Rabbis of LA | Camp Was Life-Changing For Rabbi Emily Holtzman

On a recent sunny San Fernando Valley morning Rabbi Emily JK Holtzman was in a reflective mood. Looking back at the start of her career, she went back to the time she was “a camper at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple camps, and that,” the Agoura Hills native said, “is where it all started. I kind of went all the way.”

She spent her first summer at Hess Kramer when she was nine years old, eventually growing into a counselor, and her commitment never has cooled. It seemed inevitable Rabbi Holtzman would become the director of youth engagement at Adat Ari El.   “It’s really interesting,” the rabbi said, “because when you become a counselor, you realize camp isn’t necessarily for the kids. It’s actually for the counselors to develop leadership, camaraderie and their Jewish identity. You don’t realize that when you are a kid. Counselors are very good at their jobs.”

Camp was also important because it ignited her Judaism. “Camp was where I felt like I could be Jewish,” said Rabbi Holtzman. One reason was she was surrounded by Jews. “There really wasn’t really anything else. Everyone was Jewish. And we were all doing it together.”

She grew up going to Leo Baeck Temple and attending its religious school, where her father was, and still is, a teacher. But the religious atmosphere at home was casual. “We would, like, go to shul on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Passover. We generally didn’t celebrate Shabbat or light candles. But I felt very Jewish.”

The late Rabbi Harvey Fields of Wilshire Boulevard Temple (WBT) was Rabbi Holtzman’s cousin. She recalls years of breaking the Yom Kippur fast at the Fields’ home. The Holtzmans celebrated Passover seders there, too.

Along with camp, Holtzman emphasized the outsized influences of rabbis in her early life and later. “Sharing meals with Rabbi Fields, especially during Passover seders with his now-legendary annual question, sparked my curiosity about Jewish traditions and intellectual exploration,” she said. Also at WBT, “Rabbi Steve Leder’s compassionate leadership, particularly evident during my grandparents’ funerals, left a lasting impression on the importance of guiding people through hardships.”

At Leo Baeck Temple, she described Rabbi Sandy Ragins — who died three months ago, just before Passover — “as a cherished mentor throughout my formative years. I had a deeply meaningful bat mitzvah under his guidance.”

Rabbi Holtzman’s enthusiasm for daily life protects against even minor letdowns. Returning to a favorite topic, she glowed when describing camp as “such a magical place. Anyone who has been to Jewish summer camp knows you can’t replicate it anywhere.”

She described it an immersive experience. “You are surrounded all of the time,” she said. “I used to say, ‘camp builds you up and breaks you down.’ You go through all of the different emotions. There’s nowhere to hide. If you are at Hilltop, there are 120 campers and 45 counselors. As I said, nowhere to hide.”

“I used to say, ‘camp builds you up and breaks you down.’ You go through all of the different emotions. There’s nowhere to hide.“ 

In her junior year at the University of Oregon, where she earned degrees in art history and Judaic studies, Rabbi Holtzman had a conversation with herself. “If I am interested in going into something Jewish, I probably should go study in Israel.” Returning to Los Angeles, Hebrew Union College told her to “go get some experience. A 27-year-old rabbi – we want to make sure you are ready.”

That was, she said “great advice. Looking back, I felt it was a good trajectory.”

She was ordained by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies following graduate work at Hebrew College.

When she says she worked everywhere for seven years before rabbinical school, it’s no exaggeration: She counts IKAR, Temple Beth Am, the American Jewish University Community Mikveh, Hillel 818, Taglit-Birthright, Congregation B’nai Chaim in Murrieta and Beit T’Shuvah as among the synagogues that employed her. She also was an administrator at Temple Adat Elohim, Thousand Oaks, where she spent part of her childhood. 

Before she became Rabbi Holtzman, she worked as a preschool teacher. That comes in handy at Adat Ari El because “I can go to our preschool and say to our teachers, ‘I remember what that was like.’”

It can be tough. She remembered a rookie mistake. “I was 22 years old,” she said. “If a two-year-old was peeing all over himself, I was freaking out. My co-teachers were, like, ‘you know that if you react like that, the kids will act the same way, too.’ As an educator, that was such a good lesson for me, to really be in there. Also, in a two-year-old class, that is where separation happens. You have these two weeks where you just have tears – both from the parents and the kids.

“Then you see the progression in them when they are done with the two-year-old class. It is ab-so-lute-ly incredible.” She knows now there is a “huge” difference between a two-year-old and a three-year-old.

What about the rabbinate? Her plan was to do the Hebrew Union College rabbinical curriculum with the education program because she wanted education to be at the front of her rabbinate.  “I’ve never been super attracted to the pulpit,” Rabbi Holtzman explained. “I also was thinking about going into camping.” She studied at Hebrew College, Newton, Mass., an online work-study program that she could do at home.

No matter how big or small the class — she has taught as few as four and as many as 20 — her plan is for the students to engage with each other. “It’s not about me,” she says. “I have information I want to share with them. My job is to get them to think critically about our tradition and to be able to ask questions, to discover things on their own.”

On school mornings, Rabbi Holtzman can be found in the Adat Ari El courtyard, Taylor Swift bucket at her side, handing out Tootsie Rolls to students. “I’m a big Swiftie,” she said.

Fast Takes with Rabbi Holtzman

Jewish Journal: What do you do in your spare time?

Rabbi Holtzman: I love watching TV, going to the movies. I also have season tickets to the Ahmanson and the Pantages. I was an actress as a kid and did a lot of theatre.

J.J.: Your favorite Jewish food?

R.H.: Gluten-free matzah ball soup.

J.J.: Favorite place to vacation?

R.H.: I went to Barcelona while I was studying in Israel, and it was amazing. Going to London next week, and I am excited about that.