Cantor Perryne Anker

Cantor Perryne Anker received her bachelor of science degree from the Juilliard School in New York City. She helped pave the way for women in the cantorate, having served for three decades at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel Air, Beth Sholom Temple in Santa Monica and Temple Shalom For The Arts in Beverly Hills. She is Dean Emerita and Cantorial Coach at the Academy for Jewish Religion Los Angeles and a member of the American Conference of Cantors.

Cantor Judy Dubin Aranoff

Cantor Judy Dubin Aranoff became Cantor at Adat Ari El in July 2015 after having served as its Associate Cantor for the prior 12 years. She received her Hazzan certification from the Cantors Assembly in 2007. Past work includes teaching music at Adat Ari El Day School and at Heschel Day School, as well as being an adjunct professor at American Jewish University. Cantor Aranoff had the honor of working with Leonard Bernstein as the Orchestra Manager and Librarian of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. She was the Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale for its entire 26 ½ years of existence. Cantor Aranoff loves musical theater and was the Musical Director for shows in the UCLA Theater Department, as well as at the Morgan-Wixson Theater in Santa Monica. She currently serves on the Executive Council of the Cantors Assembly. Cantor Aranoff is particularly interested in Israeli music and is a frequent performer and ambassador of Israeli folk and popular songs.

Cantor Michelle Bider Stone

Cantor Michelle Bider Stone serves as Ritual Innovator at Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles and as a consultant for Jewish not-for-profit organizations. She previously was the Director, Los Angeles for Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she oversaw all programmatic activity and relationship management in Los Angeles and Southern California. Michelle received her BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She received a Master’s Degree in Sacred Music and is ordained as a cantor from the Academy for Jewish Religion, CA. Previously, Michelle worked in investment banking, equity research, and financial consulting at Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, and The Salter Group. She and her husband Dan live in Los Angeles with their three children.

Rabbi Cantor Lily Blum

Rabbi Cantor Lily Blum has always possessed a deep-rooted passion for Jewish music and text. Even before the milestone of becoming Bat Mitzvah, she knew she wanted to pursue a career as a Cantor. Her appreciation for and love of Jewish music began at a young age when she started singing with one of her mentors, Cantor Nathan Lam, in the third grade at weekly Friday night Shabbat services. She was also profoundly influenced by her Bat Mitzvah tutor, and now dear colleague, Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot.

Rabbi Cantor Blum was the first to graduate from the Jewish Sacred Music Program at Indiana University, earning a BA in Jewish Studies with minors in Hebrew, Music, and History. She was ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion, CA as a Cantor in 2016 and again as a Rabbi in 2018. After ordination, Rabbi Cantor Blum served Temple Shalom of the South Bay in Hermosa Beach as their Rabbi, Cantor, and Religious School Director for three years. During her schooling, Rabbi Cantor Blum interned and taught at many synagogues throughout the Los Angeles area including: Temple Judea, Temple Ahavat Shalom, Valley Outreach Synagogue, Temple Isaiah, Stephen Wise Temple, and Ohr HaTorah Synagogue. It was Rabbi Cantor Blum’s lifelong dream to become clergy and to help guide people through all of life’s challenges and celebrations. She is very proud of her work on both of her theses on music as therapy (2016) and a biblical examination of grief and bereavement (2018). 

Rabbi Cantor Lily Blum is a part-time member of our clergy team who contributes to our B’nei Mitzvah program, officiates at lifecycles, and handles all of our TJVillage and B'tzelem programming. Rabbi Cantor Blum lives in the San Fernando Valley with her husband and their daughters.

Cantor Orly Campbell

Cantor Orly Campbell joined the Sinai Temple clergy team in 2023, after serving as Cantor at Temple Beth David in Pasadena, for the previous three years. A proud alumna of California State Northridge (C.S.U.N.) where she received a B.A. in Vocal Arts. Orly is a classically trained opera singer (“coloratura”) who fuses classic Hazzanut with other genres like musical theater and jazz.

After graduating in 2006, she moved to New York for a year, while pursuing a career on Broadway. However, she was destined to move back home to California, where she married her college sweetheart at Sinai Temple, years before she would become one of their Cantors.

While singing in a Daniel Pearl Days concert at Ahavat Shalom, she had an out of body experience, that she was destined to become a Cantor. 2 days later she was researching Cantorial schools. Her vision became reality in 2019, when she was ordained from the Academy for Jewish Religion (California) where she received a Master’s degree in Jewish sacred music.

