What We Are:
Temple Isaiah’s Kleinrock Schuler Center for Innovation is both a physical space and an institutional commitment to living our synagogue’s mission as “your home at the intersection of tradition and innovation.” Using congregants as our leaders and teachers, and with a strong commitment to multi-generational collaboration, the Center generates and shares meaningful Jewish content within our congregation and beyond. This melding of technology, storytelling and activism formally launched in 2022 and is housed within our Joan and Ephraim Sales Community Center.

What We’ve Created:
In our inaugural quarter, the Kleinrock Schuler Center partnered with Penumbra Films (led by Isaiah congregants Davida and Chris Hall) to produce three short videos for High Holy Days 2022/5783. Each of these videos told a different story yet shared a common thread: proudly demonstrating Temple Isaiah’s deeply-held values, from inclusion, belonging and education to the pursuit of justice in a fractured world.
 

Who We Are:
In addition to Len and Stella Kleinrock, whose lead gift made this extraordinary initiative possible, the following individuals represent multiple ages and life stages within our dynamic congregation. They serve as the Kleinrock Schuler Center Advisory Committee: Mike Diamond (Co-Chair), Deb Moses (Co-Chair), David Chiu, James Finney-Conlon, Robert Freedman, Davida Hall, Martha Sklar and Emiliana Ziedenfeld. Additionally, the following staff and clergy serve as Ad-Hoc Members of the Advisory Committee: Rabbi Dara Frimmer, Rabbi Zoe Klein Miles, Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen, Cantor Randall Schloss, Chris Falone (z'l) and David Sabel.
 

Who are the Kleinrock / Schulers?: Stella (Schuler) and Len Kleinrock are longtime members of Temple Isaiah. Their generous lead gift of $250,000 enabled us to formally launch the Kleinrock Schuler Center for Innovation. Stella and Len have both led fulfilling lives as dedicated professionals. Stella’s career started out as a teacher and then, after further UCLA graduate work, she became a psychotherapist working initially at Jewish Family Services with Holocaust survivors and later in her own private practice in analytic therapy for many years. She is now retired. Len’s career has been as a researcher and professor of Computer Science at UCLA. His lifelong interest began with his MIT mathematical networking research which led, in 1969, to his UCLA laboratory launching what we now know as The Internet. He hoped this would enhance understanding and innovation through connectivity and enable the world’s population to communicate and interact effectively and easily. One of the common themes in Stella and Len’s professional and personal lives has always been a commitment to education, innovation and improvement in people’s communication skills and opportunities. Communication still remains a vehicle for positive interactions and exchange of information. When the Temple Isaiah clergy expressed a desire to create a “digital community center,” the Kleinrocks felt it was an opportunity for them to provide the means by which they could help realize this mutual dream. It very much resonated with both of their interests and life’s work. It would offer opportunities for members of all ages with their varied communication skills and personal histories to share, learn and communicate and to teach and learn from each other and to extend that to the larger Los Angeles community. In such a center, young digital natives could experiment, expand and hone digital and communication skills. Less tech-savvy folks could learn to navigate the digital world while providing the wisdom of their lifelong experiences. Altogether the Kleinrock Schuler Center for Innovation has become an opportunity to learn, innovate, create, communicate and enjoy together. As Len and Stella know, people who work and play together tend to understand and appreciate each other even more. That is the hope and dream the Kleinrocks offer through their support of the Center.

Read the Press Release on the Kleinrock Gift and Center Launch!

What Comes Next:
As the Kleinrock Schuler Center for Innovation continues to evolve and grow, the possibilities are limitless. Our Advisory Committee in partnership with clergy envisions diverse projects of different mediums led by congregants of all ages. We are particularly interested in collaboration between different generations, such as our thriving ITY (Isaiah Temple Youth) teenage cohort producing a storytelling project with our vibrant Chai Village cohort. We look forward to the creativity and ingenuity this new Center fosters within every age and life stage at Isaiah.

Passionate about intergenerational engagement? Have an idea for a project you think the Kleinrock Schuler Center for Innovation could produce? Let us know. Contact Executive Director / Advisory Committee Co-Chair Deb Moses: deborah@templeisaiah.com