Don Katz, Immediate Past President Jeff Bublick, Treasurer Corey Freedman, Secretary
Melissa Allen, Vice President Harvey Mover, Vice President &Membership Chair Marlyn Safren, Vice President & Sisterhood President
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Heather Baumgardner Robin Condin Mike Contreras Steve Frankovitz Dr. Marc Kappelman, Chesed co-chair
Mike Mervis, Security Mike Robert, Men’s Club President Sandi Zeckel, Education Shani Zucker, Technology
Rabbi Benjamin Sendrow joined us at Congregation Shaarey Tefilla in August of 2010. He was born in Philadelphia and grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. There he was active in Boy Scout Troop 18 based in Congregation Beth El. As a Boy Scout, Rabbi Sendrow earned the Ner Tamid Award. That experience established his relationship with Rabbi Howard Kahn, alav hashalom, and ultimately led to Rabbi Sendrow’s decision to study for the rabbinate.
Rabbi Sendrow served his first pulpit in Southwest Florida for eighteen years. While there, Rabbi Sendrow served two terms as treasurer for the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly Southeast Region, and as vice-president for the Southeast Region’s Central Council. He served for ten years as a chaplain for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, and was as a member of the Ethics Committee and the Clergy Credentials Committee for Lee Memorial Health Systems. He was a founding board member of the Lee County Domestic Violence Council, and also founded the Chevra Kadisha of Fort Myers.
Rabbi Sendrow has published articles and sermons in several publications including The American Rabbi, and a story in Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul. Until the pandemic, he was an Adjunct Professor of Bible at Butler University. For Rosh HaShanah of 2017 (5778), Rabbi Sendrow became one of twenty-five rabbis across the country asked to write for the Jewish Daily Forward’s Rabbinic Roundtable. In 2021, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
