About Rabbi Rob

Rabbi Dr. Robert B. Lennick became Keneseth Israel's spiritual leader on July 1st, 2006. Rabbi Lennick, or Rabbi Rob as he likes to be called, received his Bachelor's Degree from Clark University in 1978 and then a Master of Arts Degree in Hebrew Letters in 1980 and Rabbinic Ordination in 1984, both from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati. In 2001, he received both a Certificate in Pastoral Counseling from the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from HUC-JIR in New York. Rabbi Rob arrived at K.I. with 22 years of experience as a pulpit rabbi. He is happily married to Heidi and they have an 11-year old daughter named Sarah.

Rabbi Lennick has lots of charisma. He can adjust and engage in sincere conversation with individuals of any age. He is warm and shows concern for what people say. He has been identified as a "people person" with great humor and humility. He has unique teaching abilities & connects with people to develop a rapport easily. Rabbi Rob feels strongly that supporting the religious school director and teachers is vital to the success of any congregation and believes it is very important to make 3 - 5 year olds "happy Jews." Some of Rabbi Rob's other strengths include outreach, youth, counseling, pastoral care and personalizing life cycle events. Rabbi Lennick's preference is to keep services less than an hour and a quarter. He reads Torah proficiently and his sermons are varied in content embracing spiritual, social, and political issues and relevant to all generations. Rabbi Rob does perform intermarriages under certain conditions but will not co-officiate with a member of the clergy from another faith.

Following his ordination in 1984, Rabbi Lennick became an assistant rabbi at the prestigious Congregation Emanuel in Denver from 1984 to 1987. Rabbi Lennick left Denver to assume his own pulpit at Greenwich Reform Synagogue in Connecticut. During his tenure there the congregation went from 40 members who met in the basement of an Episcopal church to over 450 members in their own 40,000 sq. ft. permanent home.

In 2000, Rabbi Rob left his pulpit to accept the position of President and CEO of Religion in American Life (RIAL), the oldest interfaith umbrella organization with the purpose of promoting religious tolerance and involvement among all Americans. He was the first Jewish leader of that organization in its 50 years of existence. However, after the 9/11 disaster, the focus of the organization changed to fundraising, and although Rabbi Rob was very successful at it, in 2003 he decided to leave RIAL and assume the pulpit at Temple Beth Am in Jupiter, Florida. At Beth Am, Rabbi Rob oversaw the congregation's transition from a temporary structure and makeshift sanctuary to its first formal sanctuary and new 35,000 sq. ft. facility.

Melody Davis, Rabbinic Intern

Melody received her Bachelor’s Degree - Summa cum laude - from Fordham University in 1983 and a Master of Arts Degree in History from New York University in 1986.  She was awarded a  Master of Arts in Judaic Studies from Gratz College and was honored to be the Salutatorian of her class.  She has been awarded numerous academic awards including graduate prizes in Liturgy, Hebrew, Continuing Education, the Rema Feinberg Award for Excellence in Jewish Studies and an Honorable Mention for her entry in the Creative Liturgy Award sponsored by the Association of Rabbis and Cantors.

She conducted Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur Services for Lehigh University’s Hillel in 2007. These services were highlighted by congregational participation, inter-linear  Torah and Haftarah chanting, melodies important to the congregation and traditional holiday nusach.  She has had the privilege of leading services for Temple Israel of Lehighton and has served as a Cruise Rabbi for Holland America.

Melody has taught traditional and contemporary holiday music in Hebrew, English and Yiddish to grades Pre-K through 6.  She has also instructed children from 4th through 6th grade in a three day a week in after-school Talmud Torah program.  She established the Temple Beth El Youth Choir and  wrote, produced and directed Purim plays with casts of 40 and more youngsters. She has also enjoyed teaching Hebrew High School and adult education classes

Presently, Melody is a fourth year Rabbinical student at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, New York.  She has a deep and abiding love for Judaism and helping people find a comfortable and joyful way to come closer to God.  Melody believes that each individual has a different way to approach God.  Some of the modalities that she hopes to share are bibliodrama, inter-linear Torah chanting, music and meditation. 

She has completed the Davennen Leadership Training Institute with Rabbi Marcia Prager and is currently enrolled in the Jewish Arts Institute led by Danny Maseng.

Home for Melody is in an old stone farmhouse nestled by the Little Lehigh in Emmaus.  She lives there with her husband Edwin - who refers to himself as her “Hubbitzen” -  and their three children: Spencer, Jonathon and Annelise. 

