has been at Temple Israel Center for over 20 years, enriching our community with his beautiful Hazzanut. He teaches many of the B’nai Mitzvah, gives courses in adult education, teaches in the middle school and is always available for private tutoring to any congregant who would like to learn to read Torah or lead the congregation in prayer.

Cantor Jacob Ben-Zion Mendelson is the subject of the documentary film,
  “A Cantor's Tale”, directed by Erik Greenberg Anjou, currently playing in
film festivals throughout the world.  In reviewing the film, The New York
Times called him “a voice that heralds a culture”….”a documentary
filmmaker's dream”.

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he witnessed the dwindling days of the
Golden Age of Hazzanut.  Now, as both an international performer, and one
of the leading cantorial masters of today, he is passing on his art to a new
generation of Cantors.  For twenty-five years he has taught at the Hebrew
Union College, School of Sacred Music and the H.L. Miller Cantorial School
at the  Jewish Theological Seminary.  Cantor Mendelson has the unique honor of receiving honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College.

Jacob Mendelson is a graduate of the Hebrew Union College, School of Sacred Music and the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School.  Mendelson is the composer of “Weekday Mincha and Maariv” and “Improvisations on Shabbat Shacharit”  published by the Cantors Assembly, the organization in which he served as president in 2003 and 2004.  Recently he created the role of Shabtai Tz'vi in the world premiere of Richard Teitelbaum's “Scenes From Tz'vi” held at both Bard College and “La Biennale” in Venice.

Cantor Mendelson's discography includes “Cantorial Recitatives by Legendary Masters”, “The Birthday of the World” Part I and Part II, “Jewish Music and More”, recorded with his wife Cantor Fredda Mendelson, and most recently “Hazonos”, called “…jazz album of the year “ by Wired Magazine, and recorded with Frank London and his son, Daniel Mendelson.

Contact Cantor Mendelson at 914-948-2800 ext. 125 or by e-mail at Cantor Mendelson.