Hello Rabbi! It's Adat Ari El’s 40th Year of Producing the Classic Musical

Rabbi Moshe Rothblum has been directing an annual theatrical production with ’s high school youth group for so long, it became known as “the rabbi’s play.”

In fact, this month’s reprise of Hello Dolly! Marks the rabbi’s 40th year as the show director. Previous shows have included Annie Get Your Gun, Bye Bye Birdie, Pippin and, one of the few non-musicals staged here, The Diary of Anne Frank.

Rabbi Rothblum has become the éminence grise of the congregation’s United Synagogue youth chapter. After leading the community for 35 years, the rabbi has held the position of rabbi emeritus with the congregation for the last five years. Almost half the year is devoted to working on the play.

Greasepaint is in the rabbi's blood; both of his parents were in show business. His mother was a dancer and his father was an actor in the Yiddish theater. When the family relocated to L.A. from New York, the senior Rothblum founded a children’s theater company here, Di Yiddishe Kinder Teyatre, in which little Moshe performed.

As a young man, the soon-to-be rabbi started his drama career while a counselor at Jewish summer camp. He’s been directing youth productions ever since, for some 50 years.

“Although I haven’t had any academic training in this area,” Rabbi Rothblum said, “I sometimes will do stuff and then go to see a show at the Ahmanson or the Taper and I see they do the same thing. I say to myself, how did I know that? How did I know to do that?”

Lest you think the rabbi is too much engaged in earthly pursuits, make no mistake. He is also a renowned composer of liturgical works with two recorded albums to his credit, Windows of the Soul and Az Yashir Moshe.

Jo-Carole Oberstein has worked on the play with Rothblum for 18 years, as the props and costumes mistress.

“It’s fun, very enjoyable,” she said. “I especially loved it when all my children were involved in it. I’ve been a member of this synagogue my entire life and so it’s my second home.”

Casting for Hello Dolly! began in October of last year. Since then, the 18 cast members have been meeting about three times a week to prepare. Now comes the final push, before the curtain goes up next week. 

The rabbi agreed to let Patch look in on the show’s first tech rehearsal, where we filmed the cast practicing while lighting and blocking were worked out. We also talked to Rabbi Rothblum and some members of the company.

Hello Dolly! opens on Thursday, March 10 at 7 pm with a second performance on Sunday, March 12 at 8 pm both in the Farber auditorium at

Click here for ticket information. Proceeds go to support the programs of United Synagogue Youth.

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