Born in Tampa Bay, Florida, Rabbi Ashley Englander has created a life full of service to the Jewish community locally and at large. She was raised in a Jewish home and became involved in the Reform Movement as a teenager. Her passion for Jewish study, Jewish youth programming, and the Jewish community led her to the realization that she wanted to become a rabbi. 

Ashley graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She received a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Religious Studies.During her undergraduate career, she worked at a local JCC camp and URJ Camp Coleman. Her passion for Jew

ish education and programming continued to develop while she served as a youth director for a local synagogue youth group. 

In the summer of 2018, Rabbi Englander went to Jerusalem to begin her rabbinical studies at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. During her year in Jerusalem, she volunteered at a local community garden and interned at the NFTY in Israel office. Her passion for Jewish ecology grew, and she applied and was accepted to be an Adamah Fellow in the summer of 2019 at the Isabella Freedman Center in Falls Village, CT. She spent her time farming and learning about Jewish ecology every day during the fellowship. 

Her husband, Austin, and she moved to Cincinnati to continue her studies on the HUC-JIR campus. There, she volunteered for the Jewish Family Service garden and Cincinnati Civic Garden. Ashley served two separate South Dakota student pulpits over a course of three yea

rs. She interned at the Cincinnati Skirball Museum, the Jewish Family Services, Interfaith Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, and Adath Israel Congregation. Her love for Israel continued state-side when she became an AIPAC Leffell Fellow.

In April 2022, they welcomed their son, Adam, into the world. Rabbi Englander greatly enjoys her new home in Jacksonville with her family. She loves to get to know new people. Rabbi Englander believes that sacred partnership and dialogue allows God to dwell in our midst.