Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett has served our Temple Sinai community since 1987. Rabbi Bennett finds passion in teaching, counseling, learning, celebrating, and helping to create a community that continues to thrive. Being here for over three and a half decades, he is now naming children of children he had named! He has established wonderful relationships within the congregation and also within the community at large.
Rabbi Bennett received his masters degree and ordination from Hebrew Union College in New York in 1981. In 2006 he received his Doctor of Divinity degree and in 2013 he received his Doctor of Ministry degree both from Hebrew Union College. Rabbi Bennett attended Rutgers College where he received his Bachelor’s degree. He also studied for a year at the Albert-Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg, Germany.
Rabbi Bennett grew up in Newark/Maplewood, New Jersey. He served a congregation in Putnam Valley, New York as a student rabbi for four years. After ordination he took a position at Temple Beth Zion in Buffalo, NY as the associate Rabbi where he served for six years. Rabbi Bennett’s hope was to find a congregation that was warm, inclusive, open to innovation and creativity. He has expressed many times throughout the years how blessed he feels to have found that here at Temple Sinai.
Rabbi Bennett has many passions in life. He is an avid racquetball player who, as word has it, shows no mercy on the court! He loves to play golf – even in the winter! He plays the guitar and the violin. You can often find him playing the guitar at services and with the children in Religious school. He enjoys speaking different languages. He speaks German and Hebrew, and he studied Russian and Yiddish. He loves to travel with his wife to places far and beyond. And with all that, you’ll often find him at the sewing machine shortening pants. Most of all, he loves people and his Judaism and feels blessed to be able to live out that dream.
Fun Fact: While golfing, he’s had not one, but two, holes in one.
Cantor Sabrina Lipton, originally from Westchester, NY, came to Temple Sinai in 2016 when her daughter Miranda was heading off to college at Ohio State University and she realized it was a perfect time for a relocation. As Cantor, she works closely with the Rabbi and with her love and passion for Jewish music, she is inspired to bring exciting new Jewish music to our worship services. She is also active in our Religious school teaching contemporary Jewish songs to our students and works closely with our B’nai Mitzvah students preparing them for their special day. Cantor Lipton also leads both the adult choir as well as the children’s choir, B’nai Shir “Children of Song.”
Cantor Lipton studied opera and graduated from The Juilliard School pre-college. She holds a BFA in music performance from The State University of Purchase, and has studied at The Tanglewood Young Artist program, the Nice Conservatoire and subsequently studied at The Academy of Jewish Religion in NY. Before coming to Temple Sinai, she served at Greenwich Reform Synagogue in Greenwich CT, Shaaray Tefila in Bedford, NY and Temple Sinai of Bergen County, NJ.
The Cantor is thrilled to have found Temple Sinai. The warmth and genuineness of the congregation and rabbi make it a pleasure to be a part of. She loves calling West Hartford and Temple Sinai her home. In her free time, she likes to explore all the arts. Hearing live music, going to the theater, dancing, painting, and hiking. She also tries to be at the beach and water as much as possible!
Fun Fact: One summer while at summer stock she played Mother Superior in The Sound of Music and crossed herself the wrong way, turning it into a comedy moment. No one thought to teach a Jewish girl how to cross herself!
Lynn Gallnot joined Temple Sinai as the Temple Administrator & Bookkeeper in 2024 after working in the accounting department of a nearby company for over 30 years. We are so lucky the opportunity arose to blend her depth of accounting knowledge and administrative experience right where it was needed in our office. When you call the Temple, she will be the person to pick up and take care of what you need. She can assist with membership accounts, taking RSVPs, accepting donations and payments, and getting you to the right person if needed. She also makes sure we dot our “i’s” and cross our “t’s” in regards to billing member statements, paying our vendors, stewarding our budget, and just about anything needed administratively for members, staff, clergy & the board.
Outside of work, Lynn loves to read or listen to audiobooks, with a preference for fiction but always open to any good book. She also enjoys going to the beach, taking in a Yankee game and exploring walking or hiking trails in her local neighborhood.
