Meet Our Spiritual Leader…
Cantor Barry Butensky
Cantor Barry’s spiritual outlook is driven by a commitment to
celebrating the strengths and stories of all the people in the
community; bringing people together through prayer, ritual, art,
music, food, and shared learning; and forging deep and
meaningful relationships across lines of race, class, religion,
and geography.
Cantor Barry has previously served Congregations in New Jersey,
New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. His goal is to encourage spiritual
conversation, through learning together, inspiring, connecting more
people to the community, doing good through Tikkun Olam, and building
a spiritual caring community at Temple Beth Shalom.
Cantor Barry is the scion of a family of Cantors which include
his great-grandfather, and his three uncles, Cantor Henry
Butensky, Cantor Harry Butensky and Cantor Kenneth Butensky
all blessed memory. It is particularly appropriate and resonant
that Cantor Barry has followed in this long and important family
tradition.
With over thirty years of Cantorial musical experience,
and whether Reform, Conservative, or Modern Orthodox,
Cantor Barry continues to share his love for music both in the
Jewish and secular world. His passion for leading prayer is marked
by his own special kavanah (feeling and intention) and
love for our liturgical music and for our faith and people. In
addition to Cantor Barry’s wonderful voice and expression, he is
also quite well-versed in reading Torah. He has presided over
many life-cycle events and has been a pillar in the communities
he has served.
Cantor Barry is the proud father of three children, Michael, age
35, now a Vice President of Profit Improvement in Retail
Advisory, Daniel, age 30, now a Fund advisor with JP Morgan
Chase, and Sarah age 23 a current graduate from Lehigh
University; and two beautiful grandchildren.
Of course, none of this is possible without his beautiful wife Ilisa
Eskenazi at his side, and their precious Golden Doodle, “Kugel”,
As the Cantor always says, “you don’t have to be Jewish to love
Kugel!”
While Cantor and Ilisa’s ties are in the New York area, they
always felt that one day they would establish themselves in
Southwest Florida. Ilisa currently works as a Registered Nurse
for Millenium Health, and we are thrilled as a community to
have them both as part of our TBS Family.