Jewish prayer is a core part of our religious practice. Together with the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy we train community members to lead beautiful and inspiring prayer services.
As a synagogue-based movement, we recognise the unique importance of musically and spiritually inspiring tefila – Jewish prayer. Since services in most of our communities are lay-led, it’s vital to invest in developing well trained, highly literate shlihei tzibbur – leaders of prayer. We’re proud to partner with EAJL – the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy – to provide this training.
We train leaders of prayer at all levels – beginners, intermediate and advanced. Our curriculum includes the entire cycle of weekday, Shabbat and festival services. Basic requirements are fluent Hebrew reading and the ability to participate competently in synagogue services.
All course are taught by qualified chazanim (cantors), liturgical scholars, and experienced leaders of prayer from all over the world.
In November 2020, Chazan Jacky was filmed in conversation with Chazan Stephen Cotsen from the New London Synagogue. The chazanim discuss their journeys as Ba’alei Tefillah, and talk about the people who inspired them to pursue this calling. And, of course, they sing! The recording is here on the New London Facebook page.
Bringing together leaders from across the community to learn specific parts of the liturgy. Recent courses have focused on Kabbalat Shabbat, evening service for weekdays and Hallel.
We’ll pair you up with a professional chazan for a series of learning and mentoring sessions tailored to your own learning needs.
Annual residential seminars with some of the world’s most prominent chazanim. We alternate between four-day retreats in the UK and three-week seminars hosted at the Conservative (Masorti) Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
More experienced students are invited to enter our Ba’al Tefila (prayer leader) diploma programme. We’ll pair you up with a teacher who, over a multi-year period, will take you through the entire liturgical cycle. Receiving our diploma means you are qualified to lead a community in all aspects of Jewish prayer. (Please note this is not professional cantorial training).
For more information please visit the EAJL site: https://www.eajl.org/
Click here to learn more about our talented Chazanim.
