Our Faculty
Our program director is Cantor Alane Katzew.
Cantor Alane Simons Katzew, director of Music
Programming at the Union for Reform Judaism, is
editor of Divrei Shir, an adult education curriculum
that chronicles the development of music in the
Reform Synagogue from 1800's through the modern
day.

Cantor Katzew initiates and administers programs
aimed at educating synagogue musicians and lay
leaders about the interrelationship of worship and
music. She is an editorial consultant for
Transcontinental Music Publications and a featured
recording artist on the CDs Shabbat Anthology and
Nigun Anthology.

In 2006, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion awarded Alane a Doctor of Music degree
honoris causa in recognition of her 25 years as an
invested cantor. During that period, Cantor Katzew
served congregations in Ohio, Illinois and New York.
She was a cantor and faculty member at HUC-JIR in
Jerusalem, thereby becoming the first invested
woman cantor to function in the state of Israel.
Rabbi Richard S. Sarason, PhD.,
is Professor of Rabbinic Literature
and Thought at Hebrew Union
College, and is the Associate Editor
of the Hebrew Union College
Annual. He was ordained at
HUC-JIR. Before joining the
College-Institute faculty, he taught
Religious Studies at Brown
University where he earned a Ph.D.
His specialties are classical rabbinical
literature, history of Judaism in late
antiquity, Midrash and Liturgy.
Cantor Bruce L. Ruben, Ph.D.,  is
the Director of the School of Sacred
Music (SSM) at Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion
(HUC-JIR). He has taught Jewish
history courses at HUC-JIR and the
history of Jewish music at The Julliard
School. For the past fifteen years, he
has served as an adjunct professor of
history at Hunter College, where he
has taught courses on World History,
Modern Jewish History, and the
Holocaust. Since 1982, he has served
as the Cantor of Temple Shaaray
Tefila in New York City, where he has
organized special music programs with
professional and volunteer choirs,
written as well as commissioned and
premiered new works by leading
composers, taught adult education
courses on the history of Jewish
music, history, and liturgy, and
developed innovative services for
increased congregational
participation. He has fostered
interfaith relations as a leader in the
Yorkville Christian-Jewish Council, and
has been active for many years in
community activities at a
neighborhood senior citizen center.
Cantor Yvon Shore is
the  Director of Liturgical
Arts at Hebrew Union
College. She was invested
as a Cantor by the School
of Sacred Music in 1995,
and formerly served as the
Cantor of Temple Beth-El
in Hillsborough, NJ.
Since his appointment in 1974 as
Director of Liturgical Arts at Hebrew
Union College, Bonia Shur has taught
hundreds of rabbinical students.
Composer Shur has had a unique
impact on music in the Reform Jewish
Movement in America. He has over 300
published compositions in use in the
synagogues and on stage across the
country and abroad and is a versatile
composer. In addition to his vast
liturgical repertoire, he has written for
theater, television and film. Mr. Shur
has an extremely diverse background;
he was born in Latvia, escaped the Nazi
invasion, fought in the Russian Army,
emigrated to Israel, and lived on
kibbutz for many years before coming
to the United States in 1960. His music
integrates and reflects the many
diverse cultural heritages in which he
has lived.
Cantor Andrew Bernard, PhD., received his bachelor of
music and bachelor of arts degrees from Oberlin College,
majoring in piano performance and pre-med. He went on
to earn both the masters and doctorate in choral
conducting from the University of Washington, where he
was a student of Abraham Kaplan.

Andrew was invested as a cantor and received the master
of sacred music degree in the spring of 1998. His masters
project, a basic music theory textbook to teach the Jewish
prayer modes, has been integrated into the cantorial
training at the HUC–JIR School of Sacred Music in New
York.

