


This page will be updated regularly as we approach the event. Please check back later for more information.
About Our Honorees:

Laurielynn Barnett
I am a descendent of a young rabbi who was expelled with his family from Spain during the 1492 Inquisition, ended up in Aleppo, Syria and started a family dynasty , from fathers to sons, of Rabbis, Chief Rabbis, Talmudic Scholars and Judges, for more than four years. Born with that DNA, I grew up in my parental “kosher” home learning with my siblings the fundamental traditions and commandments of Judaism through examples, such as charity, attending Shabbat and High Holy Days Services, honoring father and mother, witnessing the respect shown towards the family Elders when visiting them after Services. I joined my father for daily morning prayers, donning Tallis and Tephilim after my Bar Mitzvah, a routine I maintained as a teenager in Cairo, Egypt, as a college student in Paris, France, as a scientific engineer in Eindhoven, Holland and a family man in the US in Boston, MA since 1958, where I was invited to pursue my career. The demands of a 50+ years of professional life took me from coast to coast, twice, before setting anchor in San Diego, CA in 1970 where we joined, as a family, Congregation Beth El, a few year later. We fully integrated with the community, spending quality time with “haverim”, calling Beth El “home away from home”. I maintained equally my professional endeavors and religious commitments. Retirement came in 2005. I started and completed the family tree to demonstrate principally to my grandchildren the roots which gave them identity, Jewish Identity, to be proud of. The more than five hundred names in the document from the first-in-line Rabbi Samuel L. who arrived in Aleppo, circa 1500 CE, to date, reside in the computer memory of the Museum of the Jewish People, called today, ANU. Anyone connected with the family will be able today and in the future to add his/her family branch to the tree. The second achievement, to the benefit, too, for the grandkids, is my own memoir. Meaningful retirement is incomplete without “long term” study of the Torah, a dormant desire. Attending one day the early morning prayers at Beth El offered me the opportunity to join the “Minyanaires” family. I was hooked. I felt proud and renewed to share with an amazing group of congregants giving their time to allow others to say the “Kaddish” for a loved one who passed away. As a scientist, physicist, engineer, I compare the minyanaires as the atomic core of any element, giving it its characteristics, its identity. The congregants are like the electrons orbiting the core; the closer the electrons are to the core, the stronger the attraction; for the congregant, their true Jewish identity is reflected. I became a Proud Minyanaire. I started to give my comments on the weekly perashat for the study session which followed the morning prayers and the breakfast offered to any one attending the class. I wanted to do more. I volunteered for the kitchen detail under the tutelage of Sam J., who is the kindest and most helpful man who ever walked on this planet Earth. I assisted him, and in time, I became a “sous-chef”. In the meantime, Ran A. approached me with an offer I could not refuse: Torah reading, my cherished desire. Ran became my amazing mentor, and he encouraged me to start reading the Torah on a regular basis for Shabbat. I owe Ran my deepest gratitude. The spiritual reward is phenomenal! Innovate. Keep it simple. I found a way to put a smile on a few faces at Beth El. The solution is a bottle of single malt Glen Livet Scotch to share with like minded congregants and guests at the Kiddush. That is the most successful program I ever initiated. You do not need a Ph.D for that.
Susan & Jordan Levin
Susan made her way to San Diego as a college student at SDSU in 1986 and found no reason to leave this beautiful city. Before college, Susan lived with her parents and two brothers in Atlanta, Winnipeg, New Orleans and Irvine while her father served as a Jewish Federation Director in those communities. Jordan arrived in America’s Finest City in 1995. After growing up in Kansas City and Wilmette, IL, Jordan attended MIT in Boston and did his graduate work at University of Michigan. He found work on the east coast but had an opportunity to leave the cold and make his way to California. Jordan has worked for several companies in town including Hewlett Packard, Qualcomm and currently Tandem Diabetes Care. In 2000, Susan and Jordan were introduced at a party Jordan was hosting at his home. Not much was said between the two as Jordan was busy talking with other guests at the party. Fast forward 2 years later, Susan and Jordan met up again at a party sponsored by J-date. Jordan asked for Susan’s phone number and after dating for a little under 2 years, they married in San Diego during a sunny Memorial Weekend. In July 2005 they welcomed their daughter Zoe. She became a big sister in 2008 when Joel joined the family. While trying to meet new moms with little ones, Susan began her involvement with Shalom Baby and attended many mommy and me events around San Diego including at Congregation Beth El. While attending a Yom Haatzmaut celebration at the JCC, Susan stopped at the Beth El booth. The membership director at the time told her about a wonderful Beth El program which encouraged young families to join the synagogue. This decision to join Beth El began a beautiful new chapter for the Levin family. Zoe and Joel both went through the Viterbi Torah School, attended youth group events and had their Bat and Bar Mitzvahs at Beth El. Zoe was active in USY, serving as president her senior year of high school while Joel became a regular shofar blower at High Holiday services. Susan and Jordan have created a Jewish home, celebrating Shabbat and holidays with friends and family. Giving back to their community is important. Susan has volunteered in various capacities at Beth El, JCC, G’mach, Camp Mountain Chai and her children’s schools. While Susan and Jordan have wonderful memories watching their kids grow up surrounded by love and support from the Beth El community, they are excited for their continued involvement at Beth El as they embark on the next chapter as empty nesters in the Fall.


