Young Israel of Orange County, CA

Young Israel of Orange County was created in February 2008 by approximately fifty families who sought to pursue their dream for establishing a Torah-observant spiritual community, in the heart of Orange County in Irvine, California, built along the guiding principles of the National Council of Young Israel. With a strong love for Israel, recognizing the central role that Eretz Yisrael plays in the spiritual lives of Jews everywhere, and a deep commitment to Torah learning, personal Jewish growth in Torah knowledge and practice, and performing acts of Chesed (kindness) in a community bonded by a love of the Torah of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the People of Israel, the Young Israel of Orange County rapidly has expanded the possibilities and options available for Jews wishing to explore or embrace Orthodox Judaism in Irvine, the most vibrant Orthodox community in Orange County, California

Rabbi Dov Fischer, Rav of Young Israel of Orange County, emerged uniquely as the only Orthodox Rav in all of Orange County, California (other than Chabad rabbis) when he became a Congregational Rabbi in Irvine, California in August 2005. Orange County is home to 100,000 Jews. He arrived from the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where he was Rav of Young Israel of Calabasas since that shul’s inception. After receiving his undergraduate degree at Columbia University, Rav Fischer studied at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva University and was ordained a Rav in 1981. In 1983, Rabbi Fischer was awarded his master’s degree in American Jewish history. His master’s thesis was nationally honored by the American Jewish Historical Society and published in its scholarly quarterly, American Jewish History.

During the first decade of his rabbinical career, Rav Fischer was a synagogue congregational Rav in New Jersey, taught on both the religious and secular faculties of two yeshiva high schools, was Rabbinical Advisor to the largest Soviet Jewry immigration agency in New Jersey and to his city’s NCSY chapter for teens, and served as Jewish chaplain both at the largest private hospital in the city and for the Jersey City Police Department. He also wrote a regular column for the Jewish Press of Brooklyn, authored two books -- Jews for Nothing: On Cults, Assimilation and Intermarriage (N.Y.: Feldheim, 1983) and General Sharon’s War Against Time Magazine (N.Y.: Steimatzky, 1985) â and served as national executive director of the Likud Zionists of America.

From 1985 to 1987, Rav Fischer lived in Israel where his was one of 40 pioneering families that created a new Jewish community in Samaria. During that time, he also served as Assistant Director of the American High School at Pardes Hanna, cosponsored by the Los Angeles Jewish Federation Council's Bureau of Jewish Education and by the Los Angeles Unified School District. He taught in the Overseas Program at Orot Women's College for Torah Studies, guest lectured several times at Bar Ilan University for a course in Jewish Values taught to members of the Israeli Defense Forces, and he worked intimately with Ethiopian Jews at the Merkaz Klitah Absorption Center in Hadera.