Our Clergy
Rabbi Leonard Gordon
Rabbi Leonard Gordon has been our spiritual leader since 2019. He served for sixteen years at the Germantown Jewish Centre, a Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia known for being “a community of communities.” He was conferred the status Rabbi Emeritus when he moved to Chestnut Hill, MA, serving as the senior rabbi at Congregation Mishkan Tefila until the congregation moved to Brookline. With rabbinic ordination and an MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary, he has a BA and M Phil from Columbia University, and an MA in Religious Studies from Brown University. In 2018, he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in Interfaith Studies at the Andover Newton Theological School.
Rabbi Gordon has taught comparative religion and Humanities at Columbia University, Kenyon College, and the Ohio State University; and he has taught rabbinic literature, history, philosophy, and liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. He is a popular teacher at Hebrew College’s MEAH program. Among his publications, he was an editor of Mahzor Lev Shalem.
Rabbi Gordon serves on the boards of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the International Jewish Committee for Interfaith Consultations (IJCIC), and the National Council of Synagogues (NCS). At the JCPA, he co-chairs the newly created taskforce on Jewish-Muslim relations. He has traveled to Israel with delegations of Christian and Muslim leaders, under the auspices of Interfaith Partners for Peace (an organization he co-chairs), a project of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Israel Action Network.
Rabbi Gordon is passionate about building communities of meaning and connecting people to one another, to the synagogue, and to Israel. When he was on the faculty at Kenyon College, he built the small Jewish community there and was the founding director of the Havurah of Greater Columbus.
His partner, Dr. Lori Lefkovitz, holds the Ruderman Chair in Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, where she is a Professor of English and directs the Humanities Center and Jewish Studies Program. They have two adult daughters. Ronya works for the Jewish Museum in New York and will be married to Mickey Roth this January. Samara recently moved to Boston, where she works for Hyperplane, a venture capital firm.
Rabbi Gordon looks forward to getting to know the B’nai Tikvah family and encourages each of you to please be in touch to make a time to meet at the synagogue, in your home, or at a local coffee shop.
Click here to read Rabbi Gordon’s Rosh Hashanah sermon.
Rabbi Leonard Gordon has been our spiritual leader since 2019. He served for sixteen years at the Germantown Jewish Centre, a Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia known for being “a community of communities.” He was conferred the status Rabbi Emeritus when he moved to Chestnut Hill, MA, serving as the senior rabbi at Congregation Mishkan Tefila until the congregation moved to Brookline. With rabbinic ordination and an MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary, he has a BA and M Phil from Columbia University, and an MA in Religious Studies from Brown University. In 2018, he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in Interfaith Studies at the Andover Newton Theological School.
Rabbi Gordon has taught comparative religion and Humanities at Columbia University, Kenyon College, and the Ohio State University; and he has taught rabbinic literature, history, philosophy, and liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. He is a popular teacher at Hebrew College’s MEAH program. Among his publications, he was an editor of Mahzor Lev Shalem.
Rabbi Gordon serves on the boards of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the International Jewish Committee for Interfaith Consultations (IJCIC), and the National Council of Synagogues (NCS). At the JCPA, he co-chairs the newly created taskforce on Jewish-Muslim relations. He has traveled to Israel with delegations of Christian and Muslim leaders, under the auspices of Interfaith Partners for Peace (an organization he co-chairs), a project of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Israel Action Network.
Rabbi Gordon is passionate about building communities of meaning and connecting people to one another, to the synagogue, and to Israel. When he was on the faculty at Kenyon College, he built the small Jewish community there and was the founding director of the Havurah of Greater Columbus.
His partner, Dr. Lori Lefkovitz, holds the Ruderman Chair in Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, where she is a Professor of English and directs the Humanities Center and Jewish Studies Program. They have two adult daughters. Ronya works for the Jewish Museum in New York and will be married to Mickey Roth this January. Samara recently moved to Boston, where she works for Hyperplane, a venture capital firm.
Rabbi Gordon looks forward to getting to know the B’nai Tikvah family and encourages each of you to please be in touch to make a time to meet at the synagogue, in your home, or at a local coffee shop.
Click here to read Rabbi Gordon’s Rosh Hashanah sermon.
Cantor Joshua Grossman
Joshua Grossman has served the South Area Jewish Community as a cantor and teacher for over 25 years. Joshua's training began at an early age, learning from his grandfather Cantor Harold Lew and father Rabbi David Grossman. He shares information and ideas regularly with his brother Cantor Seth Grossman, furthering his cantorial styles and techniques. A strong Jewish foundation was formed through the 9 years Joshua spent at Solomon Schechter Day School. This preparation supported the necessary skills to have four separate and meaningful bar mitzvah services when Joshua reached the age of 13.
Joshua’s cantorial journey began in Quincy, MA, where he shared a bimah with the learned Rabbi David Jacobs z”l for almost 10 years. It was there that an interest in Jewish learning and educating was kindled. Joshua went on to serve as the cantor for Temple Shaare Tefilah in Norwood, MA for the next ten years.
Since coming to B’nai Tikvah, Joshua has served in several roles including cantor (part-time), Torah reader, Religious School teacher and B’nai Mitzvah tutor.
When Cantor Josh is not teaching, learning or leading us in prayer, he spends quality time with his wife, Roxanne and their two daughters.
Joshua supports an inclusive service and community as a whole and he plans to bring that forward into future studies, and all forms of spiritual leadership in years to come.
Joshua Grossman has served the South Area Jewish Community as a cantor and teacher for over 25 years. Joshua's training began at an early age, learning from his grandfather Cantor Harold Lew and father Rabbi David Grossman. He shares information and ideas regularly with his brother Cantor Seth Grossman, furthering his cantorial styles and techniques. A strong Jewish foundation was formed through the 9 years Joshua spent at Solomon Schechter Day School. This preparation supported the necessary skills to have four separate and meaningful bar mitzvah services when Joshua reached the age of 13.
Joshua’s cantorial journey began in Quincy, MA, where he shared a bimah with the learned Rabbi David Jacobs z”l for almost 10 years. It was there that an interest in Jewish learning and educating was kindled. Joshua went on to serve as the cantor for Temple Shaare Tefilah in Norwood, MA for the next ten years.
Since coming to B’nai Tikvah, Joshua has served in several roles including cantor (part-time), Torah reader, Religious School teacher and B’nai Mitzvah tutor.
When Cantor Josh is not teaching, learning or leading us in prayer, he spends quality time with his wife, Roxanne and their two daughters.
Joshua supports an inclusive service and community as a whole and he plans to bring that forward into future studies, and all forms of spiritual leadership in years to come.
Rabbi Loel Weiss, Rabbi Emeritus
