Thursday, October 1, 2026
Last year, Temple Emanu-El of Long Beach and the South Shore Jewish Center, in Island Park, merged, as the SSJC celebrated its 80th anniversary. This year, Temple Emanu-El is marking two more milestones, as its religious leaders, Rabbi Jack Zanerhaft and Cantor Lisa Klinger-Kantor celebrated their 10th and 15th anniversaries, respectively.
Zanerhaft’s story in Long Beach began in March 2015. Having been ordained at a nondenominational seminary 10 years earlier and having led a congregation in Bentonville, Ark., Zanerhaft was asked to lead services at Temple Israel of Long Beach while visiting his sister, Fran Steinberg, in Island Park. Temple Israel had no rabbi at the time.
Amid talks of a potential merger between Temple Israel and Temple Emanu-El, Zanerhaft was asked to be the merged congregation’s rabbi.
“I had a mentor, a rabbi, who said, ‘Coincidence is God tapping you on the shoulder. It’s up to you if you want to turn around,’” Zanerhaft said. “I thought this was a moment of possibly coming back to my home state, my roots, and my extended family — so I agreed.”
Shortly after, the merger dissolved.
A few weeks later, Zanerhaft said, he got a call from Temple Emanu-El with an offer to become the temple’s full-time rabbi. He auditioned during the High Holy Days in 2016, and was hired in January 2017.
Klinger-Kantor has been a cantor for nearly three decades. The Brooklyn native served as cantor at Temple Shaarei Shalom, in Bellmore, from 1998 to 2011. That synagogue has since merged with Temple Beth Am of Merrick and Bellmore. Klinger-Kantor was approached by Temple Emanu-El in 2012.
“Rabbi [Jack] and I get along very well on the bimah,” she said, referring to the raised platform, or podium, in a synagogue where services are led. “I love my bar and bat mitzvah kids and my adult education classes.”
Klinger-Kantor said she maintains relationships with many of her former students. She often receives messages from those now in college, inquiring about material they covered. She also directs a congregational choir, which meets during the High Holy Days. This year it will have 16 guest members from Long Beach, many of whom, she said, occasionally return to Temple Emanu-El to stay connected to their Jewish roots.
“Some [are] doctors and lawyers,” she said. “Whenever they’re in town, they’ll want to be a part of the temple. I think that’s a beautiful thing.”
Neil Vogel, who has chaired Temple Emanu-El’s search committee for the past two years, was its president in 2012, after Hurricane Sandy. Vogel sat on the committee that hired both Zanerhaft and Klinger-Kantor, and said its members wanted to put the temple on a path to recovery.
In 2024, Zanerhaft started a current-events class, Rappin’ with the Rabbi, in which congregants meet twice a month to talk about news, Jewish or not, around the world. Klinger-Kantor started her liturgy classes for temple members in 2025, and has directed concerts over the years. Vogel said the trio also worked with others to build up the temple’s state-certified nursery school.
“We have consciously tried to provide things that go above and beyond, viewing the temple as a community center,” Vogel said. “This was where they became critical.”
During the pandemic, Vogel said, he and his wife, Jill, donated video equipment to the temple so services could be livestreamed on Zoom. It gave congregation members confidence, he said, “to know that even in the worst of times, the temple would be there for them.”
Throughout their tenures, Zanerhaft said, he and Klinger-Kantor have worked to make the temple inclusive for all community members, including those who are interfaith and same-sex couples.
“Abraham and Sarah’s tent was big enough for anyone who wanted to come in,” Zanerhaft said. “That’s our North Star.”
Asked to reflect on his time at Temple Emanu-El, Zanerhaft said he hopes to continue to touch congregants in an authentic way with its services and programs.
Klinger-Kantor echoed that sentiment, saying the pair have grown together. “It’s beautiful to reach this milestone together, and to be able to listen to one another and grow,” she said. “We’re always searching so that we can put together services that are innovative for the young people, as well as spiritual for the older people.”
Zanerhaft said that when he gives his weekly sermon, he always connects it to the weekly Torah reading. The lessons from his readings, he said, often elevate his own spirituality, and others’.
“Most of the time, these lessons or messages are very internal,” he said. “I always begin with a personal story, and then I find it amazing that so many people come up to me and say, ‘I know that you were talking about me.’”
