Rabbi Karen Bender was born and raised in Los Angeles in the home of Israeli parents, studied Political Science at University of California Berkeley and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1994.  As a student she interned in Prescott, Arizona; Boise, Idaho; and at Central Synagogue in Manhattan. Rabbi Bender served as rabbi of Temple Beth-El of Great Neck, New York, for seven years; Temple Judea in Tarzana, California, for thirteen years; and, since 2014, serves as the Skirball Director of Spiritual Life and Campus Rabbi at the Los Angeles Jewish Home, previously known as the Jewish Home for the Aging. Rabbi Bender has been active on social justice issues throughout her rabbinate, with a special passion for racial equality, voting rights, Muslim-Jewish dialogue, interfaith and intercultural work, GLBTQ+ advocacy and Israel.  Rabbi Bender has published numerous sermons, articles, poems and original prayers.  In 2015 she received the Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award for outstanding civil rights work and the Distinguished Community Leader Award of the San Fernando Valley Council of Na’amat USA. and was showcased as the month of February in the 2019 National Women’s Political Caucus’s Calendar.  In Spring of 2019, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for twenty-five years of service to and on behalf of the Jewish People.  She has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Advisory Council of the Valley Interfaith Council.  Rabbi Bender enjoys playing piano and guitar, travel, the theater and adventure, including horseback riding, swimming, biking, hiking, wakeboarding and especially activities that can be enjoyed with her three children, Holden (22), Bot (20) and Shoshana (17), of whom she is immensely proud.

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