Nefesh LA

Nefesh is a transdenominational Jewish spiritual community in the multicultural east side of Los Angeles. We welcome all the identities that make up who you are and who you love. We are an open doorway to the wisdom, ritual, and melodies of the Jewish tradition. A place to find and be found, whether it is for a meaningful Jewish experience or an ongoing commitment to a spiritual home. Nefesh is a new model of kiruv (outreach) and community building for urban Jewish renewal located in the ancestral homeland of the Tongva people. 

We have a special focus on bringing the margins of Jewish life to the center by engaging in active outreach, radical inclusion, and building a diverse intergenerational community. We create a welcoming, inclusive, open-hearted Jewish community that specifically seeks out and draws in those who are seeking, and have not found, a spiritual and communal connection to Judaism. We are filled with music and enthusiasm, ecstatic and contemplative. We bring the breadth of expansive inclusion and the depth of the prayers, rituals, texts, stories, creativity, and customs of the Jewish people. 

Nefesh is a middot driven community. We center the intersection between personal growth and systemic change. In Nefesh we hold four realms at once: personal growth and change, relational connection and growth, community support and growth, and the work of change and transformation in the world around us. Self, other, community, and world. We hold all four and do so grounded in Mussar and social justice.