Rabbi in Hollywood crime movie shocked by crime on his doorstep in LA

In a previous life he was a director of Hollywood crime thrillers whose genre classics included Torture under his belt.

But today, Nolan Lebovitz is a rabbi in Los Angeles and lives in times he can only describe as terrifying.

Two weeks ago, the rabbi was on a volunteer mission in Israel with some of his congregants when he saw footage of an attack on his neighboring congregation in Los Angeles, the Adas Torah Synagogue, where he has many friends.

“It was a surreal experience to watch it happen from Israel,” he said. “Surreal is the only way to describe it. And scary, in many ways. It was a pogrom that we saw unfold and it was scary to see the reaction of the police and the city; both were very disappointing.”

It was strange to be there, we were showing up to help the soldiers who were getting ready to go into Gaza and they wanted to talk to us about the anti-Semitism we're facing in Los Angeles. There's a war going on in Israel, they're facing a second front and people are asking us why we don't move there because they think it's safer than Los Angeles.

It’s not something he’s prepared to contemplate at the moment. I think Israel needs a strong diaspora, he says. I also think American, British and Australian Jews are going to have to learn to live differently than they have for the last 50 years. The bubble has burst. We’re not living in our dream state anymore. We’re back to the Jewish experience of our grandparents and great-grandparents. So the way we raise our children has to be different. The way we march in the streets has to be different, the way we advocate for ourselves has to be different.

Referring to the attack on the nearby Los Angeles synagogue Adas Torah, in which a mob in keffiyehs descended on the synagogue as it hosted an Israeli real estate fair, he adds: “I always give people the benefit of the doubt in the sense that I believe what they say. So when someone gathers outside a synagogue and chants hateful phrases, I truly believe that they mean it.”

Despite the violence of the demonstration, only one person was arrested on a misdemeanor charge. Rabbi Lebovitz continued: “I very much want my children to grow up in a peaceful world, where they are safe and can express their Jewish identity without fear. But if I feel that this is not the case, then I want them to grow up with the strongest possible Jewish character, which will not allow these types of forces to penetrate their souls.”

We try to understand why bad people do bad things. We want to understand it in context. But I'm struggling here. No context justifies rape, beheading, and immolation of babies.

The 45-year-old rabbi, Hollywood's most famous film director, was Torturea 2008 crime thriller starring Cole Hauser, Laurence Fishburne and James Cromwell. He also directed Jerusalem Road Mapa documentary that traces Jerusalem's connection to the Jewish people, and Doctor Bennyabout the romantic adventures of a 28-year-old gynecologist.

He has been at the helm of Valley Beth Shalom, one of the largest united synagogues in the United States, for two years, and since Oct. 7, he and his community have witnessed a sea change in American Jewish life.

While anti-Semitism may have grown slowly in the UK, for American Jews it is something that has exploded suddenly, as if out of nowhere.

The rabbi has been involved in efforts to combat what is happening on American college campuses. The nearby University of California (UCLA) is home to one of the worst anti-Israel camps.

“I’ve helped write letters and petitions and helped the community stand up for itself,” he said. “It’s time for us to look inward and draw strength from each other. This year, young people on college campuses were hit with a tsunami. They were on the front lines of hate and they weren’t prepared for what they faced. But next year, when it happens, students will be ready. If they aren’t, it’s our fault.”

The genocidal slogans of the student activists, which evoke zombies, give the protests the atmosphere of a dystopian horror film. But Lebovitz, who got into crime filmmaking through comedy, believes this film is far scarier than any other.

The magic of cinema is that you see how wrong the conventions and everything else are. But these are real horrors, and they are manifesting themselves in a way that has not been seen for a long time. We know they have always existed. This kind of evil inclination is recognized by the rabbis in ancient times, but it has not been socially acceptable for many decades. And today, in the United States and around the world, we see a socially acceptable hatred of Jews.

Rabbi Lebovitz became more interested in Judaism and its teachings when he realized he wanted to protect his young children from watching horror films, which led him to question his own life choices.

Gradually, his love of Judaism led him to train and become a rabbi. His two careers have some common threads, including his love of storytelling.

The Jewish experience is an incredible story, he said. We are characters in the greatest story ever told. And I don’t think we appreciate it enough. Being heirs to the Torah is a story Hollywood could never have imagined. We are the living protagonists of this story and all we have to do is move on to the next chapter.

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