Rabbi Cantor Raina Siroty grew up in Los Angeles, California. She graduated with a Bachelor of
Music Degree in vocal performance with highest honors from the University of California in Santa
Barbara. Rabbi Siroty enrolled in the Cantorial program at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music in New York where she received a
master’s in sacred music in 2009 and was ordained as a Cantor in 2010, serving as the Cantor at
Congregation Shomer Emunim, in Toledo, Ohio.
In 2013, she went back to seminary and entered the Rabbinical program at Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. She received a Master in Hebrew Letters in May 2014
and her rabbinical ordination in May 2017.
Rabbi Siroty has grown through professional development in fieldwork as a Chaplain at Cedars Sinai
Medical Center, providing comfort to patients of all faiths. Additionally, she is honored to have
served as an Associate Professor of Synagogue Music and as a T’filah Advisor at HUC-JIR.
Also, while attending Rabbinical school, Rabbi Siroty worked as auxiliary clergy at Temple Isaiah in
Los Angeles and also served as a High Holy Day Cantor for several synagogues around the
country.
From 2017 to 2023, Rabbi Siroty served as a solo Rabbi and the Cantor of Congregation Gemiluth
Chassodim in Alexandria, Louisiana. She was the first woman Rabbi of this congregation since it
was established in 1859. She also served as the Rabbi for Central Louisiana and for the Fort Polk
Army Base. She served as a Board Member of the Central Louisiana Fostering Community and
CenLa Interfaith and spent summers as faculty at Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Jackson, Mississippi.
She is a past President of SWARR, the Southwestern Association of Reform Rabbis and taught as
an Alumni seminar instructor of “History of Reform Judaism” for rabbinical and cantorial students at
HUC-JIR.
Rabbi Siroty earned a graduate certificate in Gerontology and Palliative Care from Yeshiva
University and is a member of the Woman’s Rabbinic Network.
Since July 2023, Rabbi Siroty has enjoyed her position of our solo rabbi at Temple Beth El,
Knoxville, Tennessee. Most recently she served as faculty at URJ Camp Coleman.
Rabbi Siroty lives in the Rocky Hill community of Knoxville and is a proud mother to her son, Gabriel.
