Rabbi Cantor Raina Siroty, our resident Rabbi is a Member of Central Conference of American Rabbis and Member of American Conference of Cantors. She grew up in Los Angeles, California and 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 in Sacred Music in 2009 and was ordained as a Cantor in 2010. She started her professional career in 2010 as a Cantor at Shomer Emunim, a 500-family congregation in Toledo, Ohio.
In 2012, she 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 and was an Alumni seminar instructor of “History of Reform Judaism” for first year rabbinical and cantorial students.
While attending Rabbinical school, Rabbi Siroty served as auxiliary clergy at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, tutoring, leading Shabbat and B’nai Mitzvah services, a Bereavement Group, Torah Study and library Minyan services. She 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 became and been an active member of Alexandria’s Interfaith Assembly, a Board Member of the Central Louisiana Fostering Community, 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. In 2022, she earned a graduate certificate in Gerontology and Palliative Care from Yeshiva University and is an active member of the Women’s Rabbinic Network.
She lives in the Rocky Hill neighborhood of Knoxville, and is the proud mother to her son Gabriel, who is starting 1st grade.
May we grow together, from strength to strength.
