RABBI ARRIVES: Rabbi Steven Tucker is starting...

RABBI ARRIVES: Rabbi Steven Tucker is starting his first week as spiritual leader of Northridge’s Temple Ramat Zion in a memorable way.

Today, he will conduct a bat mitzvah ceremony for his wife’s 13-year-old cousin, Rachel Kapor, just a day after leading services for the first time at the 600-family synagogue.

“It was just incredible that it was my wife’s family. The odds of that happening must be astronomical,” Tucker said, explaining that such rights of passage are planned three years in advance. “It was not by design, it just happened.”

Tucker recently came to the Conservative congregation from a 240-family synagogue in East Windsor, N.J., where he served as rabbi following his 1987 ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He replaces Rabbi Solomon Rothstein, who served the synagogue for eight years.

“This is an exciting opportunity for me and my family, plus the fact it brings us back near to my family,” said Tucker, 34, a native of San Bernardino who grew up in Costa Mesa. He and his wife, Gabrielle, 39, and their three young sons reside in Northridge.

Tucker is already starting to meet with congregation members to discuss his ideas for the synagogue, which include implementing holiday workshops and adult education classes.

“This is a synagogue with a tremendous amount of potential,” he said. “There is a great need here for some quality Jewish adult education.”

After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1980, he decided to become the first rabbi in his family.

“I grew up loving Judaism, and when I went to UC Berkeley, I got even more interested in it. I felt like I wanted to teach others,” he said. “I thought it would go well with my personality. I like working with people.”

Tucker’s formal installation is scheduled during the regular 8 p.m. Friday service on Sept. 18. Saturday services at Temple Ramat Zion, 17655 Devonshire St., are regularly scheduled at 9 a.m.

GOSPEL CONCERT: Gospel singer Karen Kelley will present a 45-minute concert at 6 p.m. Aug. 30 at Calvary Bible Church, 1101 S. Main St., in Burbank. A former Miss Indiana, Kelley, a Glendale resident, also will sing and lead the morning worship services at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Soon after she won the title of Miss Indiana in 1973, Kelley began singing gospel music throughout the country and has recorded three albums. Admission is free and the concert and services are open to the public.

JEWS FOR JUDAISM: The San Fernando Valley chapter of Jews for Judaism will hold its monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the community room at Western Federal Bank, 22001 Ventura Blvd., in Woodland Hills. Jews for Judaism is a counseling program to keep young Jews out of cults and Messianic Christian groups. For more information, call (818) 346-7130.

GUEST SPEAKER: The Rev. Elizabeth Extrom Bingham, minister of the First Congregational Church of Anchorage, Alaska, will be the guest speaker at the 10 a.m. service Aug. 30 at the Congregational Church of the Chimes, 14115 Magnolia Blvd., in Sherman Oaks. Bingham served as associate pastor of the Sherman Oaks church in the mid-1980s. Also participating in the service will be the church’s senior minister, the Rev. Richard J. Bower.