When Rabbi Stephen Kahn talks about leadership, he does not frame it as authority or command. He talks about presence. About vulnerability. About showing up, every time all the time, for people at every stage of their lives. It is a philosophy that has guided his 30-year career in the rabbinate and helped shaped Congregation Beth Israel in Scottsdale, where he has served as Senior Rabbi since 2003.
A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Kahn grew up immersed in Jewish life but across a wide spectrum. He attended Orthodox day school through sixth grade, became Bar Mitzvah at a Conservative synagogue, and then, as a teenager, his family join Congregation Sherith Israel, a historic Reform synagogue in San Francisco.
That decision, he said, would ultimately alter the trajectory of his life.
