I bring more than 40 years of experience in helping people with the great occasions and passages of life. From marriage to birth, from illness to death, and for the survivors, on to healing, I am both a guide and resource.
I was ordained “to the service of liberal religion” in Berkeley in 1970, and am comfortable in most of the languages of spirituality and the many scriptures of humanity. I’m an academic specialist in Comparative Religion and may be one of a very small number who has studied with a Rabbi, a Rebbe and an Imam as well as having taken Roman Catholic Canon Law from the Jesuits.
Over the past 20 years, in addition to teaching popular courses at American Jewish University, I have supplied clergy and scholarly services to Unitarian Universalist congregations, as well as Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Jewish synagogues.
First consultations are always free of charge and entail no obligation. My service area, where there is no additional charge for time and travel is Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Orange County and Ventura County. I am also available for “Destination” events.
Your love and relationship are unique. Your wedding ceremony should reflect your one of a kind story. Instead of a one size fits all formula, I’ll work with you to craft a celebration that honors your individual traditions and heritages. I’ll help you express your joint commitment to work together, grow together and love forever.
For me, a wedding ceremony is not a magic act where I marry you. It is however a magical act, as you marry each other. The magic comes from you.
The celebration of marriage is a milestone in the history of love. You come to the ceremony, usually but not always, towards the beginning of your journey. The ceremony reflects from where you have come and towards where you are going. It’s a celebration of the love and commitment that you have chosen to share with selected family and friends. I’ll help set the scene and tone for this celebration of your love. I’ll want to meet with you personally and assist you in selecting poems, readings and music—all suited to what you want to share.
If you’re marrying outside your faith or inside your gender, know that I have been celebrating same sex unions and “mixed marriages” since 1970.
After 45 years as an officiant at weddings and services of commitment, I bring a wealth of experience and can give you informed guidance. However, this is your wedding and while giving you guidance, the ultimate choices are up to you.
Wedding & Memorial Services
Every life and love is unique. Your celebrations should reflect
that uniqueness
Weddings
The help you need in crafting the celebration of your love
Jonathan Dobrer
My services are individually crafted to be personal--reflecting your values and needs. They are designed to express your spiritual vocabulary and be both understood and felt by people from our many traditions.
My approach is informed by the goal of taking everyone's religion seriously and respectfully but without needing to take it literally. We know that most of the time, when we gather to mourn a death and celebrate a life, that we are not all the same and have a great variety of vocabularies and metaphors with which we try to express our sense of connection to the Source of Life.
These services are ultimately not for the soul of the departed, whose end is peace. Rather, they are for us the living to find a peaceful place to carry our memories, our pain, our loss and our love.
A funeral or memorial service is not closure. It’s neither an ending nor a beginning. It is a milestone in a journey of healing.
When we gather to celebrate a life, we acknowledge a unique individual. Therefore, a funeral or memorial service should be unique and personal, not generic or formulaic, but expressing truth told with kindness.
I bring 45 years of experience in guiding families of all faiths and philosophies through the difficult transition of moving someone from in front of our eyes and physical embrace to inside our hearts and into our spiritual embrace.
I’ll help you through the difficult challenge of celebrating a life within the short span of a service and will aid you in selecting readings and choosing music. I’ll also be available for coaching and consultations--as part of aftercare.
Whether the service is held in a church, synagogue, chapel, memorial park or at home, I will be there for you to make the many pieces and needs fit together.
I’ll want to meet with family members and some others whom you may choose, in order to gather stories and memories to help him find the right key to convey the journey and values of the person whose life ties us together and whose death brings us together.
Funerals and Memorial Celebrations
The help you need to celebrate the life and legacy of one who touched your heart
"We really—really—will never forget how you made Mama's Memorial so heartfelt and special, and took such care to make it so authentically Mama. I can't thank you enough."
— JG
North Hollywood, 2015
Jonathan Dobrer
"I was so deeply pleased to have Jon Dobrer officiate at my son’s wedding in March. His professionalism, humor, knowledge & support were absolutely phenomenal. His help began months before the actual ceremony, as he became a resource in our planning and even budgeting.
I could not have imagined anyone else doing this wedding & I am forever grateful for this kind, caring man doing his utmost in making this day one to remember forever! Thank you Jon!"
— MW
Pasadena, 2015
"Thirteen years ago Jon Dobrer officiated at our wedding and our friends still talk about what a great ceremony it was. Although we knew Jon before we asked him to do our wedding, he spent a great deal of time making sure he understood exactly what we wanted. Jon's insights into our relationship had us, our families and our guests nodding heads in agreement, laughing at times and moved to tears at others. The tone, the personalization, even the appropriate humor he added to pick-up on what was going on only moments before the ceremony began, were all perfect.
Jon's ability to engage everybody made the ceremony itself a highlight of the day rather than just something to get through before the party began. If you can get Jon to conduct your wedding, you will be getting the best there is."
— L & BG
Palos Verdes, 2004
Jonathan Dobrer
"Jonathan has done four memorial services for me. In my large and multi-religious family, he found the perfect tone to deal with sensitive circumstances for each occasion.
He exceeded my expectations in every way allowing, the audience to remember the real person and to celebrate them by creating magic with his truthful and authentic words.
Everybody went home enlightened with an open-heart of love and/or forgiveness. The feedback was astounding, many wanted to hire him on the spot for their own. I couldn't be more appreciative"
— FT,
Studio City, Westwood
& Woodland Hills, 2014
Jonathan Dobrer