Rabbis of LA | Rabbi Reuven Huttler: Still Working As He Enters His 90s
Stepping into the living room of Rabbi Reuven Huttler, where the legendary rabbi has resided for 60 years, is akin to dusting off and peering into an encyclopedic 20th century history of Los Angeles Judaism.
He has posted his share of longevity records.
In 1963, Rabbi Huttler and his bride, Miriam Adler, daughter of a prominent rabbi herself, left Brooklyn for not only a new community but a Gardner Street home where they would spend the rest of their lives.
But 2013, however, would be marked by joy and tragedy. The Huttlers celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and the rabbi his 80th birthday. But it also was the year Rebbetzin Huttler, who had been heavily involved in the shul community, died from cancer.
Two years later, in 2015, cancer would also kill Yossie Huttler (a married father of three), one of the three Huttler children.
Today, the rabbi is married to the widowed community activist Eva Yelloz Huttler.
While Rabbi Huttler has some singular accom-plishments, here are two of the most noteworthy:
• Months before his 90th birthday, he is known as the oldest active rabbi in this part of the United States.
• Since 1971, he has been not only the senior rabbi of historic Etz Jacob Congregation, but the only rabbi. He still is.
His voice is sturdy. His sense of recollection might embarrass someone much younger.
“In my opinion,” Huttler said, “Etz Jacob was the most prominent congregation in Los Angeles, and the first in the Beverly-Fairfax area.”
But Etz Jacob declined as its community moved away.
Wistfully, the quiet-spoken Huttler recalls that decades ago during holidays, “many hundreds” of Jews would flow into the red brick structure at the corner of Beverly and Stanley and two nearby theatres.
But that was so long ago scarcely anyone can remember.
These days they sometimes struggle to round up a minyan – except on Shabbat when the rabbi leads services and there are two minyanim, Sephardic and Ashkenazic.
Etz Jacob opened under a different name at the corner of Beverly and Martel, and adopted the new name with the move. For lovers of irony, the present location, now nearly 17,000 square feet with a 700-capacity sanctuary, was established in 1933, coincidentally the year Reuven Huttler was born.
The rabbi began his Los Angeles career in the same neighborhood, at Shaarei Tefilah, as principal of the Hebrew school.
In 1970, following a year of learning in Israel, Rabbi Huttler worked with Rabbi Philip Schroit in his Talmud Torah at B’nai David-Judea in Pico-Robertson before he was hired by Etz Jacob.
The rabbi said his motivation for returning to Beverly-Fairfax was the home he had purchased on Gardner years before.
He recalls fondly his early Talmud Torah education in Brooklyn, his graduation from Yeshiva University in 1955, his graduate work at Columbia University, and his Master’s from UCLA in English Lit and a Ph.D from USC in education.
Leaning back in his favorite comfortable chair, Rabbi Huttler smiled. “Well educated,” he said softly.
When the rabbi recounts his highlights in 53 Etz Jacob years, his memories center on students.
“The most important of my career, what I am proudest of, No. 1, was we built a beautiful NCSY group at Etz Jacob – the second in the city after Beth Jacob. We produced many, many people who became frum (religious), and they have grandchildren. We still are in contact.”
As the Huttler mind travels back a half-century, he says of the 1970s and ‘80s that “the shul was prospering tremendously” as opposed to today’s quietude. “There was a tremendous Men’s Club, a wonderful Sisterhood, a Talmud Torah, a full-fledged shul of dedicated people.”
But perhaps the fondest deposit in the Huttler memory bank was made in 1989. There was a large influx of Persian families, which meant Persian students who needed a place to learn. A Persian rabbi approached him about space. They met on Labor Day, agreement was reached, and over the decades, Etz Jacob has produced education for hundreds of Persian youngsters.
“We started with 17 kids, and by the end of the first year we were close to 50,” Rabbi Huttler said. “The second year we had 130, and we had to move to new premises. Persian families didn’t want their children to go to public school.”
About this time, following the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian Jews began a large migration. Once again, Rabbi Huttler and Etz Jacob rushed to the fore.
“To open a school for these kids,” said the rabbi, “required ESL (English as a Second Language) programs, a different approach to education.”
Sounding like a proud parent at graduation, he reflected “We took the leap and went into it full blast.”
Why did the leaders of those two communities seek out Huttler and Etz Jacob? “They didn’t come to me. I went to them.”
Although his community is very far from its heyday, Rabbi Reuven Huttler’s career continues daily. He takes it a day, and a minyan, at a time.
Although his community is very far from its heyday, Rabbi Reuven Huttler’s career continues daily. No longer driving, each morning and afternoon he walks several blocks to a minyan he usually leads, and on Shabbat he leads from the bimah. He takes it a day, and a minyan, at a time.
Fast Takes with Reuven Huttler
Jewish Journal: What is your favorite Jewish food?
Huttler: Bananas and cream, blintzes and many dairy foods.
JJ: If you could travel anywhere on earth, where would you go?
Huttler: Israel, where Eva and I were married.
JJ: What Jewish figure from history would you like to meet?
Huttler: Moses.
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