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
About Kehillath Shalom Synagogue
Kehillath Shalom Mission Statement
Our name, Kehillath Shalom, means Community of Peace.
A. We are a fully participatory, egalitarian, Reconstructionist congregation,
dedicated to the pursuit of a meaningful approach to contemporary Jewish
life. Arising out of our diverse experiences of the divine, we share a
commitment to cultivating our inner lives and working together to create
a more godly world. Both as individuals and in community, we strive to
deepen our Jewish spirituality and to help one another develop meaningful
ways to explore and express ourselves. We are committed to maintaining
a warm and supportive environment within which we can all find courage,
strength and joy through our interactions with one another.
B. We are inclusive and welcome members of diverse backgrounds and
lifestyles.
C. In partnership with our clergy and other synagogue staff, we strive for an
atmosphere of meaningful spirituality, vibrant study and creative worship
and we aim to instill our Jewish values into every aspect of synagogue life.
We encourage all members to play an active role as we join together to
explore and define the unique path of this congregation and we ask each
to contribute his or her interests, talents and skills to our efforts.
Envision walking through the door of our building and feeling as though you have finally come home
D. We are committed to social action as a way of putting our Jewish spirituality into practice. As individuals and as a community, we dedicate ourselves to the task of Tikkun Olam.
E. We believe, and aim to teach our children, that it is our responsibility as Jews to help heal the pain and suffering that we see all around us and to work towards preserving the health of the global ecosystem upon which all life depends. We hope to help our children appreciate their Jewish heritage and to encourage them to love learning and find meaning and joy in our tradition.
F. We are committed to the State of Israel and recognize its importance to the cultural and spiritual survival of the Jewish people. We support and encourage it to flourish as a home for all Jews based on a foundation of justice and equality for all its citizens.
G. We seek to partner with other members of the Jewish and interfaith communities in our attempts to create a more just and peaceful world.