Prior to becoming a Cantor at Sinai Temple, Orly performed and led services on bimahs across the Southland. Including but not limited to; Temple Ramat Zion (where she grew up and was a Cantorial Intern), Temple Akiba, Stephen Wise, Beth Shir Shalom, Temple Beth  David and Temple Judea, where she was also a B’nai Mitzvah tutor. Orly currently resides in Encino with her husband Adam and their 4 beautiful children: Joshua, Emma, Benjamin and Madeline.

Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny

Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny is the Cantor at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, California. She completed her cantorial investiture, rabbinical ordination, and a Masterʼs degree in Sacred Music at the Jewish Theological Seminary before joining the staff of Temple Beth Am in August, 2014. For several years, Hillary has co-produced the Sacred Sounds Unbound concert series with burgeoning Jewish music artists and the Kol Tefilla conference on prayer experiences with United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. She is a vice-president of the Cantors Assembly. Hillary is an instructor for first year students at the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies. She is an avid writer, and is currently writing a book about reinventing ritual. She and her husband, Rabbi Daniel Chorny enjoy learning together with their two children, Ella and Yossi.

Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen

Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen grew up at Stephen S. Wise Temple during the golden age of the M'shor'rim - a joyful group of youth singers, several of whom went on to become clergy. Ordained by HUC-JIR in 2014, Rabbi Cohen has served on the clergy team of Temple Isaiah in West LA since 2018. With deep pride in her LA musical roots - and with gratitude to her many mentors, including Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot - Rabbi Cohen has built a unique rabbinate with music as the foundation. In addition to her activism around maternal mental health and Epilepsy awareness, she is certified yoga teacher, aspiring electric guitar soloist, and regular contributor to the Purim parody music video canon.

Cantorial Soloist Shelly Fox

Shelly Fox has served Temple Israel of Hollywood as Cantorial Soloist since 2015 and as Music Director since 2017. Shelly is deeply interested in exploring the balance between tradition and innovation in worship music and encouraging people to discover and develop their own voice in prayer and song.

Before entering the Cantorate, Shelly worked extensively as a professional classical soprano, specializing in Renaissance and Baroque music as both a soloist and vocal chamber musician, having received her master’s degree in Voice Performance from Indiana University in 1999. Shelly was a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale for 18 years and for 9 years was the voice faculty for the Early Music Department at University of Southern California. Before focusing on Classical Music, Shelly was a folk singer-songwriter in Upstate New York and Nashville, Tennessee. She enjoys bouncing between styles and in any worship service one can hear her lead the congregation in song with her guitar and also fill the room with old synagogue classics. 

Shelly is studying for her Cantorial Ordination at AJRCA and hopes to graduate sometime in the next few years.

Cantor Lonee Frailich

Ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion, CA (AJR-CA) in 2011, Cantor Lonee Frailich is proud to serve as the Cantor at Temple Akiba for the past 19 years. With a BA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an MA in Jewish Communal Service from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and an MA in Jewish Sacred Music from AJR-CA, Cantor Frailich is a long-time Jewish community activist.

Lonee is a second-generation Cantor, following in the footsteps of her father, Cantor Emeritus Jay Frailich, who served as the Cantor at University Synagogue in Brentwood, CA for 40 years. Lonee is married to Michael Gantman and together they are the loving parents of Indee Rose and Meleena Jo Gantman.

Cantor Sara Hass

The union between Cantor Hass and Leo Baeck Temple was bashert – destined to be. Cantor Hass grew up not far from LBT and even served one year as the music specialist in our Religious School back when she was finishing high school. As it became clear that she possessed a truly rare talent as an extraordinary vocalist with a deeply Jewish soul, she pursued cantorial studies at the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, receiving her ordination in 2015 and presenting a cantorial thesis on Jewish musical creativity in Los Angeles. She then returned to southern California, where she became the first-ever Cantor at Temple Israel in Long Beach, excelling especially in her work with B’nai Mitzvah students and her use of technology to deepen the congregational musical experience. In 2018, Cantor Hass was invited to be the Campus Cantor of the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where she continues to contribute to the learning and growth of an entire era of young rabbis. It is our congregation’s tremendous good fortune that Cantor Hass has decided to continue her impressive career at Leo Baeck Temple.

Cantorial Soloist Elizabeth Kerstein

Elizabeth Kerstein is the cantorial soloist at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge. As TAS’s cantorial soloist, she leads the music for the High Holidays, Shabbat services, and lifecycle events; trains the B’nai mitzvah and Religious School students; directs the adult and children’s choirs; and helps to lead synagogue programming alongside Rabbi Becky Hoffman.Elizabeth Kerstein is the cantorial soloist at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge. As TAS’s cantorial soloist, she leads the music for the High Holidays, Shabbat services, and lifecycle events; trains the B’nai mitzvah and Religious School students; directs the adult and children’s choirs; and helps to lead synagogue programming alongside Rabbi Becky Hoffman.

