Rabbi Sammy Kanter grew up in Cincinnati and has left and returned three times throughout his adult life. This time, he returned to the Queen City after his rabbinic fellowship at the New York Synagogue B’nai Jeshurun to be the next director of Jewish life at the Mayerson JCC.
“I was excited to come back [to Cincinnati] because the communal pieces here are strong, and I’ve always seen Cincinnati as a place with a strong and connected Jewish community,” he said. His new position at the J “combines many passions and what I’ve experienced.”
Kanter credits the Cincinnati community for giving him a strong Jewish identity. He describes himself as a product of community offerings like March of the Living.
“I went on March the Living when I was 18…After the trip, it was the first time I wore a yarmulke for a few months, which I now do all the time, but the trip inspired me to try it out,” he said. “I remember thinking explicitly that I needed to do something with Hillel on the trip.”
“There was something about that trip that made me want to kind of dive into my Jewishness.”
It was that strong identity that Kanter relied on when he left Cincinnati for the first time for college. He attended Syracuse University in New York, where he immediately became involved with Hillel.
After college, Kanter had what he described as a mini career in theater, working at the Know Theater in Over the Rhine before moving to New York to work at the New York Fringe Festival. In between theater jobs, he was presented with a last-minute opportunity. A birthright trip needed an American staff member who could commit to going with only two weeks’ notice.
“I was like, I don’t have anything to do right now, I’ll do it,” he said. The tour guide was spiritual; he was into secular spirituality. “I was moved by the truth of spirituality, and building a community of young adults seemingly uninterested in Jewish life.”
The encounter with a secular spirituality made Kanter interested in working in the Jewish community, and that led him back to Cincinnati in 2014, where he accepted a position with the Jewish Federation.
“It was a moment when everyone was furiously trying to figure out how to get young people, particularly millennials, involved in Judaism,” he said.
“Part of what I did was go out into the community and find Jews. I’d meet all these Jewish people who had moved to Cincinnati without even knowing there was a Jewish community here. They’d often express surprise that there were Jews in the area. I aimed to help connect them to the community and build those relationships.”
While Kanter was working in Cincinnati, a non-Jewish friend from New York sent him a job posting from the Manhattan JCC doing similar work to what he was doing in Cincinnati. Kanter leaped for the opportunity and found himself living and working in New York, engaging over 1000 adults in a given year.
Still, rabbinical school was not something on Kanter’s radar. He wasn’t attending synagogue regularly until he met his now-husband Zvi, who grew up modern Orthodox.
“I became very into spiritual Jewish spaces differently than I had experienced here [in Cincinnati],” he said. “I went to these synagogues, like B’nai Jeshurun and Romemu. I’d never seen Jewish prayer like that.”
As Kanter was exposed to a more spiritual Jewish life, he wanted to give back more to the communities he was helping build.
“I loved leading these programs, but I felt like when I would get up in front of everyone at a big Shabbat dinner, I had nothing to offer,” he said. “I’d say (the blessing over the wine), have a good night. I want to say something to these people, something inspiring.”
In November 2016, he began considering rabbinical school at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, with the program set to start the following June.
“I told myself, I’m going to start working on this and see what happens,” Kanter said.
“I just started typing an essay, and then I kept going. Everything started happening from there,” he said.“At that time, the first year was free. So I was like, I could go to Israel for a year. And if I hate it, then [at least] I got a year in Israel.”
After spending his first year of Rabbinical school in Israel, Kanter transferred to the Los Angeles campus of HUC-JIR. In LA, Kanter was the Rabbinic Intern at Ikar, a non-affiliated synagogue led by Rabbi Sharon Brous. Then Kanter headed back to New York for a fellowship at B’nai Jeshurun.
As the fellowship was beginning to end, Kanter left himself open for new opportunities and felt the familiar pull of his hometown. Then, an opportunity to work at the Mayerson JCC as the Director of Jewish life came about.
“I think there’s a real desire to infuse Judaism into [J programs] in a different way, whether it be with the seniors or the early childhood school,” he said.
Kanter is excited to get started but has only been in the position for a few weeks and is looking forward to learning more as he goes.
“I’m in the research and listening phase,” he said. “There is going to be space for me to create, whether it’s new programs, classes, or micro-communities.”
After experiencing the lively Jewish communities in LA at Ikar and in New York at B’nai Jeshurun, Kanter hopes to instill some of the things he’s learned into the Cincinnati community.
“I’m passionate about spirituality, how it exists today, and how we can tap into more modern expressions of spirituality and tie them in with Judaism,” Kanter said.
Kanter lives in Amberly Village with his husband; the two are expecting their first child in February.