Fun Fact: Lynn has dreamed about visiting Norway for over 20 years. Maybe this year will be the year it finally happens?
Jessica Koehler, our Director of Congregational Life, helps members find their connections at Temple Sinai. She is often the first person you will talk to about finding your place within our congregational community. Beyond membership and engagement, she does a little bit of everything: planning programs/events and fundraisers, designing our flyers, newsletters, and e-blasts, helping with facilities, human resources, grants, finances, the Temple calendar, as well as handling a host of day to day behind-the-scenes tasks in our office. We are not sure what hats she doesn’t wear! She is always striving to make our temple a warm, welcoming, and inclusive place for all.
Jessica is a lifelong Connecticut resident and came to Temple Sinai as our Temple Administrator in 2017 after spending about a decade supporting CT service members and families throughout their military life cycle. Before that she worked in magazine publishing after receiving her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Teikyo Post University. After years of working in the for-profit and government sectors, she found a perfect fit in the non-profit Jewish community, which better reflects her interests and values. We are so glad she accepted the Director of Congregational Life position 2023.
When not at Temple Sinai, Jessica enjoys planning fabulous parties, trying out new recipes (and restaurants), getting to the beach as often as she can, and spending time at home with her husband, son, and flock of backyard chickens.
Fun Fact: Jessica read from the Torah for the first time during her son’s bar mitzvah in 2024.
Marc Zimmerman, our Director of Education, oversees learning from our youngest Temple Tots through our S.A.G.E.S. (seniors aging gracefully engaged at Sinai). His primary focus is the religious school, serving students and families from preschool through 7th grade. He works closely with our madrichim (teacher assistants) and our NUTSY youth group to support the transition from student to young adults engaged in lifelong learning. He is also responsible for planning curriculum and calendars, supporting and encouraging our part time teachers, collaborating with committees about tzedakah and social action opportunities, and spending time being a student himself to discover more ways to enrich and expand learning opportunities to members.
Marc graduated from UCONN with a BA in English and Spanish and completed his Masters of Education at the University of Hartford. He has been in the classroom teaching high school and college since 1998.
His time at Temple Sinai has been lengthy for his whole family! In the 1960s, his grandparents moved from Michigan to just down the road and you can find his aunt Miriam in a Confirmation class photo on the wall. His uncle Joel Zimmerman was a past president and his aunt was a teacher. His parents joined Temple Sinai in 1984 (right after his bar mitzvah). In Marc’s senior year of high school, he was part of USY and met with Rabbi Bennett to discuss social engagement. He became even more involved at Temple after helping his son prepare for bar mitzvah in 2012 and that fall started teaching grade 5 Hebrew. In June of 2020, he was appointed as Director of Education.
Marc spends time staying active through yoga, kickboxing, and spinning after a back injury ruled out running any more marathons/ultra marathons. He enjoys reading and learning, especially languages. He’s been working on building his conversational Hebrew to eventually have it as a third language. Something he realized as he was getting older is that challenges can really be an opportunity. When Marc didn’t know what to do when his child came out as transgender, he took the time to educate himself and learn more about how that experience impacts the way his child sees and interacts with the world. It helped him learn to be more open minded and accepting of others, and what he doesn’t know, is a chance to learn.
Fun Fact: Growing up every year his family would have a contest to see who could make the hottest horseradish. They would seal it in a jar and mix it up and shake it around and then try to outdo each other by how much they could eat during the Passover Seder! He only participated once… that was enough for him!
Aurel Mucka has been a part time custodian at Temple Sinai since 2012. Originally from Albania, he came to the US with his wife Rezi in March 2000, and is a proud dad to his two daughters, Armela & Reana. In addition to working at Temple Sinai, he is a full time Custodian Supervisor at Conard High School in West Hartford.
With a friendly and helpful attitude, he can be found doing everything from cleaning, to painting and making repairs to the building and grounds, to setting up tables and chairs for the next oneg or program, and offering a helping hand wherever needed. He is a valued member of our team and a favorite of the congregation.