He serves on the Union for Reform Judaism’s Joint
Commission on Worship, Music and Religious Living, and is
one of the authors of a Jewish music curriculum that was
published by the American Conference of Cantors.
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Ben Steinberg was born in Winnipeg,
Canada, was educated at Toronto's Royal
Conservatory of Music and the University of
Toronto. The son of an orthodox cantor, he
is well known across Canada and the U.S. for
his lecture-recitals on Jewish Music history
and style, and has conducted and lectured
overseas in such places as Israel, Hong Kong,
Australia and Japan. A professional composer
of both sacred and secular music, he is one
of the most widely commissioned composers
of Jewish music worldwide. His works,
published in the U.S., Canada and Israel,
include Sabbath services, choral and
orchestral settings, instrumental and vocal
chamber music and solo pieces. In addition
to his published music, Steinberg is author of
two books on adult and youth choirs and is
a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Music in
Canada. His honors include: the l983 Kavod
Award from the Cantors' Assembly
(Conservative), the l990 Guild of Temple
Musicians' inaugural Shomer Shira Award,
honorary membership in the American
Conference of Cantors in l992, a Composer's
Award from the American Harp Society in
l983, and the honorary degree of Doctor of
Humane Letters from New York’s Hebrew
Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in
l998. On Nov. 12, 2004, he was honored by
the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism for
Lifetime Achievement. On Dec. 6, 2001, the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
presented him with its highest honor, the
‘Eisendrath Bearer of Light’ award. He has
been twice honored by the City of
Jerusalem, which invited him to be an artist-
in-residence at its creative retreat. There he
researched and wrote his cantata "Echoes
of Children" which won the prestigious l979
International Gabriel Award. He is the
founding chairman of two unique annual
competitions which encourage young
musicians to compose and perform; his
congregation's "Ben Steinberg Musical
Legacy Award" to a young performing artist,
and the Guild of Temple Musicians' "Young
Composer's Award". Currently Co-President
of the Guild of Temple Musicians, he is
Director Emeritus of Music and Composer-in-
Residence at Temple Sinai in Toronto. In
recognition of his contribution to Canadian
music and Jewish music worldwide, the
University of Calgary (Alberta) has
established a “Ben Steinberg Archive” to
house his original manuscripts, scores and
papers.
Alan Mason is a graduate of the
Manhattan School of Music where he
received the Bachelor of Music and Master
of Music degrees, and the University of
Miami, where he received the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree. Since 1996, Dr.
Mason has been Associate Professor of
Music at Barry University in Miami Shores,
Florida where teaches piano, vocal
accompanying, and music history. Alan has
been the Director of Music at Temple
Israel of Greater Miami since 1991

Alan has been the pianist and Musical
Director for the Southeast Regional
Biennial Conferences of the Union for
Reform Judaism in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
He has also played at the National Biennials
in 2003, 2005, and 2007. In 2004, Alan
played five concerts at the Limmud
Conference, an international conference of
Jewish scholarship held in Nottingham,
England.

Alan has been an accompanist at the
North American Jewish Choral Festival since
2001, and has completed several course of
study for synagogue musicians held on the
Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College.

Alan has accompanied recitals for Cantor
Alberto Mizrahi throughout the midwest
and southeast, with the highlight of their
collaboration being a performance on
December 10, 2007, when they
performed for President George Bush’s
Hanukkah ceremony and party at the
White House.

Transcontinental Music has published five
of Alan’s piano accompaniments in Shabbat
Anthologies Volume II and IV.
Dr. Jayson Rodovsky Engquist is the
Music Editor of the URJ
Press/Transcontinental Music. Jayson has a
long history serving as music director, choir
conductor, and organist at various
synagogues,and was appointed in February
2005 as Synagogue Organist and music
director at Central Synagogue in New York
City. He is active in the GTM (Guild of
Temple Musicians) and the American Guild of
Organists. In addition, Jayson has extensive
experience in editing and arranging. Jayson
holds a B. Mus. degree in choral conducting
and organ performance, and M. Mus from
Yale University School of Music. He recently
released a CD of music from the Sephardic
tradition including Ladino songs recorded
with Cantor Richard Botton. The American
Society for Jewish Music recently presented
Mr. Engquist in concert at the Center for
Jewish Music in New York.