Roskin takes cantorial position in Charlotte

Cantor Jessica Roskin will be the interim cantor at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, N.C., this coming year.

The 850-family congregation made the announcement on May 5 in an email from President Alan Kronovet, Rabbi Asher Knight and COO Jonathan Friedman. They said Roskin “will focus on supporting our B’nei Mitzvah program, leading Shabbat and Holiday services with our clergy team, and offering pastoral care.”

In late January, Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas, who has served the congregation for 20 years, announced that she was stepping down to become the placement director for the American Conference of Cantors, a position that will enable her to remain in Charlotte.

Because hiring season was well underway, the search committee decided to focus on an interim cantor for the coming year, and launch a search for a permanent successor next year.

This past year, Roskin has been visiting cantor at Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville, visiting monthly on weeks when the interim rabbi, Scott Colbert, was not there. She was previously cantor at Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham until September 2019.

Beth El’s associate rabbi is Lexi Erdheim, who moved to Charlotte last summer after serving Gates of Prayer in Metairie as rabbinic intern, then as assistant rabbi after her ordination in 2019. She also had spent two summers as director of Jewish life at the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica.

The congregation also recently welcomed Rachel Glazer as assistant director of youth education and engagement. Glazer had spent the previous seven years in Jackson with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, starting in community engagement but most recently as assistant director of education, and as religious school administrator for Beth Israel. She will also be on staff at Camp Coleman in Georgia during the summer.