By Victor LoganTue, June 15 2021 4:30 PM

NAACPAC Youtube Channel.

Cantor Jacqueline Menaker is honored to serve Shirat Hayam as Reform Spiritual Leader and feels blessed to be able to create vibrant, warm, and inclusive worship, educational, programmatic, and life cycle experiences for all members of the Shirat Hayam family. She comes to Shirat Hayam following eighteen years of service as co-clergy at Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando.

Cantor Jacki is an active member of the American Conference of Cantors (ACC) and currently serves on its Executive Board. A passionate advocate of social justice issues grounded in Jewish values, Cantor Jacki was recently appointed to the Core Leadership Team of New Jersey Religious Action Center and also serves as the ACC liaison to the URJ Commission on Social Action and is a member of the South Jersey Board of Rabbis and Cantors, Avoda, and Shalom Hadassah. She has served as Vice President of Member Relations and External Partnerships and Secretary of the ACC, a member of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and the Community Council on Spirituality and Aging. In 2017, she co-founded the Orlando Chapter of HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir.

Cantor Jacki is a graduate of the 2010 cohort of the Kellogg School of Management’s Program for Jewish leaders and the 2012 cohort of Kol Zimra , a leadership program connected to Jewish Renewal led by Rabbi Shefa Gold. Cantor Jacki is dedicated to the pursuit of religious pluralism in Israel and is an advocate for deeper connections between Jewish Movements in North America. She strives to develop new ways to approach, invigorate, and create meaningful connections to Judaism’s rich and diverse cultural heritage with all members of the Shirat Hayam community. She is currently matriculating in the Rabbinical Ordination Program at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, New York, a seminary dedicated to training clergy in a pluralistic setting. Cantor Jacki received her cantorial investiture from Hebrew Union College Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music in 2007 and her B.A. degree from Emerson College. She and her husband Mitch reside in Egg Harbor Township with their Great Danes Bentley, Bella, and Shayna.