Ze’evi Berman is a cantorial student at Hebrew Union College ‒ Jewish Institute of Religion, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, and anticipates being ordained in 2022. They grew up at Temple Shalom of Newton, Massachusetts and at URJ Eisner Camp during the summers. They earned a BA in Vocal Performance from Bennington College. During their time at Bennington, they co-founded Bennington College’s first Jewish student organization, Kulanu, and held internships at the Boston Jewish Music Festival, Romemu, and Keshet (an LGBTQ Jewish advocacy nonprofit). Following graduation, they moved to NYC to pursue their love of Jewish music and education. Before beginning cantorial school, Ze’evi served as a tefilah leader and music educator at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Congregation Beth Elohim, East End Temple, Astoria Center of Israel, and Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. They developed, taught, and led engaging and innovative tefilot and Jewish music curricula for preschoolers, young professionals, and all ages in between. Ze’evi also worked as a project coordinator on the URJ-Youth team, focusing on expanding social justice and arts programming for teens. During their first year of studies at HUC-JIR, DFSSM in Jerusalem, Ze’evi was the student cantor for Kehillat HaShachar in Even Yehuda. The following summer, Ze’evi returned to URJ Eisner Camp as Head Songleader. In their second year of cantorial school in NYC, Ze’evi served as the student cantor at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan. In their free time, Ze’evi enjoys practicing hand balancing and circus partner acrobatics.
