Nira Sayegh: Lifelong love of Jewish education began in childhood

For most people, working full-time plus overtime hours as vice president of finance at a property management firm would be enough to stay busy.

 

But for Nira Sayegh, 52, of Beverly Hills, helping run NPS Realty & Management Corp. with her husband, Pinny, is only a fraction of her responsibilities.

 

For the past four years, Sayegh has served as a volunteer on the executive board of the Sephardic Educational Center, an international educational and cultural organization with offices in Los Angeles and a historic campus in the Old City of Jerusalem. In L.A., she puts in 10 to 15 hours or more each week managing the center’s office inside The Jewish Federation building on Wilshire Boulevard, overseeing staff, organizing events, managing the budget, raising money and remotely overseeing operations at the Jerusalem campus.

 

Recently, Sayegh helped organize the Los Angeles Sephardic Jewish Film Festival for the center. She also single-handedly puts together a yearly Sephardic High Holy Days service at the Intercontinental Los Angeles hotel for families without a synagogue affiliation. And she volunteers to help with Jewish community events whenever needed, such as with High Holy Days celebrations this year at the Kahal Joseph Congregation in West Los Angeles, where she is a member. 

 

“I’m the kind of person that I need to be involved in something that I’m passionate and care about. Judaism, Israel — you’re going to find me there,” Sayegh said. “I love Judaism, I really do, and I love Israel. If there’s anything I can do to help any organization, then I do it.” 

 

Sayegh got a taste for engaging in Jewish community and religious life as a child, after she moved from Israel to Los Angeles with her family when she was 12. The transition was difficult, Sayegh said, because she barely knew anyone, and most other children she encountered knew little about Israel and the culture she came from.

 

But Sayegh soon found an exciting way to connect and contribute to her new environment by working as a Hebrew-school teacher. She began in eighth grade by volunteering at the Hebrew school of the formerly Conservative Temple Beth Torah in West Los Angeles, and by ninth grade she was hired as an assistant teacher for children at the Reform congregation of Temple Isaiah, where she worked twice a week through high school and college.

 

Having grown up Conservative, teaching at Isaiah was the first time Sayegh experienced Reform Judaism, and she was fascinated. Although she continues to identify as Conservative, she said the experience opened her eyes and made her more appreciative and accepting of different Jewish traditions. These insights led to her support for Sephardic Judaism and the approach of blending ancient and modern traditions and accepting diversity in Jewish life.

 

“I learned so much about myself and Judaism, and how you can be Jewish in a different way,” she said. “I think it doesn’t matter what kind of Judaism you practice as long as you’re a good person.”

 

Sayegh, a mother of four and grandmother of three, said her biggest joy is witnessing the impact of the Sephardic Educational Center’s cultural excursions to Israel for teenagers, which take place once or twice a year. 

 

“They come back with a different outlook on themselves as individuals and on life,” Sayegh said. “The impact we make on children is the most important thing because they’re going to be different the rest of their lives because of that experience.”