Cantor Jenna Mark
Cantor Jenna (she/her) is thrilled to begin her cantorate with Woodlands Community Temple. Ordained from the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in May 2022, Jenna also holds a Masters in Sacred Music. As an HUC Year-In-Israel student Jenna served as the intern at Kehilat Har-El in Jerusalem, Israel’s oldest Reform congregation. She then joined Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, New Jersey as their cantorial intern, where she stayed for three years. Her last year of school was spent as the cantorial intern at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Manhattan. Along with internships, Jenna received a Masters Concentration in Israel Education as part of iCenter’s iFellows Israel Education Fellowship Program and was part of the ARZA’s HUC-JIR Clergy Fellowship.
Originally from Houston, Texas, Jenna is an alumna of NFTY-TOR, and the URJ’s Greene Family Camp and Kutz Camp. She earned a BFA in Theatre Performance from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, and spent much of her adolescence performing in shows produced by Houston’s regional theatre company, Theatre Under the Stars. In the years between undergraduate and HUC, Jenna worked as a full-time educator at Central Synagogue in Manhattan where she crafted a Shabbat morning family prayer and learning experience with friend of Woodlands, Cantor Ellen Dreskin.
Jenna lives in Stamford with her husband, Rabbi Zach Plesent. She is looking forward to getting to know everyone at WCT and to learning from and with this incredible community.