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Our Team


CLERGY

 

PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

Jennifer Linsley
Executive Director
office@shaareytefilla.org
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LAY LEADERSHIP


Phil Lande,
President
president@shaareytefilla.org

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 Kappelm
an, 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.