Overview
Kehillath Shalom Synagogue seeks a cantorial soloist to lead our High Holiday services in the fall of 2020. This position entails providing significant musical leadership in the services using both traditional nusach and contemporary melodies. While our liturgy contains some solo pieces, our cantorial soloist must also be able to engage our community in singing. The rabbi gives the sermons and kavanot. About 150-200 people attend our main services, with fewer on the second day of Rosh Hashanah and at Neilah. We use the Reconstructionist machzor along with our own congregational music supplement.
Kehillath Shalom’s services for the Days of Awe have been as follows:
RH1 Evening – ~2 hours
RH 1 and 2 Morning ~3 hours
Kol Nidre – ~2 hours
YK Morning – ~4 hours
YK Neilah – ~2 hours
Kehillath Shalom Synagogue is a small Reconstructionist Synagogue on the North Shore of Long Island. We are known for accessible, spiritual, and meaningful services. We highlight key prayers from the services while interspersing these with a variety of kavannot, readings, meditations, and songs. High Holiday services are also participatory in the sense that congregants share selected readings with the kahal, do the haftarah readings, and sing in the chorus. We have been generously hosted by a local Catholic church and meet in their cafeteria. We are open to the community by donation and, as a result, many of our participants are long-term attendees who are not members.
The current situation means that we do not know if we will gather in person or virtually, if we will have traditional services or develop alternatives. Our cantorial soloist will need to be creative and flexible. He or she will have:
• the ability to work closely with the rabbi and lay leaders in a cooperative, professional manner.
• significant experience leading group singing.
• a strong singing voice.
• knowledge of and comfort with singing Hebrew liturgy.
rabbi@kehillathshalomsynagogue.org