Aliyah welcomes new assistant rabbi

Rabbi Gary Oren Gary Oren was in his 30s before he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. After years of searching, analyzing and working in various jobs, he decided to become a rabbi. Oren was recently ordained and named assistant rabbi for Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills.

Oren is a familiar face at Aliyah, having spent the past two years as a rabbinic intern with the 900family congregation. His responsibilities will include working closely with Rabbi Stewart Vogel, interacting with religious school and preschool students, teaching adult education courses and helping bar/bat mitzvah students understand the relevance of their Torah portions.

Oren officiated at a temple funeral after only a week on the job.

"The ease and comfort that Gary portrayed as he comforted the family was as if a seasoned rabbi of 10 years was talking," Executive Director David Brook said.

Vogel is also impressed with his new assistant. "Rabbi Oren has a remarkable empathy for people and an intuition about how to make Judaism and life relevant," Vogel said.

Born in Artesia, Calif., Oren grew up in an unobservant Jewish family. After high school he spent nine years in various jobs at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

During his years at Disney, Oren began searching "for answers to big life questions." He tried Eastern meditation and attended silent retreats.

"These were all helpful to me, but I realized that there was still a world out there that needed healing," Oren said.

He visited Rabbi Steven Einstein in Fountain Valley and asked how the rabbi knew God exists.

"He was very honest and said he could only tell me what he believed; he had no scientific proof that it was true," Oren said. "He gave me permission to ask all the hard questions."

Oren decided to become a high school history teacher, earning a history degree from California State University Fullerton in 1999. After substitute teaching, however, he realized he didn't enjoy it. He considered being a college history professor and spent two years at Tel Aviv University in Israel working toward a master's in Middle Eastern studies. But after a lot of "lonely time" in the library doing research, Oren realized he wanted something more people-oriented.

He returned to California, got married and took a job running a youth group at Congregation Eilat in Mission Viejo while he figured out what to do with his life. Eilat's rabbi, Bradley Artson, encouraged Oren to become a rabbi. It took Oren five years to agree.

"I feel very blessed to have such a good man willing to invest when I kept telling him to go away," Oren said.

He enjoyed working with teens, so he interviewed Jewish camp and education directors whose jobs Oren thought he might like. He eventually realized that the rabbinate would offer multiple options, from leadership to education.

Oren applied to the rabbinical school at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, where Artson was now dean.

During rabbinical school, Oren spent two years at Valley Beth Shalom as a youth group adviser and High Holiday intern. He was a chaplain at UCLA Hospital in Santa Monica for a year and traveled to Siberia in 2007 to lead a bar mitzvah program for 50 teens in UlanUde near the Mongolian/Chinese border.

"Judaism was outlawed there in 1937, and all Jewish institutions and holy books destroyed. . . . Twelve women are keeping Jewish identity alive in town," Oren said.

Oren was attracted to the family feeling at Aliyah and the chance to learn from Vogel.

"I think I'm working with one of the great rabbis of America," Oren said.

Oren and his wife, Sharone, a teacher, have two children and are expecting a third in December.