Cantor Josee Wolff, D.Min.

Cantor Wolff is an adjunct faculty member at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and a faculty member of the Cantorial School at the Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Berlin, Germany. Cantor Wolff currently teaches a two-year course to train lay-leaders for the Dutch Liberal communities. Previously she was Director of the Department of Synagogue Music of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and served Reform congregations in the U.S. and Europe for the past 25 years. She was the Spiritual Leader of Temple Sholom in Floral Park, interim senior cantor at Temple Shaaray Tefilah in New York City, and currently serves Temple Beth Jacob in Newburgh, NY (during the year) and Temple Beth Shalom in Annapolis, MD (during the High Holy Days). She was the cantor of Temple Shalom in Succasunna, NJ, Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City, the Liberal Jewish Congregation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas, USVI, and Temple Adath Yeshurun in Manchester, NH. A past member of the executive board of the American Conference of Cantors, she enjoys leading worship and teaching about synagogue music and worship throughout the Progressive Jewish world. 

Cantor Wolff has performed at Cantorial concerts in the US, South America, Europe, and Israel, including the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has led worship and taught at regional and national URJ events, the World Union of Progressive Judaism, The Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, at the Jewish Music Institute in London, LIMMUD, CAJE, the North American Jewish Choral Festival, and Cantorial conventions. Cantor Wolff can be heard on Shabbat Anthology and Songs from a Passover Haggadah (Transcontinental Music Publications), and Jubilee Concert (School of Sacred Music 50th Anniversary recording). She is co-author of The Art of Torah Cantillation, and The Art of Cantillation, Volume 2, published by UAHC Press, and music editor of the CCAR Haggadah, The Open Door. Cantor Wolff produced the CD Tov Lehodot, Voices from the Dutch Liberal Community and is one of the contributors to the WRJ Women’s Torah Commentary. 

A native of the Netherlands, Cantor Wolff holds a degree in flute from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. In 1991 she received her M.S.M. from HUC-JIR’s Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music and was the first woman from the European continent to be ordained as a cantor. In 2010 Cantor Wolff received her D.Min. degree from HUC-JIR. And in 2016, Cantor Wolff received her honorary D.S.M. from her Alma Mater, HUC-JIR, from its Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music.