Rabbi Jerry Cutler, founder of Creative Arts Temple in West Los Angeles, passed away on March 3. He was 91.
He is survived by his wife, Jeff, and his daughters Tess, Chelsana, Nina, Myla and Daniella.
The son of an Orthodox rabbi in New York, Cutler trained as an Orthodox rabbi while side-hustling as a stand-up comedian. He performed gigs in the Catskills. He was ordained as a rabbi at 24. He also worked as a celebrity publicist whose clients included Frankie Avalon and comedian Slappy White.
In 1973, he founded Synagogue for the Performing Arts, drawing the likes of Walter Matthau, Ed Asner and Joan Rivers.
For Cutler, transitioning from stand-up comedy to the pulpit was, he once told The Los Angeles Times, a “natural segue.”
As Cutler dealt with personal issues and with growing disenchantment with synagogue life — “It was during yizkor services and somebody wanted to come in, but one of the major members wouldn’t admit him because he didn’t have a ticket. That was it!” he once said—Cutler stepped away from the synagogue. Returning to his entertainment business roots, he began writing plays and TV sitcoms.
In 1983, Cutler returned to the rabbinate and started Creative Arts Temple.
Cutler conceived of Creative Arts Temple as a place where Jewish celebrities could worship freely without being harassed as well as an accessible place offering affordable membership to struggling writers and unemployed actors.
Regarding the synagogue’s denomination, Cutler once described it to the Forward as “somewhere between Conservative and Reform. We’re traditional in our own way.”
Services for Creative Arts Temple were held at Hollywood Temple Beth El on the first Friday of each month. As the years went on, the synagogue became less known as a spiritual home for celebrities and industry professionals and more, according to its website, as an “unorthodox” congregation, one with “great concern for one another, our community and those in need.”
Cutler was also famously involved with Chabad. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, his wife produced the annual Chabad Telethon while he was the popular master of ceremonies.
At the time of his death, Cutler was living in Rancho Mirage.
An online memorial for Cutler can be viewed at creativeartstemple.org/watch.
