Rabbi Naomi Levy (center) leads the Nashuva Band during services at Brentwood Presbyterian Church. Courtesy of Nashuva
For Rabbi Naomi Levy, following her intuition has always seemed to serve her well.
Nearly 20 years ago, when looking to start a new congregation, one that would attract unaffiliated Jews – the Jews Judaism had lost to secularism, Buddhism, new-age faith communities, even Scientology—she cold-called a church to ask how the its leaders would feel about a bunch of Jews holding Shabbat services there. As luck would have it, the church’s reverend answered the phone, and when the rabbi explained why she was calling, the reverend embraced the idea.
Reverend Kirsten Linford had one question though: Was Levy calling because she knew that Linford was married to a Jewish man? No, the rabbi explained. She had driven by the church on Westwood boulevard a number of times when driving her daughter to appointments and always had a special feeling of calm whenever driving by it.
“I know it’s a fairly significant statement for a rabbi to make that the site of a church makes her feel calm,” Linford, senior minister at Westwood Hills Congregational Church, told the Journal.
This June marks the 18th anniversary since Rabbi Levy founded her congregation, Nashuva, Hebrew for “We will return.” Levy started Nashuva in June 2004, with its first Friday night service held at the church in Westwood.
Since its inception, Nashuva has never had a permanent home, and the community, although it has outgrown the Westwood church, continues to meet in a Christian worship space: On the first Friday of each month, Nashuva holds monthly kabbalat Shabbat services at the Brentwood Presbyterian Church on San Vicente Boulevard. Hundreds turn up to the monthly services while thousands of viewers across the world tune in to watch Nashuva services online.
The community, not affiliated with any denomination, owes much of its success to the sincerity of its founder and leader, Levy, who was ordained through the Conservative moment at Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York as part of the seminary’s inaugural class of women.
After Levy graduated from JTS, she immediately took a pulpit position as the rabbi of Mishkon Tephilo, a Conservative congregation in Santa Monica, becoming one of the first female rabbis to lead a Conservative congregation on the West Coast.
The young rabbi’s seven years at Mishkon were formative, shaping a philosophy about community building that was about engaging the previously unengaged. Because of the Mishkon synagogue’s beach-adjacent location, unaffiliated Jews not belonging to a temple drifted into the shul on Saturdays, seeking a spiritual connection. But Levy found that her services were geared toward the regulars, not those popping in. She realized it was as important to uplift the “window-shoppers,” as she called them, as it was those regularly filling the pews.
“I always felt there was a need to create a service that would welcome outsiders in, and over time, that became more and more pressing to me,” Levy told the Journal.
Conversations with likeminded people reinforced her belief that there was a need for a community that would attract the unaffiliated, she said. It was these people who, after her time at Mishkon concluded, gave her the confidence she needed to start her own community.
“It was eight people around my dining room who all had that same feeling that we needed to reach out to the Jews who are reachable but who didn’t know that Judaism could be the home for their spiritual life,” Levy said. “It was a couple months before we put our first service together.”
During its first Friday night service at Westwood Hills Congregational Church, Nashuva drew far more people than expected—she asked for four rows of prayer books to be put out, but by the time Shabbat began, the place was packed with wall-to-wall people.
Though Nashuva would only “nest” at the Westwood church for a few years before moving to its current home in Brentwood, the interfaith relationship would live on: two members of the Westwood church band joined Nashuva Band, a multi-ethnic, interfaith 10-piece ensemble that performs Hebrew prayers at Nashuva services to the sounds of diverse musical genres, including African music, klezmer, folk and rock-and-roll.
From the time of its inception, Nashuva has been embodying values of diversity, equity and inclusion, as the band counts Ashkenazi Jews, Jews of color and non-Jews as its members, bandleader Jared Stein explained.
From the time of its inception, Nashuva has been embodying values of diversity, equity and inclusion, as the band counts Ashkenazi Jews, Jews of color and non-Jews as its members, bandleader Jared Stein explained.
“We bring a diverse Jewish perspective and a diverse musical perspective to the mix,” said Stein, the son of a cantor and an African-American mother. “The diversity in the people and also in the perspectives in the band are good to have.”
Stein, 36, has grown up at Nashuva. When Nashuva was formed, he was an 18-year-old college student in Santa Barbara. On Fridays, he would drive down to Los Angeles, navigating a traffic-heavy commute to get to Nashuva on time. On the road, he might question why he was going through so much trouble to play at Shabbat services, but once he reached his destination and began jamming in rehearsal with his band mates – including his brother and bass player Justin – his doubts vanished.
“I would look around and be like, ‘Oh yeah, this is why I am doing this,’” the vocalist who also plays guitar, violin and mandolin said. “There is a sense of peace there, of belonging. People in the band, people who show up, they don’t show up just because it’s a gig or because they feel like they have to go to synagogue. People want to come.”
In 2018, the Nashuva Band achieved a professional milestone when it collaborated with Grammy-winning record producer Don Was on the recording of an album of Jewish liturgy.
As for the band’s musical process, the ideas begin with Levy then take shape with the group’s skilled members.
“Justin and I always joke being bandleaders, we are still sort of trying to do our best to translate Naomi’s musical ideas into something that is functional and works,” Stein said.
Linford said the music of the Nashuva Band has tapped into something really rare. When people participate in a Nashuva service, they feel like they are having an encounter with God, she said.
“I think the thing about Naomi, she does not entirely know how compelling she is,” Linford said. “Even now, I think she doesn’t totally get how moving she is to people. She has tapped into the holy in this incredibly deep and mysterious, beautiful kind of way and makes that unbelievably accessible to people in ways they never had imagined.”
“It’s a fully integrative experience of Judaism and of prayer, and people need that,” Linford added. “I think that’s what is compelling to people.”
Alex Banayan, 29, author of the bestselling book, “The Third Door,” is one of the approximately 3,000 people who have fallen under Nashuva’s spell. Banyan was wrestling with the death of his father when his mother discovered Nashuva’s online Kol Nidre service.
After watching the High Holy Days services, Banayan’s mother knew she had to find out more about Nashuva, including where the community met in person.
“Sure enough, it was five miles away,” Banayan said. “We started going and, little by little, the grief and the pain my family was carrying on our backs began to be unloaded thanks to Levy’s sermons and the energy of the community.”
On June 3, Nashuva is celebrating its 18th anniversary during Friday night services at the Brentwood Presbyterian Church. People can RSVP for “18th Chai Birthday Shabbat” at Nashuva.com. As with all Nashuva services, neither tickets nor temple membership is required, but Levy encourages donations.
Correction: The Nashuva Celebration will NOT take place at Brentwood, it will be outdoors on the lawn at Vista Del Mar, but people must first register to attend at Nashuva.com
“It’s going to just be a celebration of 18 years and all we have achieved, how far we have come, and how much we have tried to give to the community and to one another,” Levy said ahead of the service.
Asked how the community has evolved since she started it nearly two decades ago, Levy said the goals have largely remained the same: “I am a Conservative rabbi, but Nashuva is for anyone,” she said. “That’s always been the case. We didn’t declare denomination. We see ourselves primarily as an outreach organization, not necessarily a synagogue.
“We travel light,” she continued. “Our goal isn’t to eventually have a building. Our goal is to bring Judaism out there to where the people are.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.