Rabbi Geoffrey Huntting

Rabbi Huntting

The Torah has guided the lives of Jews for millennia. It is a living document, one that grows as the principles of each new generation are applied. In a certain sense, each of us also has a second Torah, one we write ourselves and teach to our children by the choices we make. The synagogue is the mercaz ruchani, the spiritual center that provides the context in which those choices are made, and those choices will determine our future as a people.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Rabbi Geoffrey Huntting received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University in 1969. After serving in Vietnam, Rabbi Huntting moved to California, where he received a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School in 1978. Rabbi Huntting was ordained by the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in June 1991, after five years of study in Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati. He became Rabbi at Temple Sinai on December 1, 1993. Rabbi Huntting has served on the American Jewish Committee in Sarasota and regionally and is on the advisory board of ALSO. Rabbi Huntting and his wife, Susan, have two children, Gabriel and Rebecca, both away at college.

Letter from the Rabbi

Shalom. In our Jewish liturgy we ask God Sh'ma Koleinu, to listen to our voices. If there is any one phrase that captures Temple Sinai's essence, it is that one. At Temple Sinai we attempt to listen to all of the rich variety of Jewish voices -- of men and women, young and old, people of different races, sexual orientation, and national origin, and all of them Jewish.

In the past, unfortunately, some of those voices have not been heard -- the voices of women, the voices of single seniors, of interfaith families and of gay people, just to name a few. I am truly proud to be the rabbi of a congregation that includes many who in the past were left out.

Judaism exists and prospers only through the power of each individual Jew. Ultimately the synagogue belongs to its members and its members alone. The rabbi is a resource and a guide, but it is only through the empowerment of individual lay people that the tradition can grow and be transferred to the next generation. I believe that the potential for the Jewish community has never been greater, but without the requisite commitment from each of us, that potential will remain merely that. At Temple Sinai I have found great potential and the commitment as well.

  Rabbi Huntting's Signature