Prior to beginning her cantorial career, Elizabeth was a classical singer and music teacher. Elizabeth has sung with the Baltimore, San Diego, and Santa Barbara opera choruses, and she was the alto soloist at Sinai Temple and Temple Judea in LA and Chizuk Amuno in Baltimore. From 2018-21, Elizabeth was on the voice faculty at California School for the Arts - San Gabriel Valley, where she conducted the middle school chorus and taught classes through Citrus College. She also ran a mentorship program training high schoolers to teach elementary school music.


An LA native, Elizabeth studied voice at the Peabody Conservatory (MM) and St. Olaf College (BMus). She spent a summer studying modern Hebrew in immersion at the Middlebury Language Schools. She is currently a cantorial student at AJRCA. She lives in Sherman Oaks with her son, Judah, and their cat, Paprika.

Cantor Patti Linsky

Cantor Patti Linsky is a proud member of the American Conference of Cantors. A graduate of the University of Miami School of Music with a Bachelors in Music Education, Patti was Certified in 1993 through the Debbie Friedman(z”l) School of Sacred Music. She began her cantorial career from 1981-86 at Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, California and continued for the next 24 years at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, California. It was in 2009 that Patti underwent an abdominal surgery which nearly took her life, posing the vital question if she’d ever be able to return to her sacred calling. 

As a recovering alcoholic and pain pill addict who also deals with depression and anxiety, Patti has reinvented herself as an Artist in Residence, giving voice to these issues through a weekend filled with honesty, vulnerability and inclusion. She shares a sermon in song, “The Spirituality of Recovery”, leads torah study as it relates to her essay paired with the Parsha ha-Shavua, and culminates with her  uplifting one woman show, Altar EGO, which she performs around the country.

Patti is the assistant cantor for Leo Baeck’s Minyanim, is the High holy Day cantor at Congregation  Kol Ami and freelances at several reform temples throughout the greater Los Angeles area and beyond. She is a singer-songwriter, motivational speaker and an author of the essay “God’s Perfect Child” in the acclaimed Anthology SHADES OF BLUE, which addresses issues of depression, anxiety, mental illness, addictions, and most importantly, hope and recovery.

Patti is married to David Rubin, a psychologist (not hers!), has two glorious children, Cayla and Eliana, two cats, Oliver and Elio, and is most grateful for second chances.

Cantor Emma Lutz

Cantor Emma Lutz was born and raised in Walnut Creek, Calif. where her family and community instilled in her a deep love of Judaism and music. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Davis with degrees in Religious Studies and Music. Cantor Lutz received her Master of Sacred Music in 2015 and was ordained in 2016 by the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, N.Y. She has proudly served Stephen Wise Temple since July 2016. 

Before attending HUC-JIR, Cantor Lutz worked as a soloist and teacher for synagogues throughout the Bay Area and was also a performer with numerous theatre companies, including Center REPertory Company, Diablo Theatre Company, and the Napa Valley Opera House. In addition, she spent time volunteering in Israel with the IDF through Sar-El, the National Project for Volunteers for Israel.

During her first year of cantorial school at HUC-JIR, she worked as cantorial intern for Kehillat Tzur Hadassah, a vibrant Reform synagogue just outside of Jerusalem. While studying at the New York campus, Emma enjoyed internships at Congregation Oheb Sholom and Union Temple, and she also served as a chaplain for Mount Sinai-Roosevelt Hospital. Cantor Lutz is the recipient of both the Rabbi Rick Jacobs Award in Innovative Worship (2015) and the Rhonda and Jerome Malino Prize in Bible Studies (2013). She is an active member of the American Conference of Cantors and a life member of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. 

Cantor Lutz is married to Rabbi Adam Lutz, a Los Angeles native, whom she met during her Year-In-Israel studies at HUC-JIR. Together, they are the proud parents of Ruby Mira and Gwen Shoshana.

Senior Cantor Jacqueline Raffi

Jacqueline Rafii is the Senior Cantor of Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue (VBS). She also serves as the music director for the Synagogue, Day School, Religious School, and ECC. She is best known for her creative, multi-generational musical initiatives that invigorate and build community.

