Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman has been the spiritual leader of Temple of Israel since July 2007. Ordained in 1984 through the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Cincinnati), he served as Rabbi of Temple Beth Or in Everett, Washington, at Congregation House of Israel in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he also worked for Levi Hospital, and Levi Towers (B’nai B’rith) Retirement Home. Before that, he was Director of Hillels (serving Jews on college campuses) at Tulane University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Colorado-Boulder. A native of Los Angeles, Rabbi Karz-Wagman practiced for five years as an attorney, after graduating from UCLA School of Law.

His wife, Barbara, worked as a professional fund-raiser for non-profits and now works as a Senior Personal Banker for Bank of America. They have two sons, Daniel, a musician and recent graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, who lives in San Francisco, and Noah, who studies economics at the University of Washington, in Seattle.