Read Mike's Monthly Message

Mike Kanarick
Executive Director
Email 802-864-0218, ext.26

Mike joined the Ohavi Zedek Synagogue professional staff in September 2007 as our new Executive Director.  Before coming to OZ, he served for two years as the Executive Director of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Prior to entering the field of Jewish communal services, Mike worked as a lawyer and in politics – serving as executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, press secretary to then-Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney's Office in Montgomery and a law clerk to a federal district court judge, also in Montgomery.  Mike is a 1994 graduate of Fordham University School of Law in New York City and a 1990 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.  

Mike and his wife, Liz Kleinberg, have three-year-old boy and girl twins.  Mike will always remember the special experience he had working as a stay-at-home dad during the first eight months of his children’s lives.  Liz, also a lawyer, works at Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C., practicing in the areas of commercial litigation, employment and higher education law.   

Mike and Liz moved to Burlington to be closer to their families in Vermont and New Jersey, while enjoying all the beauty and the great outdoors that make Vermont so special and such a great place to raise a family.  Mike is especially excited about living close to the Appalachian Trail, which he and Liz thru-hiked (2,172.6 miles) in 2003.  Mike enjoys early-morning jogs around Burlington, playing both outdoor and indoor soccer and being back in ski country after nearly a decade in Alabama. 

Mike grew up in New Jersey in a family with a strong Jewish identity, whose members were heavily involved with their synagogue.  Mike met Liz, also from New Jersey, on a summer program in Israel when the two were teenagers working on a kibbutz. Mike later studied at Tel Aviv University for a semester during college.  Mike credits his parents and grandparents for instilling within him a strong desire to have a positive impact on his Jewish community.  In fact, Mike found his way into Jewish communal services by following the footsteps of his father, who is enjoying his second career as a synagogue executive director in New Jersey. 

Mike's door is always open, and he welcomes the opportunity to visit with our members. Feel free to contact Mike at any time.