Prior to joining VBS, Cantor Rafii served for five years as the Cantor of Shomrei Torah Synagogue (now Hamakom LA). She was ordained as a Hazzan and earned her Master's in Sacred Jewish Music from the Academy for Jewish Religion California. For her Master's thesis, she conducted original fieldwork in the area of preserving, notating, and sharing Persian Jewish prayer melodies. She performed many of these pieces in her Senior Recital, Kol Haneshama, which is available to view on YouTube. 

Prior to becoming a cantor, she earned her JD from UCLA School of Law and practiced entertainment law. Cantor Rafii is a published composer and pianist, and performs Jewish music in Hebrew, Ladino, Farsi and English. She is an Alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Lev, and daughter, Adira.

Cantor Aviva Rosenbloom

Cantor Aviva Rosenbloom received her Bachelor’s Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1968, with a major in Sociology. At the time, she was a guitar-playing folk singer with no formal training beyond piano lessons…After spending a year of service in Israel, she earned a second Bachelor’s in Music Education from Boston U, and later, her Master’s Degree in Music (voice major) from Cal State Fullerton in 1982. She studied to become a Cantor with her father Samuel Kligfeld and with Cantor William Sharlin of the Hebrew Union College.

Aviva served as Cantor at Temple Israel of Hollywood from 1975 - 2008, She was one of three first female cantors in the Los Angeles area, before there was even one woman Rabbi!

She composed some of the early Jewish Feminist songs, including the “Shechinah Nigun” and “Kol Netivoteinu Shalom,” which can be heard on her CD, “Streams In The Desert.”

She has premiered many works of newly composed Jewish music by such composers as Ami Aloni, Michael Isaacson, and Andrea Jill Higgins, in chamber music and orchestral concerts.

Cantor Kerith Spencer

Cantor Kerith Spencer-Shapiro joined the Clergy of Wilshire Boulevard Temple through a merger with University Synagogue, where she had served since 2014. Kerith has assumed many leadership roles in the Reform movement, from serving on the board of the American Conference of Cantors for 12 years, to serving as cantorial liaison to the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Task Force on Women in the Rabbinate, to acting as adjunct faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Kerith is also the Cantor of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Jack Skirball Campus in Los Angeles where she mentors rabbbinic students. Kerith's was the first female voice to be heard at the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City and she has appeared in concert at Town Hall and Symphony Space in New York City; Beit Daniel, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Basilica of Santa Maria Degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome, Italy; and at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Tali Tadmor

Dr. Tali Tadmor is a Los Angeles-based pianist, educator, music director and vocal coach. Her performance career includes collaborations with a wide variety of musicians and appearances at worldwide venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and The Great Hall at the heart of China’s Forbidden City. Though classically trained, Tali is sought after in a wide variety of musical settings, ranging from world music, pop and worship, to her own compositions. Tali received both Master and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California (USC) majoring in Keyboard Collaborative Arts. She currently serves as Chair of the Collaborative Piano program at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and is the Music Director at Stephen Wise Temple.

Cantor Lizzie Weiss

Cantor Lizzie Weiss serves as the Senior Cantor of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. For 10 years, she has used the power of music to engage congregants and support them in making spiritual connections. Music is her medium for teaching Torah. She celebrates the significance of nostalgic traditional music alongside relevant contemporary melodies. With training in Clinical Pastoral Education, she values time spent with congregants in the hospital, in mourning, and celebrating simchas. From officiating life cycle events, to nurturing young singers, to experiencing milestones with people of all ages, her life at Temple Emanuel is filled with learning, music, and community engagement…

Cantor Weiss grew up at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills and was always involved in all things music. From intergenerational productions at the Emanuel Arts Center, to Junior Cantors, to the High Holy Day Professional Choir, Cantor Weiss developed her Jewish identity with her experiences in Jewish living at Temple Emanuel, Camp Swig/Newman and all under the wing of her Uncle Rabbi Kenneth J. Weiss, and her brother Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss.

After graduating from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in drama, Cantor Weiss moved to New York and was cast in the Broadway National Tour of Disney’s High School Musical. After a few years on the road, Cantor Weiss landed back in Los Angeles, and entered cantorial school at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California. Cantor Weiss received her cantorial ordination in May 2015. When not on the Temple Emanuel bima, Cantor Weiss can be found singing in Jewish and secular concerts, alike, throughout Los Angeles. Cantor Weiss is proud to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Conference of Cantors. 

Cantor Weiss founded the Temple Emanuel Soul Singers in 2015 and it continues to serve as one of her proudest gifts that ensures the future of Jewish music at Temple Emanuel. As children graduate from the Soul Singers, they become junior cantors helping to lead services and chant torah on the high holy days. Lastly, the intergenerational choir, of which she was a part of starting at age 12, continues to be the most warm, welcoming and musical choir she could ever imagine!

Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot

Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot is best known for her joyful spirit, her soulful singing, and her passion for Jewish learning. She is dedicated to revitalizing worship and integrating the ancient sounds of Jewish tradition with contemporary music, and her background in theatre brings life and energy to synagogue experiences. Alison's deepest mission as a teacher, is to make the beauty and joy of Jewish text and liturgy accessible to all. Alison's work on the Board of Directors of Stand With Us has helped strengthen the Jewish community's pro-Israel message across college campuses. Prior to her rabbinic and cantorial career, Alison worked as an actress in New York and London, and was awarded a Spielberg Fellowship to teach Jewish theatre at the Reform Movement's flagship camp, Camp Kutz. Alison has brought her internationally acclaimed teaching of Jewish theatre to conventions and synagogues worldwide. Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot is proud to have served as cantor and rabbi at Temple Judea for the past 21 years. Alison, a native of the San Fernando Valley, resides in Northridge with her husband, Michael, their sons, Jacob & Daniel, and their daughter Abby.

Cantor Sarah Zerbib-Berda

Sarah Zerbib-Berda is the Cantor at Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village where she has been honored to serve since 2021. With a passion for singing all styles of music from gospel to rock to country, she enjoys sharing this through the song selections chosen at the services she leads and is a huge nerd for Torah trope with which she desperately tries to instill excitement for when working with B’nei Mitzvah students.

From the age of six until her early twenties, she sang in the Cantor’s youth choir, the M’shor’rim, at Stephen Wise Temple where she later served as both Cantorial Intern for 3 years and then an additional year as Cantor. A graduate of Milken Community High School, Sarah went on to study Anthropology, receiving both her A.A. degree from Santa Monica College and her B.A. from UCLA in the subject, the latter where she was also a sister in the Jewish sorority, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi. After graduating, Sarah studied in Jerusalem for a year under the World Union of Jewish Students, receiving a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Arts and Music. Upon her return to the States, she attended and later graduated from The Academy for Jewish Religion-California where she received her Master’s in Sacred Music, becoming ordained after presenting her thesis “Redemption Song-The Journey to the Promised Land: An Examination of the Parallel Histories of Oppression, Hope, and Freedom as Expressed in the Music of Jews and African Americans.” Prior to joining TBH, she served as Cantor in various capacities at numerous synagogues and Jewish organizations throughout the surrounding LA area including Santa Monica Synagogue, Valley Beth Shalom, Temple Beth Torah, and The Claremont Colleges Hillel.

In Los Angeles, Sarah has created and performed an original one-woman cabaret show, “A Bissele of This, A Bissele of That,” has had her original compositions performed at Staples Center for the LA Kings’ Jewish Community Night by the Temple Menorah Youth Choir, and continues to enjoy writing Jewish themed parodies and other modern Jewish songs. She happily resides nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Sylmar where she lives with her Minnesotan husband, Nathan, and their two wonderful kids, Jack and Eloise.

MB Gordy - Percussionist

MB Gordy is a Los Angeles based musician and producer. Over the last three decades he has worked in a wide variety of roles as performer, composer, professor, and recording musician. He earned his Master’s Degree in Music from California Institute of the Arts with extensive study in ethnic percussion. His work is heard on hundreds of films, video games, records, and TV shows. The most recent being, the scores for Transformers – Rise of the Beast, American Fiction, Marvels, Rings of Power and Avatar- The last Airbender on Netflix. In addition, he has toured the world with such varied artists as The Doobie Brothers, Game of Thrones Live ,Josh Groban, and Rita Coolidge, Three Dog Night, John Tesh and Ann Hampton Callaway and was a featured performer in the Game of Thrones Live tour. Riot Drum Studios, MB's recording studio, has tracked music for Andra Day, Michael Bublé, Childish Gambino and many others records film and TV shows. His Band, Opium Moon,won a Grammy in 2019 for best New Age Album and a second nomination in 2022.

Randy Landas - Bass

Randy Landas is a versatile bass player and producer with extensive experience recording and touring. He has toured with renowned artists such as Burt Bacharach, Boxing Gandhis, Rita Coolidge, Rickie Lee Jones, and Johnny Mathis. Randy's credits includes performances on numerous recordings, TV shows, films, games as well as playing a wide array of theatrical productions. Production credits include Jim Beloff’s “ The Wind and Sun”, Fumo Landas Walsh and M Theory.