Our Clergy
Rabbi Ron Li-Paz
Rabbi Li-Paz is the Senior Rabbi of Valley Outreach Synagogue, a liberal Jewish community in Calabasas, California, where he has led since 1996.
Prior to synagogue leadership, Rabbi Li-Paz served in the United States Air Force. He collaborated with pilots on navigational plans for their combat training and logistics missions. He subsequently completed a degree at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before working in theater, television, film, and broadcasting for the BBC World Service.
Rabbi Li-Paz went on to serve as a management consultant for Cap-Gemini Sogetti, developing and implementing communications strategies for multinational clients across Europe. Today, in addition to spiritual leadership, he works with business and community leaders on leadership, communication and change management strategies. His audiences and clients include the UCLA-Anderson School of Business, the UCLA Management Development Institute in East Africa, Citadel Environmental, Belmond Hotels and the Los Angeles Jewish Federation Business Leaders.
Rabbi Li-Paz is a key board member of the Center for Interreligious Understanding (CIUnow.org). He represents the organization and its values around the world. He frequently addresses audiences on issues of interreligious understanding and collaboration. Rabbi Li-Paz is the Jewish representative on the Los Angeles Interfaith Council. In May 2019, he was a member of the US delegation to the United Nations International Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan. Also in May 2019, Rabbi Li-Paz was honored as a special guest of Pope Francis at the Vatican as well as His All Holiness the Patriarch Bartholomew in his residence in Istanbul. He regularly collaborates with world religious leaders. In 2022-23, he is scheduled to speak in conferences in Washington DC, Baku and Jerusalem.
Rabbi Li-Paz preceded his cantorial career with a successful decade as a leading guest artist in opera and concerts. He sang as a soloist in major roles in eleven countries and in some of the world’s greatest theaters including the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Councertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In 2011, he was invited to sing the anthems of the United States and Israel in Washington DC before President Obama, most members of Congress and an audience of more than ten thousand people.
Rabbi Li-Paz shares the pulpit with his father, Cantor Michael Li-Paz, and his wife, Bronwen Li-Paz. When he is not preaching, singing or teaching, he is most likely scuba diving, hiking horseback riding or cultivating his garden surrounded by a host of sweet hens and a giant African tortoise.
Rabbi Li-Paz is a contributing writer for the Ventura County Star, the Jewish Journal and The Pacific Coast Business Times.
Rabbi Ron Li-Paz’s long and winding road Click HERE to read article
Jewish Journal Author Rabbi Ron Li-Paz Click HERE to read articles
Heschel-robohawks-Gehry-Honored Click HERE to read article
Contact:
Rabbi Ron Li-Paz
rabbili-paz@vosla.org 818-879-8087 or 818-882-4867
facebook.com/ron.lipaz
Cantor Michael Li-Paz
Cantor Michael Li-Paz embarked on a musical theater vocal career in his homeland, Israel,
after serving eight years in the Israeli Air Force.
Encouragements and recommendations by world renowned conductors and opera stars to study and pursue his career in opera in the US brought Michael to this country in the early seventies. He received full scholarships to the most acclaimed musical institutions, the Juilliard School of Music at Lincoln Center and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
Michael had the greatest privilege to study with world famous opera stars including Giorgio Tozzi, Maria Callas, George London and Alexander Kipnis.
Michael Li-Paz won many prestigious awards that led him as “the first native Israeli Opera star”
to perform on the stage of the New York City Opera in leading bass/baritone roles.
He made his debut in 1973 as Dr. Bartolo in “Il Barbiere Di Siviglia”. “He was the star of the show” wrote Ron Eyer in his review in the NY Daily News. The Israeli embassy in NY and the America Israel Cultural Foundation declared Michael LI-Paz as “our Israeli Ambassador in the Arts”.
Mr. Li-Paz was engaged with several major opera houses in leading roles and performed with numerous symphony orchestras in concerts throughout the United States and abroad and enjoyed success and overall critical acclaim. During his career, this versatile singing artist developed a reputation as a skilled concert and recital artist on the stages of civic and cultural institutions, in musicals, on radio and television.
“He has a good voice and knows how to use it intelligently. He sings with remarkably clear diction -
I know that his English, Italian and German were superb. What was most noticeable about his performance was his acting ability. Li-Paz’s varied stances, subtle gestures and wide vocabulary of inflections enhanced everything he sang…” James Wierzbicki, Cincinnati Post.
In 1975, after a family tragedy, Michael took his three children and moved West to Los Angeles where he performed many times at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center and was embraced by the local Jewish community.
After a fundraising concert for Sinai Temple on Wilshire Blvd., Michael was asked to officiate as their High Holy Days cantor. He served Sinai Temple for several years. His mentor and teacher at Sinai was the esteemed cantor, composer and arranger, Carl Urstein. Urstein trained Michael and wrote select liturgical pieces specifically for him.
In subsequent years, Michael served as the Cantor for Temple Israel of Hollywood, and Temple for the Performing Arts. He also served alongside Rabbi Saul Rothstein for many years in High Holy Day services for the greater San Fernando Valley community.
In 1996, Michael, his wife, Monica, and their children, Galia, Gil and Ron, joined Valley Outreach Synagogue, where he has sung and served as Cantor. It goes without saying that Cantor Li-Paz is inordinately proud to stand beside his son, Rabbi Ron Li-Paz, as his cantor at VOS.
CantorLi-Paz@vosla.org 818-882-4867
