One of the first shuls I went to upon moving to Los Angeles in April 1994 was the Westwood Kehilla. It was led by Rabbi Joel Zeff. For one week, I got up early and arrived at shul by 6 am to study some esoteric sacred text (The Path of the Righteous or something) with the rabbi.
I think I had heard him years before on Dennis Prager’s Religion on the Line radio show on KABC.
I was still in the grip of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1994 and wasn’t able to get up early to go to shul for long.
As Dennis Prager was at Stephen S. Wise temple on Saturday mornings, often giving the sermon or the study session, I started going there instead of the Westwood Kehilla.
I think Rabbi Zeff moved to Israel circa 1995. I saw him at LimmudLA in February 2011.
I just found this online from Kenesset Israel Torah Center in Sacramento:
July 5, 2012
Dear Members and Friends of KITC:
We are happy to announce that the congregation voted this evening overwhelmingly to confirm the appointment of Rabbi Zeff as Rabbi of Kenesset Israel Torah Center. The next step in the process requires that we sign a contract with Rabbi Zeff legalizing the agreement, and that process will begin almost immediately. Thank you for your participation in the election process and special thanks to those who assisted in the balloting at the meeting this evening and thank you to all of the members who came to the meeting to help us in this part of the process.
