Jesse Holzer

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Jun 16, 2016, 11:03 PM

A Living and Loving Sanctuary

We remember. Today. Tomorrow. Their pain and their story may soon become yesterday’s news. Stanley Almodovar III, Amanda Alvear, Oscar A Aracena-Montero, Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, Antonio Davon Brown, Darryl Roman Burt II, Angel L. Candelario-Padro, Juan Chevez-Martinez, Luis Daniel Conde, Cory...

Sep 11, 2014, 8:29 AM

When we go astray, we lead others astray.

We are guilty. We abuse. We betray. We rob. We scorn. We spurn. We destroy. We falsify. We gossip. We hate. We neglect. We pervert... We go astray. We lead others astray. Ashamnu (We are guilty), the center of the confessional section of...

Jul 17, 2014, 5:35 PM

Am Yisrael Chai: Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.

Don't give up. Don't ever give up." -Jim Valvano March 4, 1993, the ESPY Awards The ESPYs, an award show highlighting the power of sports on our culture, is like many other award shows. It has moments of laughter, eye rolling and...

May 7, 2014, 5:44 PM

Sustainability: A Moral Imperative

In this week's Torah portion Behar we read the following commandment: Leviticus 25:3-9: שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְרַע שָׂדֶךָ וְשֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְמֹר כַּרְמֶךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ אֶת תְּבוּאָתָהּ. וּבַשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן יִהְיֶה לָאָרֶץ שַׁבָּת לַה' שָׂדְךָ לֹא תִזְרָע וְכַרְמְךָ לֹא תִזְמֹר. אֵת סְפִיחַ קְצִירְךָ...

Apr 23, 2014, 4:30 AM

Our phones, our stumbling blocks

Texting while on the road is distracting us to death and a passage from Leviticus drives the message home

Apr 10, 2014, 4:39 AM

Letting Go: How a song inspires all this Passover season

Not since the migration of Jews to Alaska has there been such hype over the "Frozen Chosen." Yesterday I spent my afternoon with 4th and 5th families from our Martin J. Gottlieb Day School housed at the Jacksonville Jewish...

Mar 5, 2014, 12:53 AM

Quick to judge, first to post

He would say: Make will your will, in order that God make yours God's. Nullify your will before God's, in order that others' wills be nullified before yours. Hillel says: Don't separate from the community; Don't trust yourself...

Jan 30, 2014, 6:26 AM

My Weekly Shabbat Moment, on Thursdays

A little over a year ago, I returned to my Jacksonville Jewish community from an amazing P2G Israel Educators mission with new ideas, new friends, a case of Marzipan, a "push gift" for my wife, and a very important...

Jan 20, 2014, 7:54 AM

Dr. King’s legacy: Never forget

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, had...

Jan 13, 2014, 10:50 PM

An olympic sized proposition: Jewish professional or professional Jew?

The 2014 Winter Olympics are right around the corner. Whenever we are in the Olympic games, we return to an ongoing conversation about the Olympic athlete. Olympic athletes train for years, hoping for a glimpse of the spotlight for...

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About Me

Hazzan Jesse Holzer currently serves as the Cantor of the Jacksonville Jewish Center. Hazzan Holzer received his BA from New York University and completed a Masters Degree in Sacred Music and investment as a Hazzan from the H.L. Miller Cantorial Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2008 . He is an avid sports enthusiast, enjoys travel and playing piano, and is a devoted collector of Jewish music and rare prayer books.