Rabbi Steven Weil.

Though he never saw a red heifer, Rabbi Steven Weil grew up on a cattle farm in Upstate New York. The traditional home he was raised in was the only Jewish home in about a 40 mile radius. His formal Jewish education began at a young age in a Buffalo Hebrew school, a two hour round trip commute from his home. Despite the distance, the Weils were active participants in shuls, schools and the Federation in the Buffalo Jewish community.

At the age of 14, Rabbi Weil left home to pursue a more intense Jewish education at a Yeshiva high school in New York. After spending a year at Kerem B’Yavne, a Hesder Yeshiva in Israel, Rabbi Weil returned to New York to attend Yeshiva University. He graduated with a degree in health/sciences, but decided to continue learning towards his ordination, and attend NYU’s business school concurrently. He subsequently received his Smicha and his MBA in finance.

 

Interested in education, Rabbi Weil taught at the Frisch School in Paramus, NJ, and served as the youth director at the Suburban Torah Center in Livingston, NJ. He was invited to apply for his first pulpit after speaking at his brother’s wedding in Michigan. He took that position at the Young Israel of Oak Park, and within a year doubled the size of his congregation. Many new social and educational programs were initiated under his leadership, including a dynamic youth department, a young couples’ club, and a scholar-in-residence series. Rabbi Weil was an active participant in the Federation and in the extended Jewish community. He was nicknamed “The Bridge Builder” for his ability to reach out and unite the various streams within Judaism and Orthodoxy.

 

In August of 2000, Rabbi Weil assumed leadership of the Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills. Since his arrival, Beth Jacob has grown by over 300 families and is currently undergoing a transformation of its youth and Beit Midrash facilities, as it serves the greater Los Angeles Jewish community. Rabbi Weil was asked by President Bush and Vice President Cheney to give the invocation for the President’s 2004 National Campaign Dinner. He is currently a National Vice President of the RCA and is partnering with the Soloveitchik Institute in the preparation and dissemination of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s zt"l Torah in the areas of Torah SheBe’al Peh, Talmud and Jewish Philosophy.

 

Yael Weil has been Rabbi Weil’s life partner since 1989 and together they have been blessed with seven special children.