New Religious School Director Announced

It is our pleasure to announce that Rabbi Cantor Emily Ellentuck will be joining our professional team at Beth El Congregation as the new Director of the Berman-Lipavsky Religious School.

Emily Ellentuck has over 20 years of experience in Jewish education, including both synagogue religious schools and Jewish day schools. She appreciates the importance of immersive Jewish experiences for our youth, having also worked at Jewish day camp and sleep away camp, and has chaperoned youth trips to Israel.

Emily is completing her 18th year at the Tucson Hebrew Academy where she has taught Jewish studies, Hebrew, tefillah, and secular subjects to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. She also organized model seders, wrote and produced Hanukkah shows, and developed many other Shabbat and holiday programs for classes and families, as the school’s Director of Programming and Community Life. Emily has served as Cantor, previously cantorial soloist, of Congregation M’Kor Hayim in Tucson, Arizona, for 15 years.

Emily believes that our job as Jewish educators is to nurture love of Judaism through meaningful Jewish experiences.

Emily earned her certification as a Cantor through the Cantors Assembly internship program in 2021 (commissioning coming in May 2024) and was ordained as a Rabbi in 2022 through the Mesifta Adath Wolkowisk Rabbinical Academy. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona, with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and minor in Judaic Studies.

Emily has familial roots in Maryland. Growing up, she spent seders and summers visiting her grandparents in Potomac, Maryland where her mother was raised.

Emily loves to cook and is very excited for Pikesville’s kosher restaurant scene. She and her husband Max have 3 children- Hannah, Benny, and Naomi, and a poodle named Coco.

Rabbi Cantor Ellentuck will begin her tenure in Baltimore on July 1, 2024. We are excited about the opportunity for her to work with our current Interim Religious School Director, Barry Smith and Assistant Director, Andy Shankman, during her transition. There will be additional opportunities announced in the coming months to meet Rabbi Cantor Ellentuck.