Rabbi David Baron
Rabbi David Baron
Rabbi David Baron is the rabbi of the largest arts and entertainment industry temple in the United States, where his services and inspirational sermons have been broadcast on national television and webcast internationally to US troops overseas. He authored the art and inspirational prayer book “Sacred Space,” and the evocative High Holy Day prayer book “Sacred Moments” featuring the biblical art of Marc Chagall. Also, Rabbi Baron is author of the ethics in business volume “Moses on Management; 50 Leadership Lessons from the Greatest Manager of All Time” (1999 Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster), is a widely sought after speaker on topics ranging from “Leadership and Legacy” to “The Successful Blending of Religion and Art”.
He has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, NBC, PBS, and has spoken to diverse groups ranging from Young Presidents Organization and World Presidents Organization to the Young Leadership Convention of the United Jewish Communities. His frequent television appearances have featured interviews with leading personalities, artists, Nobel Laureates, and political leaders.
He chaired the global gathering honoring Righteous Holocaust Era Diplomats at the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations in New York in April 1999. As founder and president of the Committee for Righteous Deeds, he also chaired and co-produced the world premiere of the History Channel Documentary “Diplomats for the Damned.”
Rabbi David Baron prays with Devon Rosenthal and friend Brannen Ross in Israel.
As a noted television speaker he delivered weekly sermons, in Los Angeles, on the American Jewish Television Hour. He also founded the Temple of the Air and produced a nationally televised High Holy Day program for the homebound featuring numerous celebrities. . This program was co-sponsored by the nation’s largest Jewish charitable organization the UJC (United Jewish Communities). It represents over 160 federations across the United States including the Los Angeles Jewish Federation. He has interviewed a number of world-renowned scholars, authors, and political leaders including Elie Wiesel, Abba Eban, Yakov Agam, the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Dr. Jonas Salk.
Rabbi Baron served on the Boards of the Jewish National Fund, Maple Counseling Center, American Jewish Congress, and numerous philanthropic organizations. He also served as the Chaplain of the Beverly Hills Police Department. He has consulted on numerous feature films dealing with Jewish subject matter including, “Mobsters”, “A Stranger Among Us”, “Cemetery Club.”, “Castaway” and “Along Came Polly”. He has also appeared on and consulted on a number of television programs including, “Days of Our Lives”, “Murphy Brown”, and “Home Front”, as well as “NYPD Blue”, “Uprising” and “Judas and Jesus,” and “The Drew Carey Show.”
Rabbi Baron pioneered the fusion of religion and the arts in his career in the Los Angeles pulpit. His religious leadership has touched the lives of thousands of Jews in greater Los Angeles. His creative services to capacity crowds have made Temple of the Arts at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills a memorable and spiritually uplifting experience and the address of religion and the arts.
Sharon Farber - Music Director
Since the beginning of 2011, our Music Director, Composer Sharon Farber, has been extremely busy with her music. In January, The Culver Symphony Orchestra performed her symphonic piece “Translucent Rocks” to an enthusiastic audience. In may, the Orange County Women’s Chorale, under the direction of Eliza Rubenstein, world premiered “When Music Sounds”- a newly commissioned work. In June, her song cycle ”Bridges of Love”, commissioned by Pacific Serenades Ensemble, was recorded in London by acclaimed Grammy Award Winner Soprano Hila Plitmann for a fall release by Signum Records:
http://www.signumrecords.com/index.shtml <http://www.signumrecords.com/index.shtml>
Coming August, Ms. Farber’s piano ballad #1 will be featured at the NACUSA-L.A. piano concert (August 27th).
The challenging work will be performed by Dr. Tali Tamor.
Ms. Farber has also been commissioned lately by the outstanding iPalpiti Orchestra (who will be performing at our Temple in our July service) to compose a new work to be premiered at Disney Concert Hall in 2012. She is currently gearing up for another performance of her highly praised original piece, ASHKINA, written for mixed choir, chamber orchestra and ethnic instruments, which will feature renowned multi-instrumentalist, Omar Faruk Tekbilek. The concert will take place at Symphony Space in New York City on November 12th, 2011.
In addition, Sharon will be scoring two films back to back this summer, (one of them produced by CAMERA organization- we had its president, Andrea Levin, speak at our Temple in May) as well as reprising her role as Composer In Residence for the Beverly Hills International Music Festival, where her “Nietzsche Trio”, will be performed - it's based on the soundtrack she composed for the feature film “When Nietzsche Wept” (commercially released by Moviescore media).
She also gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl, Eden Kontesz on February 28th- her best composition ever :)
For more information: www.sharonfarber.com
Cantor: Ilysia Pierce
Music Director: Sharon Farber
Saken School Director: Fern Dubow
Board of Directors & Staff
President: Jim Blatt
Vice President: Charles Axelrod
Treasurer: Andy Kane
Secretary: Tom Shapiro
Board Members: Fred Fenster, Jack Zukerman
Cantor: Ilysia Pierce
Music Director: Sharon Farber
Manager - Marketing, Membership and Administration: Lynne Hayon
Director of Rabbinical Administration: Kasey Carter
Controller: Kristy Powell
Lifecycle Event Coordinator: Natasha Mendelis
