From Ziegler Student to Senior Rabbi: Daniel Cotzin Burg Begins New Chapter at Hamakom

When Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg arrived at Hamakom as the West Valley congregation’s new senior rabbi on July 1, he wasn’t simply beginning the next chapter of his rabbinate. He was returning to the city where his vision of Jewish leadership first took shape.

More than two decades after enrolling at American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Burg is back in Los Angeles, leading one of the region’s largest and most dynamic Conservative congregations. His appointment follows the retirement of longtime spiritual leaders Rabbis Richard Camras and Stewart Vogel, whose decades of service helped establish Hamakom as a vibrant Jewish community.

For Burg, the move feels both exciting and familiar.

“Having studied at the Ziegler School more than two decades ago, I’m delighted to reconnect with the vibrant Los Angeles Jewish scene,” he said.

Before joining Hamakom, Burg spent 16 years at Beth Am Synagogue, a Conservative congregation in Baltimore, where he became known for his commitment to social justice, community engagement and bringing together people with differing perspectives. Earlier in his career, he served for five years on the rabbinic staff at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, giving him more than two decades of experience before returning to Southern California.

His path to the rabbinate wasn’t always clear. Raised in the Reform movement, Burg initially imagined attending a Reform seminary before realizing he was searching for a different kind of Jewish education.

When evaluating rabbinical schools, he found exactly what he was looking for at Ziegler.

“I wanted to fall in love with the Talmud,” Burg said. “I wanted to fall in love with the Mishnah.”

Rather than approaching classical Jewish texts primarily through academic analysis, Burg was drawn to Ziegler’s beit midrash model of learning. Students immersed themselves in chevruta study, wrestling directly with sacred texts and uncovering layers of meaning together before later exploring historical and literary criticism.

“The focus of the learning at Ziegler was exactly what I was looking for at the time,” he said. “I’m very glad to have had it.”

Equally formative was Ziegler’s emphasis on preparing students for the realities of congregational leadership. Burg recalls courses devoted to the practical side of the rabbinate—everything from synagogue budgets and fundraising to organizational management and executive leadership—skills that have proven invaluable throughout his career.

That education became especially meaningful during one of the most difficult moments of his life. In 2004, while Burg was still a student at Ziegler, his father died. The school’s faculty and students rallied around him, offering support that reinforced the close-knit community he had found there.

“The Ziegler community was great,” he recalled. “The faculty and the students really rallied around me and supported me in the moment.”

Today, Burg’s connection to Ziegler has come full circle. Among the clergy members he now works alongside at Hamakom is Rabbinic Intern Sarah Klein, a current Ziegler student who represents the next generation of Conservative rabbis.

At Hamakom, Burg inherits a congregation created through the merger of two distinct Conservative synagogues. Rather than viewing those differences as a challenge, he sees them as an opportunity.

“We have a real powerful experiment in pluralism,” he said, describing a community that welcomes Jews with diverse backgrounds, levels of observance, political viewpoints, family structures and life experiences.

After spending much of his rabbinate in urban congregations—he even became known as “The Urban Rabbi” through his writing—Burg believes those years prepared him to foster meaningful relationships across differences in his new suburban setting.

“We’re living in a time where the country is so polarized,” he said. “A synagogue that has real diversity of opinion… feels like a great opportunity to create something vibrant and flourishing.”

Burg and his wife, Rabbi Miriam Cotzin Burg, who founded the Jewish birth education initiative Hava NaBaby and participated in Atra’s mid-career rabbinic innovation cohort, are beginning this new chapter together as their two children head off to college.

For Burg, returning to Los Angeles is more than a homecoming. It is an opportunity to draw upon the text study, practical leadership training and enduring relationships that began at Ziegler, while helping shape the future of one of Southern California’s most diverse Conservative Jewish communities.