Rabbi Chaim Singer Frankes is honored to support the Temple Beth Am community during Rabbi Kligfeld’s sabbatical. He joined Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center in 2019 as its Multi-faith Chaplain and Spiritual Care Guide. A second-career rabbi, he was ordained in 2014 at AJU’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies with an MA in Jewish Studies, and holds a BA in Political Science from SUNY Albany. In 2017, Chaim completed his Clinical Pastoral Education residency at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital and served across Southern California in hospice, accompanying patients and families through profound life transitions. Earlier, he served 13 years at the USC Shoah Foundation, where he managed the cataloguing of testimonies and trained educators across North America and Israel on using visual history in the classroom. Together with his wife Deborah and their daughter Adinah—an alumna of Pressman Academy and recent UMass grad— the family has been in Pico-Robertson for over 35 years. The youngest of four, Chaim is the son of immigrants: his mother from Rehovot and his late father a survivor of the Shoah. He guides people toward loving dialogue with their tradition, emphasizing justice, empathy, and dignity.
David I. Weisberg is Executive Director of World Jewish Relief USA, where he is building national visibility and philanthropic support for the organization’s more than 90-year legacy of protecting lives and livelihoods in vulnerable communities around the world.
A nonprofit leader for more than three decades, David has raised over $100 million for humanitarian, social justice, environmental, and Jewish communal causes. He is known for guiding organizations through growth and transition, cultivating high-level partnerships, and serving as a compelling public voice for mission-driven work.
David is the author of Border Song, about witnessing the refugee crisis at the U.S.–Mexico border, and David’s Chopped Liver, recounting his journey as an altruistic living liver donor.
A longtime advocate for the arts, he has produced festivals and benefit concerts featuring award winning artists and proudly notes that he once made Mother Teresa laugh.