After several years of not having a Sephardic Rabbi, Shalhevet last week welcomed Rabbi Aharon Assaraf, new leader and go-to guy for the Sephardic minyan and students, who make up about half of the student body.

“I’m helping the school move along,” Rabbi Assaraf said. “I have rekindled the Sephardi aish [fire] of the school.”

Currently, Rabbi Assaraf is not teaching any classes, but he believes that he will be teaching classes later on in the year.  Aside from leading the Sephardic minyan, he is helping Executive Director Robyn Lewis with development, providing administrative assistance to Rabbi Segal, and advising the Student Activities Committee.

Before this, Rabbi Assaraf worked at Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy as the Director of Student Services and Advancement and Development Coordinator, planning student activities programs. His first day at Shalhevet was Oct. 11.

Head of School Rabbi Ari Segal said he’d been looking for a Sephardic rabbi since students of North African and Middle Eastern descent started asking for one last year.

“I was always looking for people that model the values that our school stands for,” Rabbi Segal said. “I think [Rabbi Assaraf] shares the philosophy of Shalhevet of being open minded, warm, energetic.”

Rabbi Assaraf said he came to Shalhevet wanting to take part in the school’s growth as a leading example of a Jewish Modern Orthodox co-ed day school.

“I believe in Shalhevet’s ideology, I see eye to eye with it,” Rabbi Assaraf said, “And the warm ambience and environment is addicting and thus, has made my transition extremely fun, easy and pleasant.”

Junior Justin Nemanpour said he was looking forward to Rabbi Assaraf giving Sephardi divrei Torah at the Sephardic minyan. Freshman Shirin Netaneli, his former Hillel student, is thrilled that he has joined the staff.

“He is honestly the best!” Shirin said. “It’s kind of nice to have a Sephardic rabbi because he understands your customs and how you daven.”

Outside of school, Rabbi Assaraf is working on opening the first Modern Orthodox sleep-away camp on the West Coast, called Camp Judah West. He declined to give its exact location because it has not been revealed yet to the public, but said it would be located two-and-a-half hours southeast of Los Angeles.

“I found out about Shahevet when I was walking in Glatt Mart and I picked up the latest copy of The Boiling Point,” Rabbi Assaraf joked.

In reality, he’s known about Shalhevet for a while through his work in the Los Angeles Jewish community and his friendships with Judaic Studies teacher Reb Tuli Skaist, Judaic Studies Director Noam Weissman and Rabbi Segal.

The last Sephardic rabbi to teach at Shalhevet was Rabbi Ron Jawary, who left in 2007.

Torah Editor Mati Hurwitz also contributed to this story.