Rabbi Jen Gubitz is deeply honored to join the Temple Israel clergy team and is most excited to connect to young professionals as Director of the Riverway Project. Ordained at HUC-JIR in New York in May 2012, Rabbi Gubitz was a Bonnie and Daniel Tisch Rabbinic Fellow and served congregations in Mahwah, NJ, Steubenville, OH, Palo Alto, CA, and Congregation Beth Elohim’s Brooklyn Jews community for young professionals. She trained in chaplaincy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center which led to her rabbinic thesis entitled “Helping Jewish Children Live with Death.”

Rabbi Gubitz joins the Temple Israel clergy after four years at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, MA, where she served as Associate Rabbi and Director of Congregational Learning. Her work focused on developing innovative educational engagement that infused the spirit of camp with joyful and inquiry based prayer, Mussar learning and relationship building. Jewish music and summer camp shaped Rabbi Gubitz’s path to rabbinic life and she is a product of the URJ Goldman Union Camp (GUCI) in Zionsville, Indiana, where she served as Head Songleader, Program Director, and even Pool Director; she also served as Head Songleader at URJ Kutz Camp, and for NFTY regional and North American events.

Rabbi Gubitz is a graduate of Indiana University with degrees in Jewish Studies and English. After college, she served as a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and as the Hochberg Israel Education Fellow at Hillel’s Schusterman International Center. Born in Knoxville, TN, and raised in Fort Wayne, IN, Rabbi Gubitz is a proud Indiana Hoosier Basketball fan and loves creative writing, folk music, improv comedy, poetry and puns, and visiting her family who now reside in New Orleans.