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Rabbi Geoffrey Huntting

            Rabbi Geoffrey Huntting is a native of the State of Connecticut where he was born in 1946, growing up in West Hartford and Greenwich.

            Rabbi Huntting attended Johns Hopkins University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts in 1969.  After serving in Viet Nam, Rabbi Huntting moved to California, where he attended Loyola Law School, receiving a Juris Doctor degree in 1978.  He practiced law first in the law firm of Harrington, Foxx, Dubrow and Canter, and then in the State Attorney General’s Office, first as a civil trial lawyer, and then in the area of criminal appeals.

            Rabbi Huntting was ordained by the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in June, 1991, after five years of study on the Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati campuses.  He accepted a position at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills as Assistant Rabbi in July 1991, and moved to Sarasota to assume the position of Rabbi at Temple Sinai on December 1, 1993.  Rabbi Huntting has served as a director of the American Jewish Committee in Sarasota, and as a member of the Regional Board of Directors of the American Jewish Committee on Law and Social Action.  He is on the advisory board of ALSO for Gay youth, Incorporated.

            Rabbi Huntting’s wife, Susan is a Jewish Educator with Master Degrees in Jewish Education and communal Service.  They have two children, Gabriel, 19 and Rebecca, 18

Wendy Good, Administrator

            Wendy R. Good was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan.  When she was 13 she spent the summer in Israel; she also spent her junior year in high school in Israel.  Wendy received a B.A. from the University of Michigan.  She and her husband, Roy moved to Sarasota, Florida in 1994.

Sue Huntting, Interim Religious School Director

Sue Huntting is our Interim Religious School Director for the 2008-09 school year.  Huntting has worked in the field of Jewish Education for over 25 years.  She began her career in youth work and Jewish camping for the Pennsylvania Council of the Union of Reform Judaism (then the UAHC).  She moved into synagogue work when she became Program Director at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA.  After she and Rabbi Geoff Huntting were married and had young children, she worked as a synagogue consultant in the Los Angeles area.  

Since moving to Sarasota fifteen years ago, Sue has taught in Temple Sinai’s Religious School and has been involved at URJ Camp Coleman as co-chair of the Judaic Advisory Committee and faculty coordinator. For the past five years, she has taught in the local Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.  She is on the staff of the nationally-recognized project, the Experiment in Congregational Education, which guides synagogue leadership through a process of articulating an institutional educational vision.  She also is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Jewish Education.  

Sue holds a Masters in Arts in both Jewish Education and Jewish Communal Service from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion which also awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2005 for her professional accomplishments.  

She can be reached by calling 922-9322 or by email at ReligiousSchool@templesinai-sarasota.org.

Bethany S. Leinweber, M.S. Ed.
Director of Early Childhood Education

            Bethany Leinweber, M.S. Ed., is the newest member of our staff.  She joins us having most recently been a Mommy and Me facilitator at the Mailman Siegel Institute/Nova Parenting Place in Davie, Florida. Bethany received a B. S. in Education and a B. A. in Judaic Studies from the University of Miami and spent her junior year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  She remained at UM to earn a M. S. in Education, specializing in reading and learning disabilities.  She has taught special education at Kesher L. D., Inc. in North Miami Beach and at Seminole Middle School in Plantation.  For three years she was the Family Education Program Coordinator at Shir Ami Religious School at Temple Judea in Coral Springs.

            Bethany is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, although she first moved to Sarasota with her family while she was still in high school.  She has now returned to Sarasota with her husband, Josh, and their two young sons, Noah and Sage.

Andrea Eiffert, Informal Youth Education Coordinator

Andrea was born and raised in Rochester , NY .   She grew up attending an Orthodox synagogue, spent ten summers at the area JCC overnight camp, Camp Seneca Lake , and was actively involved with NCSY and BBYO throughout her youth.  After receiving a BA in Psychology from SUNY Cortland, she married her husband, Eric and had two children Haley and Alex.  Aside from being a devoted wife and mother, her professional career has led her from providing case management for people with Developmental Disabilities, to running a small tie-dye business, to owning and operating two franchises of Auntie Anne’s pretzels and finally landing home at Temple Sinai as the Informal Youth Education Coordinator.  The common theme on this career path is her love of working with people.  As IYEC of Temple Sinai, Andrea gets to work with the young people and is striving to develop a strong youth community here at temple!