Sam Josephson, at The Blogs

Apr 15, 2024, 8:13 AM

What has happened to OUR Tephillah in Shul?

The UAW won their historic strike because the Membership finally overthrew their corrupt Leadership. Cantors Assembly Leadership is also not representative of its Membership but has become a shill for a Rabbinate, with a few notable exceptions, that is actively working towards our collective demise...

Apr 7, 2024, 4:11 PM

Public recital of Tephilot not for amateurs

Our Rabbinic SAGES eschew Volunteers, when the remedy is easily a paid individual. In every Halakhic situation imaginable, a paid professional is preferred. So every week, the Volunteers who ascend the Bimah to lead us all in Prayer on Shabbat and Yom Tov, the Singer/Songwriters...

Dec 19, 2023, 8:29 AM

Mere Shadows of What They Once Were!

I attended a Benefit Concert at Park East Synagogue in NYC last night, whose purpose even beyond Akhdut, was to raise money for the important work in Israel of ZAKA. Among the celebrities NOT on the stage, none was perhaps more illustrious than Avraham Fried....

Dec 14, 2023, 10:34 AM

It’s not complicated

I had what I wished might have been an out of body experience this afternoon, while at a meeting of Rabbis sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. Ostensibly, this meeting was called to review a recent trip that Rabbis had made to...

Dec 8, 2023, 8:12 PM

But I do not call that praying!

Never Caught is the biography of Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s personal slave, who successfully ran away and made her way to freedom. She says of her former mistress, “Mrs. Washington used to read prayers but I do not call that praying!” As a Rabbi and Shaliakh Tzibbur for nearly half...

About Me

A son of Concentration Camp Survivors who were originally from Bendzin, Poland, Rabbi Cantor Sam was the only member of his immediate family born in the USA. Originally on a trajectory towards being an Actor, a chance encounter with a Synagogue Choir Member at a Pittsburgh Dinner Theater production of Guys and Dolls, had him studying Voice with a leading Cantor of the day, Moshe Taube, and a love of interpreting the Prayers of our People ensued. A lifelong active Member of the Habonim/DROR Socialist Zionist Youth Movement, a return to Judaism did not take much awakening. Being a keen observer and participant in the life of Our People, motivates him to invite dialogue on where we go from here!