Cantor Jenna Mark
Cantor Jenna (she/her) was 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 is a member of the HIAS Clergy Council, which helps to bring a moral and public voice to the millions of forcibly displaced people around the world. She is also a member of the 2023-2024 LEAP fellowship, a rabbinic fellowship through University of Pennsylvania's Katz Center, which explored how Jewish music has helped shape Jewish life. She is also a member of Kol Khazzanim, the Westchester Community of Cantors, as well as the American Conference of Cantors.
Jenna lives in Stamford with her husband, Rabbi Zach Plesent.