What Does it Mean to be a Rabbi?

Keneseth Israel's new spiritual leader articulates his mission

Printed in the Allentown Morning Call, November 4, 2006

By Rabbi Robert B. Lennick

The rabbinate is about people: enabling people to love God, Torah and Israel and to do so with compassion, patience and encouragement.

Over my 20-plus years of service to the Jewish people, I have come to respect the greatness of our intellectual, spiritual and emotional history and tradition. As Jews we have given of our hearts, souls and minds to the world. We are a transforming and giving people. Our survival is miraculous and marvelous.

The world has crafted us to lead through the giving of our many gifts to civilization and we have crafted the world as well with our examples of fortitude and faith. God has crafted us to be a ''Light to the Nations,'' and in this we are partners with God in Tikkun Olam, making the world better than when we entered it.

These are noble ideas, and yet, when it comes right down to the essence, we come back to the fact that, above all, Judaism and synagogue life are about people living in this world every day.

We are all works in progress. God created us as ''very good.'' At the end of the creation story God does not say all is perfect. If ''very good'' is good enough for God, it is a lesson for us as well — strive for goodness.

Thus every moment in the life of the Jew and the synagogue is about teaching goodness and nurturing our children, ourselves and one another to be mensches. Life in a community is about recognizing the humanity and divinity in every person.

Every person is a mensch in training. Every person is born with gifts and Jewish life should encourage the expression of all of the diverse gifts with which we have been blessed. For me as a rabbi, the synagogue becomes the sacred community as we work in partnership in enhancing our ''work in progress as partners with God.''

We all know that blessings and lifelong lessons come in all forms. This reminds me of one of the most poignant experiences of my rabbinate:

There was a 14-year-old boy named Sam. He was autistic though his family hoped he could become a bar mitzvah. Sam could neither read nor write, was a savant at the piano, an aficionado of the Three Stooges. He could speak with hand puppets.

Our weekly meetings over two years included watching his Three Stooges videos, making hand puppets, sitting at the piano and visiting the ''big room'' (sanctuary). We became friends across great boundaries. His mom sat at our meetings with a sense of awe as she watched her child welcomed and accepted by Jewish life. Our future depends on these: Welcome and acceptance.

We began to learn the Shema with the puppets, the only thing planned for him to achieve for his bar mitzvah. After great effort Sam could say the Shema without the use of his puppet.

The great Saturday afternoon service arrived with family and friends present. With close family assembled on the bima all around him I asked him to speak the holy words. Sam was silent. Placing an arm on his shoulder, he remained, still silent. Patiently, I whispered to him, ''Sam now it is your time to say the Shema.'' Silence.

The congregation became stirring and anxious. A relative standing on the bima cried out, ''He can't do it!'' which, brought a shudder to all. I, then, asked the congregation to wait just a moment. I went to my study and got my sock puppet, which Sam and I had made together and took it back to the bima. The minute felt like the ages. Once upon the bima I lifted my hand with the puppet to Sam and said through the puppet, ''Sam now is your time to become a bar mitzvah. Won't you say the Shema to celebrate this with us?''

Sam first giggled and then he said, ''Yes, Rabbi. I can hear you now,'' as he smiled at the puppet, ''Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.'' The sanctuary broke into applause.

Sam taught us all a lesson that day. There is nothing more saddening than losing faith in another person. Sam's family and friends and we at the temple never lost faith in Sam.

Yes, there was one anxious voice on the bima that night. But Sam just needed to be reached in the right way and with patience. We all want to be reached; by the people we love, by God.

And we can be reached if we will reach out to each other and to God. We can be reached if we create synagogue communities based on a love of learning, patience and respect for all human beings.

I have been blessed to be a part of such spiritually and Jewishly alive communities and experienced the special partnership with others in creating a vibrant Jewish life, which will carry us meaningfully into an exciting future.

As we know, Judaism is a life-affirming religion, one that teaches the acceptance of all people, respect for others, love of others and the power of hope above all. Hope is Judaism's greatest message. Sam's story teaches all of these values. From him I learned the vision of Jewish life I shall always hold at the center of my neshama, my soul.

I have always felt it a privilege to be a rabbi, to share in the most important moments of people's lives, to lead by example the love and respect for all people and our remarkable tradition, to teach to care and to comfort.

I hope to find the congregation in which there will be a covenantal experience between rabbi and congregation, where there will be mutual growth and learning and a common striving to improve the world.