Dear congregants,
We are thrilled to announce that Cantor Rayna Green will be joining the clergy team as our new Assistant Cantor as of July 1, 2015.
Cantor Green will be ordained in New York on May 3 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
She has vast experience as a student cantor in many different settings including Tzur Hadassah in Israel, Central Synagogue in Manhattan, Port Jewish Center in Port Washington, NY, and Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. This has given her a wide range of experience in teaching, leading services and synagogue life. Currently, she is a Chaplain Intern at The Jewish Home Lifecare of Manhattan. Her pastoral care is one of her passions.
Before attending cantorial school, Cantor Green served for seven years at Temple Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon as preschool teacher, senior and junior youth group advisor, song leader for the Sunday School and Tot Shabbat services, as well as a member of Beth Israel’s house band, Def Schlepper. Rayna helped found Beth Israel's 20s and 30s group, offering an alternative prayer service. In addition, she was a song leader at Camp Newman in California and was the inaugural head song leader at Camp Kalsman in Washington.
She has received many honors including being chosen as the cantorial student from her ordination class for the prestigious Tisch Fellow program directed and taught by scholar Rabbi Larry Hoffman.
A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Cantor Green spent her summers in California at URJ Camp Swig. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Family and Human Services from the University of Oregon in 2003. While in college, she directed Camp Sholom and led worship at the University of Oregon Hillel.
Cantor Green is married to Eli Green, a sustainability consultant with a background in architecture. They are both thrilled to be moving to the Chicago area and joining the wonderful BJBE community.
I personally would like to thank Lynn Wax and Howard Rosenblum for co-chairing BJBE’s search committee, which is now becoming Cantor Green’s transition committee and will be organizing several opportunities to meet the cantor, including unique opportunities for our families who will be celebrating their child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
Welcome!
President