Cantor Search 2018

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Update as of April 25, 2018

From the Cantor Search Committee

Thank you to all congregants who participated in our two interview weekends with Cantor Kowtiz and Cantor Greenberg. If you have not made your comments known to any of the committee members please do so do so or you can click HERE send them in.

The role we are trying to fill, while called a “Cantor Search”, can more appropriately be labeled a Second Clergy Search. As we interviewed candidates and reviewed the tasks of the job, it became apparent that leading weekly services is not the major part of the job but only one of the many tasks that this person would be responsible for. To this end we asked the Rabbinical Assembly for Assistant Rabbi candidates to possibly fill this position. We searched for Rabbinic Candidates with strong Davening and Torah reading skills. After reviewing many resumes and interviewing candidates we have decided to invite the best Rabbinical prospect to our synagogue.

Please join us on May 4 and May 5 to in getting to know Rabbi Ben Goldberg.

Friday, May 4

6:30 PM, Family Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Aleph and Pre-Aleph followed by a cocktail reception with hot hors d'oeuvres and desserts (DAIRY).

Saturday, May 5

Nosh and Drosh, 9AM

Shabbat Service, 9:45AM

Rabbi Ben Goldberg will be ordained as a rabbi this spring by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Due to his own powerful experiences of Jewish community and learning, Ben is pursuing a career in the rabbinate to help others experience that power as well. Currently, he serves as the rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in Woodbury, CT. Previously, he served as Rabbinic Intern at Rutgers Hillel and also at Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, NJ. During rabbinical school, he spent summers at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Hillel International, as a hospital chaplain, and with Faith in New York. Before enrolling at JTS, he studied for a year at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Originally from the Philadelphia suburbs, Ben graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in History and Jewish Studies.

The Cantor Search Committee has been busy reviewing and interviewing candidates.

We have invited two of our candidates to spend Shabbat with us. Please see below further information regarding each candidate.

April 13-14: Cantor Joshua Kowitz

April 20-21:  Cantor Jenna Greenberg

Please make every effort to attend at least one of the multiple opportunities to hear and interact with our candidates.

Schedule for each weekend:

8:00PM            Friday Night Services
9:00 AM          Nosh and Drosh led by the candidate
9:45 AM           Saturday Morning Services followed by an extended Kiddush and a “meet the candidate” Q&A

7:00PM            Saturday Evening Service

Please come and meet...

Cantor Joshua Kowitz

April 13-14

Joshua Kowitz, baritone, is the cantor at Temple Sinai in Middletown, New York, a position he has held since August 2016. He is particularly proud of his educational work in the community for both children and adults. In spring 2017 he headlined the Cantor’s Concert with Hazzan Steven Stoehr, performing Israeli music from pre-statehood to the present day. He recently put on another concert in March of 2018 entitled "Throwback at Club "Sinai-tra", (A concert of Sinatra music) which was the primary synagogue fundraiser of the year. Josh has always surrounded himself with music and grew up in a musical household; he is the son of Cantor Mitchell Kowitz.

Previously, Joshua served as the cantorial intern at Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Maryland, and student cantor at White Meadow Temple, in White Meadow Lake, New Jersey, from 2014-2016. Joshua received his bachelor of music in vocal performance from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 2012. Prior to coming to JTS, Josh sang in the chorus of the Minnesota Opera and performed in amateur and professional musical theater productions in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. He enjoys playing jazz piano and saxophone.

Cantor Jenna Greenberg

April 20-21

Cantor Jenna Greenberg, originally from Philadelphia, is a 2004 graduate of the H.L. Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. She has served as cantor and educator inSize many Jewish communities, including New York, Washington, DC, Chicago and Boston. Cantor Greenberg currently conducts the Dayton Jewish Chorale, and has served as an educator throughout Dayton, both within the Jewish community and beyond.