Rabbi Barry A. Kenter

   Rabbi Barry A. Kenter, a GreenFaith Fellow, has been rabbi of the Greenburgh Hebrew Center, Dobbs Ferry, New York since 1984.

   A native Californian, he was graduated from California State University at Northridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Standard Secondary Teaching Credential. He was a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellow at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium where he was awarded both first and second licenses with distinction, the first in Political Science; the second in International Relations and Comparative Political Science. He holds a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature degree from the University of Judaism and Master of Arts degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which ordained him in 1980. In June 2011, he was inducted as one of 25 fellow 2011 class of GreenFaith Fellows. GreenFaith, an interfaith organization, believes that the world's great religions see the sacred in nature and teach respect for the earth. He serves as an adjunct professor at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry. Rabbi Kenter returned to the Seminary several years ago and was awarded a Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree in Medieval Jewish Studies in May, 2014.

   Following ordination, Rabbi Kenter remained at the Seminary as assistant director of Public Information. Before arriving in Dobbs Ferry, he served as assistant rabbi of Adath Israel Congregation, Downsview, Ontario, Canada. He has served as Jewish Chaplain at Mercy College, is a member of the board of Governors of the New York Board of Rabbis, and was Chairman of the Council of Regional Presidents of the Rabbinical Assembly. A past president of the Westchester-Rockland Rabbinical Assembly, he has been honored by the Jewish Theological Seminary with a Rabbinical Service Award and by the Jewish Education Fund with the Jack Sonkin Memorial Award. He has served on the Dobbs Ferry Youth Council and is active in ecumenical projects throughout Westchester. He is a founding board member of the Center for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding, Irvington, N.Y., serves as its current president. For many years he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry. In February 1999 he was asked by the World Council of Synagogues to serve as a weekend rabbi-in-residence for a newly-created Conservative congregation in Nice, France.

   Rabbi Kenter and his wife, Judith Dickstein Kenter, are the proud parents of two sons, one of whom is a rabbi of Congregation B'nai Torah in Atlanta; the other is an attorney at the New York law firm of Weil, Gotshal and Manges. Judi, a past-president of the Hudson Valley Branch of Women's League for Conservative Judaism, most recently served as International Recording Secretary for Women's League for Conservative Judaism, and presently serves on the Board of Directors and as development chair of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. Rabbi and Judi are blessed with two daughters-in-law, a grandson and a granddaughter.

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Judi Kenter

A native of Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of five strongly Jewish-identified siblings, Judi Dickstein moved to Philadelphia at the age of one month.  Starting in Northeast Philly, in an upstairs back apartment with her mother, father, grandmother and great-grandmother, she moved to Levittown, Pennsylvania, where her parents were active in the Jewish community, in synagogue life, and in helping to integrate Levittown. Long active in USY, Judi spent a year with Sherut la’am, as a volunteer at Kibbutz Gadot in the Hula Valley at the foot of the Golan after graduating from college. Judi is the proud wife of Rabbi Barry Kenter, mother of two sons, Eytan and Doron, mother-in-law to Staci and Jennifer, and Bubby to two grandchildren, Boaz and Tess.

Judi holds a BA degree in psychology from Case Western Reserve University and was awarded a M.Ed. degree in Rehabilitation Administration from Northeastern University. For more than a decade she has participated in the Women’s League Institute at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Prior to moving to New York, Judi directed a nutrition program for the elderly in Peabody, Massachusetts.  She held numerous leadership positions both at GHC and in Jewish organizations. At GHC, Judi was a member of the Junior Congregation Committee, was a Junior Congregation Leader, and is currently Sisterhood’s Torah Fund Chair and VP of Education, serves on the Share Shabbat Committee and helps to prepare kiddushim for Shabbat. Previously at GHC, Judi has held other Sisterhood board positions. Currently serving on the WLCJ’s executive committee, Judi is Chair of the Development Committee, and member of both the finance and long term planning committees.

 Among Judi’s many past leadership positions with WLCJ, she served as a Vice-President  of the international organization, was Women’s League recording secretary, chair of Women’s League Kolot BiK’dushah (a cadre of women qualified to lead services and read Torah), and a member of several other committees. She has represented Women’s League on the Conservative movement’s joint lay steering committee. Judi was an active volunteer at the Solomon Schechter Day School and chaired the Westchester Hebrew High School board of education.  She is a past president of the Hudson Valley Branch of the WLCJ. 

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