Devorah Marcus, Senior Rabbi

Rabbi Devorah Marcus has been serving as Temple Emanu-El’s Senior Rabbi since 2013. Leading this beautiful Jewish community in San Diego has been a joyful blessing and comes full-circle as her grandparents were founding community members when Emanu-El first formed in the early 1970’s.

Central to her work as a rabbi are the concepts of: Kehillah Kedosha, building sacred community Ahavat Yisrael, love for Israel (both the people and the place), Tikkum Olam, being God’s partners in repairing the world, Btzelem Elohim, the acknowledgment that all people are created in God’s image and L’dor Vador, transmitting Jewish identity, culture, and practice to our subsequent generations.

Through travel, classes, inter-generational connections, community engagement, interfaith work, community activism, and an unceasing commitment to being an equal opportunity pain in the tush, Rabbi Devorah builds a community, a world of respectful dialogue and meaningful encounters that help create a better tomorrow for all our generations to come.

Rabbi Devorah was ordained by HUC-JIR in 2008 after receiving her Masters in Hebrew Letters in 2006. She received her BA from Bradley University in 1998. She is proud to have served for two terms as President of SDRA (San Diego Rabbinic Association), and currently serves on the Executive Board of PARR (Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis).

She is also proud to serve our local community as a religious representative on San Diego Unified’s Sexual Health Education Advisory Committee, working to ensure that all students in San Diego Unified School District receive evidence-based comprehensive sexual education that is LGBTQ+ inclusive and affirming.

Martin S. Lawson, Rabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Lawson is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El in San Diego. He served as rabbi of the congregation for thirty-six years, retiring in June 2012. He was born in Muskegon, Michigan and was raised in Miami Beach, Florida. Rabbi Lawson is married to Anita Satlof-Lawson and they are the parents of a daughter, Bethami, and son, Joshua and his wife, Nicole and proud grandparents of Zoe and Talia Lawson.

He was Assistant Rabbi at The Temple, in Atlanta, until 1976 when he came to San Diego as the Assistant Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El. In 1978 he became the Senior Rabbi and in 1993 was honored with a contract through retirement. Rabbi Lawson was a founder of, and an Instructor at the San Diego High School of Jewish Studies which has now become the Community Jewish High. He is also a founder and former Director of the San Diego Jewish Academy, a community Jewish Day School having almost 800 students. He was the Chairperson of the San Diego Task Force on Holocaust Commemoration for the Jewish Community Relations Council of the UJF. Rabbi Lawson was the first Chairperson of the UJF Synagogue-Federation Committee. He is on the National Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Communities.

In May 1999, he received the Doctor of Divinity degree, Honoris Causa, from the HUC-JIR. He is a past President of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and also has served three times as President of the San Diego Rabbinical Association, and received the first award for Rabbinic Leadership from the UJF of San Diego County.

Marty and Anita are truly enjoying retirement. They fill their time with travel, study, teaching and, most important, visiting their children and grandchildren in Los Angeles.