Celebrating Musical Innovation and Lifelong Dedication: 2025 Dr. Jack Gottlieb Jewish Music Studies Endowment Fund

The Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Dr. Jack Gottlieb Jewish Music Studies Endowment Fund for Composition: Cantor Justin Callis’ 25 and faculty member Cantor Jonathan Comisar ’00. These annual awards, made possible through the generosity of the Dr. Jack Gottlieb Jewish Music Studies Endowment Fund, celebrate two composers, one an emerging talent in new Jewish music and the other an accomplished composer over the age of 50. Presented as end-of-year academic honors, these awards celebrate outstanding musical achievement and the enduring role of composition in shaping Jewish spiritual life.

Cantor Justin Callis: A New Voice for an Ancient Story

Cantor Justin Callis is the recipient of the Dr. Jack Gottlieb Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music Student Composer Prize for his original cantata, The Song of Jonah. This culminating work, performed as part of his senior recital, brings together soloist, choir, and orchestra to explore the full arc of the Book of Jonah through music in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Through musical exploration that fuses storytelling, liturgical tradition, and personal reflection, Callis reimagines the biblical story of Jonah through centuries of musical interpretation and a bold original composition. Drawing inspiration from his childhood experience performing in a synagogue musical on the same subject, Callis’ cantata reflects a personal and artistic journey years in the making.

Presented in two acts, the recital featured historical and contemporary works that reflect Callis’ musical education—from classical Italian and church Latin to contemporary pop and jazz—before premiering his own composition. The Song of Jonah weds theatrical storytelling with the depth of sacred music, embodying a singular voice in liturgical creativity. Advised by faculty members Cantors Gerald Cohen and Joshua Breitzer ’11, the piece represents a powerful moment of reflection, innovation, and identity.

Cantor Jonathan Comisar: A Lifetime of Creativity and Mentorship

This year’s recipient of the Dr. Jack Gottlieb Yovel Award for Jewish Music Composition is Cantor Jonathan Comisar, Hebrew Union College faculty member and prolific composer whose work bridges synagogue music, classical composition, and musical theater. An internationally acclaimed composer and arranger Comisar’s pieces have been commissioned by leading congregation and Jewish institutions across North America—including Temple Emanu-El of NYC, Central Synagogue in New York, Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco), and the American Conference of Cantors (ACC). His piece for the ACC’s 60th anniversary premiered at the URJ Biennial. Trained at Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and most recently at Manhattan School of Music, Comisar’s musical voice is both grounded in classical rigor and attuned to the evolving needs of Jewish worship and expression. Comisar’s cantata, “To Bigotry No Sanction,” is a choral/chamber orchestra setting of George Washington’s celebrated Letter to the Jews of Newport (1790). A performance of the work is part of a documentary film featuring members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Beyond synagogue music, Comisar is an accomplished musical theater composer who has maintained strong connections to both the Jewish music world and creative musical pursuits, like musical theater. His works have been performed at the Public Theater, Don’t Tell Mama, and the New York Musical Theater Festival, where his show Things As They Are—based on the life of photographer Dorothea Lange—won the Audience Favorite Award.

Since 2009, Comisar has served as a faculty member at Hebrew Union College, teaching music theory, arranging, and composition. His mentorship has shaped decades of cantorial students, encouraging them to bring their full artistic selves into their work. In May of 2025, Comisar was honored at graduation for 25 years of service.

A Legacy of Musical Innovation

The Dr. Jack Gottlieb Jewish Music Studies Endowment Fund plays a pivotal role in advancing Jewish music. By recognizing the achievements of both emerging and established composers, the Fund ensures the perpetuation of a rich musical heritage that resonates with contemporary and future generations. In celebrating these achievements, we honor the past, enrich the present, and inspire the future of Jewish musical expression.

Through the generosity of the of the Dr. Jack Gottlieb Jewish Music Studies Endowment Fund and all who support and recognize the incomparable value of telling Jewish stories and traditions through music and art.

Dr. Jack Gottlieb, z”l, (1930-2011) was an internationally recognized composer of Jewish liturgical music and choral, opera, theater, and orchestral works, and a leading authority on Leonard Bernstein’s music. As Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, his influence now extends to generations of cantorial students. Dr. Gottlieb was an authority, author, and lecturer on the influence of Jewish popular, folk, theatrical, and liturgical music traditions on the rise of American popular music. He was a vocal proponent of reforging a connection between learned cantorial-training and aesthetic standards in American synagogues, and he advocated for liturgical music appropriate to the dignity of prayer and the sophistication of Hebrew liturgy. Dr. Gottlieb was awarded the posthumous Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Hebrew Union College in 2011 at Graduation Ceremonies in New York, where his composition Eitz Chayim was performed by Hebrew Union College’s cantorial students. A memorial concert commemorating his life and work was held on his third yahrzeit in 2014 at Hebrew Union College in New York, and the dedication of the Dr. Jack Gottlieb Jewish Music Studies Endowment Fund, by a gift from the Theophilous Foundation, took place on October 13, 2020, in honor of what would have been his 90th birthday.

Read about last year’s recipients: Honoring Excellence in Jewish Music – HUC