Rabbi at Beth El
Although a small congregation, Beth El has been blessed with many wonderful Rabbis and an as-complete-as-possible chronological listing is shown at the bottom of this page.
Meet the rabbi (as of July 1, 2021) of our congregation:
RABBI JEFFREY KURTZ-LENDNER
Rabbi Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner most recently served as a volunteer Rabbinic Educator during the Pandemic. Previously he served as the rabbi at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, MS. He has served as the Director of Jewish Learning, Engagement and Outreach at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie, Florida, the rabbi of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Florida and the rabbi of the Northshore Jewish Congregation in the New Orleans suburb Mandeville, Louisiana. While in Mandeville he oversaw the congregation’s recovery efforts during Hurricane Katrina. In 2015-2016 he served as a Volunteer Police Chaplain for the Police Departments of Davie, FL and Hollywood, FL. He also served as a volunteer chaplain for the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department.
He is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and served as the treasurer of the southeast region of the CCAR (SEACCAR).
In earlier positions he served as the assistant director of the New Orleans Jewish Community Center and the Executive Director of the Hillel Foundation of New Orleans at Tulane University and taught at the New Orleans Jewish Day School.
In the past he served as the President of the Broward County Board of Rabbis as well as on the board of the Jewish Federation of Broward County. He was a member of the steering committee of the Jewish Outreach Institute’s Big Tent Judaism initiative and is on the Rabbinic Cabinet of United Jewish Communities. In 2017 Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant referred to him in his State of the State Address.
Previously he also served on the board of Broward County’s David Posnack Jewish Community Center, the Chair of the Broward County Jewish Federation’s Synagogue-Federation Relations Committee, president of the Greater New Orleans Rabbinic Council, the chair of the Religious Life Staff at Tulane University and president of the Hillel Professionals’ Association. He also served as the rabbinic advisor to Touro Infirmary Hospital in New Orleans. He served on the Ethics Committee of Lakeview Regional Medical Center in Covington, Louisiana, and on the Institutional Review Board of Tulane University. He was recognized in the “Forty under Forty” issue of the New Orleans Gambit Weekly and in the past wrote several articles for Smartphone Magazine.
Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner was invited to the 2011 White House Hanukkah party, delivered an invocation at an event featuring First Lady Michelle Obama and another invocation at an event featuring President Barack Obama in Hollywood, Florida. He sat on the Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council to Florida governor Rick Scott.
Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner, a native of Buffalo, New York, attended Brandeis University, and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner’s wife, Robin, a native of Opelousas, Louisiana is a graduate of Boston University Law School. They have two daughters, Leah [pronounced “Lay -uh”] and Abby.