meet as many members of the community as possible. Please be in touch with Judy Begin, Temple Administrator, to set up a time for us to connect! 


Sincerely,

Rabbi Avi Taff
About Rabbi Avi Taff

Rabbi Avi Taff joins the Sinai Temple community after having served the Valley Beth Shalom community for the last 13 years. Before becoming a Rabbi, Avi served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Army, worked as Youth Educator at Krieger-Schechter Day School in Baltimore, Maryland, as Director of the Special Needs Vocational Program at Camp Ramah in California, and directed a Jewish summer day camp for children with special needs.
 
Avi has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Judaic Studies from the University of Arizona and was ordained by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in 2011. Upon his ordination, Avi was awarded the Abby Spivack prize in Community Service as well as a Master’s in Rabbinic Literature.
 
Avi did not seriously begin to think about the Rabbinate until it became clear to him that he had no future as a professional basketball player in the NBA. By becoming a Rabbi, he was able to combine both his passions; he's always up for a game of Shabbos ball. Avi and his wife Amy, a Therapist, have three beautiful children: Ethan, Eliana, and Noa and a gentle-giant-of-a-dog named Kugel.