HERTZEL ILLULIAN
Rabbi; Founder
JEM Community Center
Hertzel Illulian is a successful real estate investor and Rabbi. Back in the 1970s he saved more than 3000 minority group children from the violence and political turbulence occurring in Iran and at great personal risk. Today many of those children have American families of their own and are highly accomplished pillars of the American community.
Since these heroic actions, Illulian has found other ways to support the community and do good. He saved the Beverly Hills YMCA and established the JEM Community Center, an athletic center and educational institute for all faiths and ethnicities to look after their mind, body and spirit. Illulian provides mentorship to teenagers, runs a suicide prevention program, a drug prevention program and multiple recreational activities. The JEM Center boasts a basketball court, arcade games room, kids playroom, indoor swimming pool, arts and crafts rooms and a yoga and martial arts studio.