'Big shoes to fill': Jewish Federation of Volusia & Flagler hires director to replace Gloria Max

ORMOND BEACH — As he settles into his role as the new executive director of the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flagler Counties, Rob Lennick is well aware of the iconic stature of the leader that preceded him.

Lennick, 66, who started over Labor Day weekend, fills the formidable vacancy created by the death of the Federation’s former longtime director Gloria Max, who devoted her life to helping students, families and others in need.

“I know that I have big shoes to fill,” Lennick said on a recent afternoon as he met clients at the Federation’s Jerry Doliner Food Bank. “I’m going to do my best to carry on that mission.”

Max served as the nonprofit organization’s executive director from 1995 until her death following a long battle with cancer just a few days shy of her 81st birthday in September 2021.

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To many in the community, she was the tireless face of the Jewish Federation’s work that includes annual school-supply drives to assist thousands of students in Volusia and Flagler counties as well as weekly and holiday food distributions through the Federation’s Food Bank.

Lennick, a Reform rabbi, pledges to continue that work, harnessing 40 years of experience as a rabbi, executive officer, counselor and interfaith leader for congregations and organizations in Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and New Mexico.

Lennick's previous job marked by controversy

As he introduces himself to the community, however, Lennick almost certainly will face questions related to controversy, investigations and lawsuits that continue to swirl around his departure from his most recent job as chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.

When Lennick stepped down from that post in May after three years, the New Mexico federation — a fixture for 74 years — had descended into a period of turmoil and dysfunction, according to media reports and court records.

Three lawsuits revolve around allegations of intimidation and discriminatory behavior by Lennick that created and fostered a “hostile and untenable work environment,” according to lawsuit by one former employee.

That lawsuit was filed in 2nd Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County New Mexico by Sara Koplik, a longtime employee who was laid off. A 13-year veteran of the organization, Koplik served as community outreach director and supervised five of the Federation’s six service programs.

In the lawsuit, Koplik is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from individual members of the New Mexico Federation's executive committee and from Lennick, in his role as executive director, for gender discrimination, retaliation and creating and fostering a hostile work environment, among other things.

Her lawsuit also states that the Federation’s executive committee offered Lennick a $30,000 loan for a home renovation and a contract extension that was approved by the board in February 2021. Later, board members accused the committee of concealing complaints against Lennick before the vote.

In the wake of that controversy, about half the board members resigned. Four members who stayed on also filed a lawsuit, asking a New Mexico court to take over the federation to ensure its survival.

Another former employee, Rabbi Jordi Gendra also filed a lawsuit against Lennick, the Federation’s executive committee and its president for discrimination based on national origin, retaliation and creating and fostering a hostile work environment.

Gendra worked on the organization’s Sephardic Heritage program, which encompassed Spanish and Portuguese citizenship processes. It’s a program initiated by Spain as reparation for the expulsion of thousands of Jews during the Inquisition.

Lennick declined to comment on the legal cases and circumstances surrounding his departure in New Mexico, based on the advice of his Albuquerque-based attorney Daymon Ely.

Lawsuits allege harassing communication

In his lawsuit, Gendra alleges that Lennick intentionally excluded him from decisions from programs that were his responsibility, “sent a number of scathing emails” demeaning his work and required him to maintain a work log not expected of other employees.

Koplik’s lawsuit also alleges that she was the recipient of harassing communication from Lennick, including a late-night email in December 2020, according to court records and media reports.

In that email, Lennick advised Koplik to stop “crossing out of your lane. … I SEE IT OFTEN. Seriously, if you think you would do a better job as CEO please go make that case to the board. I welcome that. … GO FOR IT.”

Both Koplik and Gendra seek punitive damages and attorneys’ fees, among other things in lawsuits stemming from a situation that has garnered national media coverage by religious news services such as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The New Mexico Federation also commissioned two separate investigations into the allegations, according to court records and media reports.

A report by a mediator, Philip Crump of Santa Fe, described Lennick as both a leader with “an underlying caring nature” that also was considered “aggressive or abusive, inconsistent and disrespectful” by some staff members.

A second investigation by the Jackson Lewis law firm in Albuquerque found that Lennick’s actions didn’t rise to the level of illegal workplace harassment or discrimination.

Phone messages to Crump and the law firm were not returned.

This fall, the JTA news service reported that the Jewish Federation of New Mexico was on the brink of collapse, with its programs either suspended or delegated to other community organizations.

Volusia Federation aware of New Mexico issues

In considering Lennick for the executive director job, the 20-plus-member board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Volusia & Flagler was well aware of the circumstances surrounding his departure in New Mexico, said Marvin Miller, federation president.

“We vetted him for three months; we got all the stories,” said Miller, who dismissed the controversies as overblown. “It’s unfortunate, there’s a split in the board out there.

“It became just like what’s going on in America, where 50% of the people like each other, 50% don’t and it just becomes nonsense,” Miller said. “People just get aggravated about a small rolling stone and it ends up as an avalanche.”

Experience lifted Lennick above other applicants

Lennick’s breadth of experience ultimately elevated him to the top of a field of eight applicants for the executive director job, Miller said. He declined to disclose Lennick’s salary, but Max, the previous director, earned an annual salary of $97,786, according to IRS records.

“He had the highest qualifications as a rabbi and executive officer at eight different venues over a 40-year career in Boston, Connecticut, Arkansas, all of them gave him high marks,” Miller said.

Based on the advice of the Volusia-Flagler Federation's attorney, board members had no comment on his hiring or the controversies in New Mexico, Miller said. He expressed concern about how the news might affect fund-raising efforts of the Federation, which reported $1.3 million in total revenue for the 2020 tax year according to IRS records.

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“It’s bad timing,” he said, referring to the decision not to comment on Lennick's hiring. “They (the board members) want to wait. It’s nothing we’re hiding; they just don’t want to talk about it.”

After a month in the leadership role, Lennick is "doing a great job," Miller said. "He's a real professional with a great background who is bringing a lot of new information and new ideas."

In New Mexico, Lennick’s attorney, Ely, said that his client is considering filing his own lawsuit, but hasn’t yet done so. He described Lennick as “a guy with integrity who was trying hard but got caught up in what was an existing dispute that he had nothing to do with.”

“There were other problems that had nothing to do with him and it was easy to blame somebody who had come in from outside the community,” Ely said. “That happens, and when that happens my job is to set the record straight.”

In Lennick’s interviews for the job with the Volusia-Flagler organization, he “had an easygoing manner and he is very, very knowledgeable, not only in the workings of Jewish Federations, but having background as a rabbi gave him more credence,” Miller said. “That, in itself, turned out to be very important to us.”

Since his arrival, Lennick has been a frequent presence at the Federation’s Jerry Doliner Food Bank in Ormond Beach, Miller said.

“He has dug right in, gotten to meet everybody,” he said. “He’s a very good listener.”

Miller said that he thinks that the situation in New Mexico was caused by communication issues that involved more than Lennick’s job performance. He is confident that such issues would be handled differently by the board of directors here.

“When people start to argue about small issues, they boil out of control,” Miller said. “We are, and we continue to be, very transparent. If there’s an issue, we bring it right up and handle it then and there.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Jewish Federation hires Rob Lennick to replace iconic director Gloria Max