Not the retiring type

Rabbi Ken Weiss draws on his varied background to address the diversity of seniors at Seacrest Village.
By Karen Pearlman

  Rabbi Ken Weiss, Seacrest Village’s first full-time rabbi, has a surprising observation about the residents at the Encinitas-based Jewish retirement community.

  “The afterlife is not very much on their radar screens,” Weiss says. “When you’re older, you’re still alive, and you think ‘It’s not going to happen to me.’ They’re no closer to death than anyone else. They’re just as alive as any person taking care of them.

  “They may ask me, ‘What is there after life?’ and I’ll tell them, ‘You know what I’m going to tell you, you’ll know exactly what it is when you get there.’ Our job as Jews – for as long as we live – we have to make this world the best we can. We make the world better.”

  That’s advice the rabbi has certainly taken to heart. At the age of 63 , Weiss continues to make the world better after his “retirement” from a 22-year career as rabbi at Temple Mt. Sinai in El Paso, Texas.

  Weiss has been at Seacrest since July 2003, where he is responsible for religious and cultural programs for the community’s 200-plus residents in Encinitas as well as its 60-plus residents at the smaller Rancho Bernardo site.

  Weiss, who notes, “I didn’t come here with any real expectations,” was pretty much coaxed out of retirement to lend his expertise to Seacrest 40 weeks out of the year.

  At Seacrest, he meets on a daily basis with staff members, runs three different shuls on the campus in Encinitas and another one in Rancho Bernardo, runs a bi-weekly discussion group, conducts Torah study classes, leads Shabbat and other Jewish holiday services and advises residents. He does memorial services but rarely funerals because most residents use rabbis that have long-standing relationships with their families.

  “We do the full life cycle here. Someday there may be a Bar (or Bat) Mitzvah. There are nine or 10 women who study Hebrew with my wife [Sue]. I keep waiting. And so far there have been no weddings... and no brises,” he says. “But I wait. I’m an eternal optimist.”

   Mildred Spiegel, a seven-year resident at Seacrest Village, beams when speaking of Weiss.

  “He’s very warm, he’s a delight and I feel a connection to him,” said Spiegel, who moved to San Diego from St. Louis, where, she notes, one of Weiss’s daughters attended college. “If there is ever an incident that doesn’t please me, I go to the rabbi.”

  Adds Gladys Lipton, who moved to Seacrest less than a year ago: “I have enjoyed him and his wife from the moment they came here. It was like coming home. He and Sue make you feel good that you’re going to services. They make everything about our religion interesting. You want to listen to what they have to say.”

  “My door is always open, whether I see five-six-seven people or 18-19-20 people on any given day,” Weiss says. “They come to me to talk about everything – their lives, their problems, their doubts.”

   “He has found a way to incorporate all aspects of Judaism under one roof,” Seacrest spokeswoman Robin Israel says. “He’s warm, he’s fun, he puts a great spin on education. He is just a really kind-hearted man. Rabbi Weiss can put all of himself aside for the needs of every resident.”

  A daunting task, without a doubt, considering the myriad ways senior citizens at Seacrest, like people everywhere, embrace Judaism, from the least religious to the most frum.

  “Being the rabbi for the entire structure of Judaism, it is the greatest opportunity and greatest chance to stretch myself,” Weiss said. “Even the Orthodox here, they say to me, ‘Be true to yourself.’ They tell me to be authentic to my Jewishness and they’ll be authentic to their Jewishness.”

  Weiss, who is lending his vision to Seacrest’s master plan of a main synagogue, also has been able to look within himself to allow other rabbis to visit the community to meet everyone’s needs, including a Chabad rabbi who teaches a Talmud class. “I know I can’t be all things to all people,” he says.

  And at Seacrest, where residents are in either an independent living complex, an assisted living community or a skilled nursing home, the needs are also varied.

  “There are, I suppose, challenges,” Weiss said. “Some of the residents here may be bedridden but their minds are as sharp as tacks. One woman here is 93 and her mind is like a rapier. One thing I’ve learned is that even while the body may be collapsing, the minds are not. We all need to look beneath and beyond appearances. The older you get, the more you’ve seen. The people here have been through it all.”

  Weiss’ diverse career has prepared him for the variety of Jewish backgrounds he deals with at Seacrest. Before he worked at Temple Mt. Sinai, he was a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. He has also been president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, was a long-time advisor to the Union of American Hebrew Congregation’s Camp Swig and Camp Newman and was a guest lecturer in the religion department at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

  There is one way this experience is a little different from his past jobs, though. “This is the only place where I’ve worked where I’m the kid,” he laughs.


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