Rabbi Allan Kensky

Born and raised in New York City, Allan Kensky received his early Jewish education at the Hebrew Institute of Long Island in Far Rockaway, New York. He earned a BA in political science from Queens College. In 1967, he entered the JTS Rabbinical School where he specialized in the study of rabbinic texts at the JTS Herbert Lehman Institute of Talmudic Ethics. While at JTS, he also studied political science at New York University, which awarded him a master’s degree in 1971.
 
Upon his ordination in 1971, Rabbi Kensky assumed the pulpit of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Michigan. While serving as spiritual leader of Beth Israel for seventeen years, Rabbi Kensky pursued doctoral studies in midrash at JTS; he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1990. His doctoral dissertation was a critical edition of the Midrash Tanhuma on the Book of Exodus.

In 1988, Rabbi Kensky moved to Philadelphia, and for three years served as scholar-in-residence at Har Zion Temple. About the same time, he began leading a seminar for JTS Rabbinical School students designed to impart strong professional skills to aid them in their spiritual development. He was associate dean of the Rabbinical School from 1991 to 1999 before serving as Dean from 1999 to 2002.

Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah is honored to have Rabbi Kensky as our spiritual leader since August 2002.

Rabbi Kensky is the father of Meira and Eitan who is married to Jennifer Broxmeyer. His late wife, Dr. Tikva Frymer-Kensky, was Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago until her passing in August 2006. In July 2008, Rabbi Kensky married Dr. Adina Kleiman, a psychologist in private practice, and who has been welcomed warmly into the BHCBE family.

Rabbi Kensky can be contacted at 847-256-1213 x12 or via email.