Rabbis of LA | Rabbi Josh Knobel: From the Barracks to the Bima

Before he was ordained by Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Knobel had spent much of his adult life in the military.

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Ari L. Noonan

July 13, 2023

Rabbi Josh Knobel

Rabbi Josh Knobel, the director of the Center for Youth Engagement at Stephen Wise Temple (“a fancy name for a religious school,” he joked), came to the rabbinate late. Before he was ordained by Hebrew Union College, Knobel had spent much of his adult life in the military.

The West Point graduate served seven years in the Army, followed by five years in the reserves. He loved his time in the Army, where he was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. Returning home, he was assigned to 82nd Airborne Division. “I really enjoyed that for a lot of reasons,” he told the Journal. “We went to Afghanistan, a wonderful experience.”

But it was time to leave the service. “I knew I wanted to leave active duty,” he said, “but I really enjoyed my time in the Army. The best part of the job, he said, “is the soldiers – getting to watch them grow, getting to watch them realize the best parts of themselves. There is something special when you bring together a group of people who know they are all working for and with one another to achieve something greater than they could achieve on their own.”

”There is something special when you bring together a group of people who know they are all working for and with one another to achieve something greater than they could achieve on their own.”- Rabbi Josh Knobel

Knobel was in his early 30s but was unsure of what he wanted to do next. “I did these two stints of the Army. Really enjoyed my job. But I was not sure it was what I wanted to do with my life. I needed something for the long term that didn’t involve quite so many neck bruises (from jumping out of airplanes).”

It was a meeting with a corporate recruiter that set him on his path. The recruiter wanted Knobel to interview with FritoLay. The next morning he woke up and decided “I am not going to make corn chips for a living.”

Thinking of his next step, he realized there was a part of his life where people are dedicated to doing something bigger than themselves – where we come together and recognize each other’s unique gifts and lift up one another. “That was my Jewish life,” he thought. “I was a practicing Jew all those years but it never occurred to me to become a rabbi until I had been in the Army.”

It wasn’t too hard for Knobel to pivot to that idea. While in uniform, there often were not enough Jewish chaplains, so he led services for soldiers. But when he called Hebrew Union College (HUC), “they said ‘you are crazy. you are going to make Major soon. Stay in the Army.’” He went to New York to meet HUC’s admissions director, and he was again told “you are crazy. You could be a general.” On his third try, “they said ‘okay, you are serious about this.’”

It was an important step in more ways than one. While spending the year in Israel required for all HUC students, he met his wife, Lisa Berney, who is now associate rabbi at Leo Baeck Temple. It wasn’t an instant connection. “We were just friends. We were friends for four years in rabbinic school. We respected one another, we both liked one another, and at some point, it just clicked,” he said.

Others knew they were a couple before they knew it themselves. He was having dinner with Lisa and her mother. “We were laughing and having fun,” he recalled. “Lisa’s mother said to her, ‘so how long have you two been dating?’ ‘We’re not dating,’ Lisa said. Her mother was like, “yes, yes you are.’”

Knobel, known as “Rabbi Josh” around the Stephen Wise Temple campus, admits that even nine years after his ordination, he still misses the military life. “Not in the sense that I am going to leave my job. But the camaraderie is special. The sense of everybody buying into the same goal automatically is special.” But being a rabbi, he adds, gives him a similar satisfaction.