RABBI LEONARD GORDON came to Congregation Mishkan Tefila in 2010 after 16 years as rabbi at the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia, where he is rabbi emeritus. He is an experienced teacher and community builder who has held academic positions in Religious Studies and Humanities at Kenyon College and the Ohio State University. He has also taught rabbinical students at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. This coming year, he will be teaching at Hebrew College.

Recently, Rabbi Gordon completed twelve years of service on the committee that produced the new Conservative movement High Holiday Mahzor, Lev Shalem, that has been adopted at CMT. Rabbi Gordon co-chairs the Public Policy and Social Action Committee of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. In that role, he participates in national and international interfaith dialogue and Israel advocacy. Previously, he chaired the Rabbinical Assembly Social Action Committee.

Rabbi Gordon graduated Columbia College in 1976, studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1985 and had Masters degrees in Religious Studies from Brown and Columbia Universities. His wife, Dr. Lori Lefkovitz, is the Ruderman Professor of Jewish Studies at Northeastern University. They have two daughters, Ronya, a museum educator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Samara, an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania.