Long before he came to the Orthodox community of Beth Jacob in Beverly Hills in 2009, Rabbi Kalman Topp had a different career plan. He was intrigued by the business world, especially finance. Chinuch, educating Jewish children, also appealed. When he went to college, he believed he could follow both paths. “My first interest really was chinuch,” Rabbi Topp said, “teaching in a high school, together with business. I would be half-time teaching and half in the business world. The dream I had with my wife Jordana was to make it to Israel eventually.” By the time he graduated from New York University’s business school and was ordained, however, his plans had changed.

The middle child in what he called a Modern Orthodox home in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, the rabbinate was not young Kalman’s dream. He thought about being a sports or business agent. “We had a religious home with a deep commitment to Torah, tradition and also modernity.” His father — an ordained rabbi — was a psychologist. his mother was a public school teacher. After high school, he studied in Israel for two years at Yeshiva Har Etzion in Israel, or Gush, as Americans call it.  “That,” Rabbi Topp said, “is when I became inspired to dedicate at least some of my career to Torah, to teaching Torah.”

Topp was still figuring out his career when a rabbinic position became available at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. “A couple of friends who were there suggested I apply for the position. It is more of a student community, very diverse, and that is when I decided, ‘Hey, let me go for that.’ And that was how my journey in the rabbinate began.” 

Even after smicha (ordination), Topps plan really was not the rabbinate. “I was more focused on Jewish education, being a rebbe in a school, in the United States, or a rebbe and Torah teacher in Israel.” But once he was in the world of the rabbinate, he discovered he really enjoyed it. 

After three years at the Einstein Medical College, where he sometimes received mail addressed to “Rabbi Albert Einstein,” he moved on to Young Israel of Woodmere, Long Island, as an associate rabbi.  In his late 20s, the rabbi and rebbetzin “made a decision to be in America and raise a family, have a meaningful, joyful life, but also to lead a community.

“From the beginning of my time in the rabbinate, I wanted to have the opportunity to utilize my energies to make an impact, to lead a community, to guide and counsel people, to have opportunities for chesed (kindness, compassion),” Rabbi Topp said. “I discovered early in the rabbinate that the rabbi of a shul has so many opportunities to do chesed.”

“You can give chizuk in many different ways,” he said, “through teaching, counseling, programming. Our job is to help anyone who walks through our doors to navigate life. 

One of his favorite responsibilities as a rabbi is providing chizuk (providing emotional or spiritual support). “You can give chizuk in many different ways,” he said, “through teaching, counseling, programming. Our job is to help anyone who walks through our doors to navigate life. This is a central role that goes back to forever.” One thing that has changed, he said, is that it is more important now than 30 years ago to give people a sense of meaning, an anchor, stability, inspiration and guidance about how to live in a meaningful way.

After eight years on Long Island as a second in command, Topp focused on his immediate future. “I was looking to lead a community,” he said. “When Beth Jacob Congregation, one of the prominent, well-known, respected, significant congregations in the United States, became available, moving made sense for us.” Topp and his wife, Jordana, a Brooklyn native, made the move.  “We were New Yorkers until making aliyah to Los Angeles,” he said, which triggered a hearty laugh.

“Our dream still is we want to make aliyah in the future,” Rabbi Topp said. “Every Jew should want to make aliyah.” But, he said, “our decision for the last 20-plus years has been that our family is happy. We are uniquely situated to make a difference for the Jewish community and the Jewish people in ways that maybe we couldn’t do in Israel.” 

Focusing on the two main professional experiences of his life, Rabbi Topp described Los Angeles as “a large community but smaller than New York, which leads to a certain sense of cohesiveness and diversity. In New York, there tends to be more homogeneity.”  But, he said, “we want everyone who walks through our doors to feel comfortable, to feel welcomed, to feel they have a place here, no matter their level of observance or Jewish knowledge.”

Fast Takes with Rabbi Kalman Topp

Jewish Journal: Outside of Israel, what is the favorite place you have traveled?

Rabbi Topp: Yosemite National Park.

Jewish Journal: What lesson would you like your six children to take into their adult lives?

Rabbi Topp: Within our mesorah (tradition) and halachic tradition, that they have sufficient confidence to blaze their own path and make their own unique impact on Am Yisroel.

Jewish Journal: Outside of Jewish texts, the best book you have read?

Rabbi Topp: Viktor Frankel’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.”