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David Lazar

David Lazar is a United States-born rabbi and educator who has served congregations in Israel, Sweden and California, and is the founding rabbi of Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs.

born 1957Founding rabbi of Or HamidbarRabbi of Stockholm's Jewish communityFounding RIKMAInterfaith dialogue and LGBTQ advocacy

Born: 28 January 1957
Occupation: rabbi
Education: Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies

David Lazar was born in 1957

David Lazar was born on January 28, 1957, and grew up in a liberal Conservative Jewish family in Los Angeles. As a teenager he turned toward Orthodox Judaism. After his army service ended in 1980, he helped found Moshav Gan Or in the Gaza Strip.

At Gan Or he met Sascha Meijers, an immigrant from the Netherlands, and they married in 1981. He studied at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh and earned a BA in Bible Studies at the Hebrew University. In 1993 he received rabbinic ordination and an MA in Jewish Studies from the Schechter Institute, and he was later a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel School.

In Jerusalem he was education director at Kehilat Mevakshei Derech and later rabbi of Kehilat Ya'ar Ramot of the Masorti movement. In Tel Aviv he led Kehilat Tiferet Shalom. In 1999 he founded RIKMA, which trains Masorti and Reform rabbis.

From 2010 to 2013 he was rabbi of the Jewish Community of Stockholm, where he worked on LGBTQ advocacy and interfaith dialogue. A documentary, The New Rabbi, follows his work there. He then served at Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs until 2018 and founded Or Hamidbar, and he lives in Palm Springs with his wife.