Cantor Rachel Weston

Rachel Weston is a cantor, educator, song collector and performer of Yiddish song and Khazones (Ashkenazi cantorial music). She was ordained in May 2023 after five years of study at New York's Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music, where she was the recipient of the Koret Foundation Scholarship and the Atara Scholarship for Merit, and received a masters of sacred music.

After being ordained, she was the cantor of Sinai Synagogue in Leeds, making history as the first cantor in the UK to serve as sole spiritual leader of a Reform community.

For the past fifteen years, she has coordinated and taught Yiddish song and niggunim workshop programmes for the Jewish Music Institute, SOAS, Kleznorth, Klezfest London, WOMAD festival, London and Brighton Yiddish choir, Limmud, Klezkanada, and Yiddish Summer Weimar.

Rachel performs Yiddish song and Khazones internationally including concerts in London, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, Weimar, Berlin, Krakow and Chrzanow (Poland), Vienna, and the University of Yale’s School of Sacred Music.

Alongside her synagogue leadership, Rachel is committed to music as a tool for healing and connection and facilitates therapeutic workshops for people with dementia and their caregivers.

Rachel is delighted to be co-serving the Kehillah Community as their interim spiritual leader.