WELCOME TO OUR RABBI                  

     RABBI AVRAHAM "AVI" KAPNEK

Rabbi Avraham Kapnek served as the spiritual leader of Beth Ahm Israel in Cooper City, Florida from 1984 until it closed its doors in 2015. He continues to lead Kol Chaverim as its spiritual leader and guide.

Rabbi Kapnek was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Penn State University with a major in Religious Studies and minors in Philosophy and Languages. He spent six months studying in Israel during his junior year of college, and, again in his first year of graduate school. In Israel he studied Hebrew at Ulpan Akiva, in Netanya as well as at the Hebrew University, and, at Chaim Greenberg Institute. He received his M.A. in Education from Dropsie University in 1972, and then earned his title of Rabbi from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1975. He was awarded his Doctor of Divinity, honors causa, from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2005.

Rabbi Kapnek has taught numerous courses throughout the years while teaching on every level, from religious school classes, adult education, to the University of Delaware. Topics have ranged from philosophy to theology, from Hebrew to History.

WELCOME TO OUR CANTOR

 Hazzan Eric Lindenbaum

Eric Lindenbaum was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He was a graduate of Southwest Miami Senior High and Studied Music and Performance at Miami Dade Community College.

He then left for New York City to study Cantorial Music at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion School of Sacred Music for four years. He took a year off during the middle of those studies to go to study Jewish music, history and Sociology in Jerusalem.

He returned to complete his four years at HUC-JIR and also began teaching afternoon Religious school classes, in area Synagogues, in Long Island, Westchester County and Northern New Jersey.

He taught classes in Jewish history (ancient and modern) , Jewish thought , Holocaust, and began to get involved in Jewish Youth through the New York Regions of NFTY (the Reform Movement) and USY (The Conservative Movement).

In 1981 he began his studies in Hazzanut at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. While there he also expanded his course work into the ares of Jewish Education, Youth, and Pastoral Counseling (in particular working with terminally ill patients and their families, using the guitar as tool to initiate conversations, as well as bereavement counseling).

His practical work in this area was done at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx and The Sloan-Kettering Institute in Manhattan.

He also began his Song-Leading career with NFTY (the Reform movement youth organization) working conventions throughout the Tri-State area. Hazzan began song-leading for the NaNegev Region of USY as well as METNY Region (Metropolitan New York) USY working his way up to song-leading and educating on the International Level. His career with USY spanned some 20 years song-leading and teaching at LTIs (Leadership Training Institute) at Camps Barney Medintz, Blue Star, Ramah Darom and several International Conventions.

Hazzan had several student Pulpits in the Tri-State area where he had the opportunity to hone his Bar-Bat Mitzvah Training, teaching, and Youth work skills and then graduated in 1984 from JTS.

His first Pulpit was in Orlando, Florida for two years. He moved to the Kansas City, Missouri area for one year before coming to Beth Ahm Congregation in 1987 soon to become Beth Ahm Israel in Cooper City. There he met his future wife, Marla, a teacher in the BAI Religious school and they were married in June of 1999 and were blessed with the birth of twins Joseph Ezra and Adina Yael in January of 2002.

“I came to try and help build not only a synagogue, but a Jewish community. Working with Rabbi Avraham Kapnek for nearly 30 years has been an honor and a privilege. The best is yet to come...”