Charles T. Rosen
It was a beautiful day in May 1975. I had just finished golf on a three day vacation when my wife, Liz reminded me that we had an appointment with a real estate person. That was the start of our move to Rancho Santa Fe in the end of June 1976. After unpacking and Coming from New York City we now felt it was time to find a synagogue for the coming high holidays. Previous worshiping was at a 100 year old magnificent Orthodox Synagogue in the upper east side of NYC. A world recognized Rabbi and very involved community were exemplary of everything that a Synagogue represented. My search was kind of a culture shock when I first came upon this very large peace of land topped with a small but not very well kept house. How or why I thought this could be a synagogue to this day is still a mystery? Despite bordering on apoplexy I entered the house to find one person and who on a ladder changing a light bulb. I asked to speak to somebody about member ship and was told for me to speak to the President. I asked how to make that contact and he (Phil) introduced himself. To this day I still cannot explain why I decided that this was the perfect please for my family. The best decision I ever made! My professional life was not in only one arena. My first job was with the Playtex Company. The first year was a salesman covering 220 drugstores up and down the Massachuset Coastlune. My products were rubber baby pants, household rubber gloves and another 3-6 different items. After a year they brought me back hom to the 65 floor of the Empire State Building. Over the years I moved to other positions such as Marketing Director of a division and lastly adding Director of Advertising to that division. It was then time to move on and I spent the next 12 years as a member of the New York Stock Exchange. Phil and I became very close friends. We spent a great deal of time working together on some small projects that I had engaged. But much of our free time was devoted to Beth El. I subsequently joined the Board and over time served two separate terms as President. The next many years were devoted to basically taking a large difficult empty lot and creating a complete Jewish complex for worship, education and celebration! We started with 50 families and a $200,000 dollar mortgage. From that I believe today we are a world class community financially enabled and with professional and lay leadership beyond what we could have ever imagined.
Bret Stephens
Columnist at The New York Times. 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner. Former Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post.
Bret Stephens is a columnist at The New York Times and a 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner for Commentary. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post. Raised in Mexico City, he studied political philosophy at the University of Chicago and comparative politics at the London School of Economics.
Stephens worked for The Wall Street Journal in Brussels, where he primarily covered European affairs, and later became the paper’s foreign-affairs columnist, focusing on global and Middle Eastern issues. He is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder. In 2022, the Russian government barred him from entering the country for life.

Read more from Bret Stephens HERE.
