About me

Cantor Jordan S. Franzel has served Congregation Or Ami in Lafayette Hill, PA since July of 2002. He received his Masters of Sacred Music from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion – Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music and was ordained as a Cantor in 1996. In 2021, Cantor Franzel received an honorary doctorate in music from the seminary.

 

Prior to his pulpit in Pennsylvania, Cantor Franzel served as Senior Cantor of Central Synagogue in New York City and the Touro Synagogue in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been on the faculty of a number of URJ summer programs including the Hava Nashira Institute for Jewish Songleaders and Musicians, and has served on the editorial board for the different forms of the Union songbook, Shireinu.

 

Cantor Franzel spent nearly a decade singing and working alongside of Israeli singer/songwriter & composer, Danny Maseng and can be heard on two CDs of his liturgical music. Cantor Franzel has numerous recordings of his own compositions, available on most streaming sites. Cantor Franzel’s music has been utilized at Hebrew Union College, various congregations and camps around the country and beyond, including a URJ Biennial. A number of his liturgical settings have been published in several volumes of a Shabbat Anthology published by Transcontinental Music Publications. 

 

Cantor Franzel has been commissioned to compose music for Temple Rodeph Sholom, the Park Avenue Synagogue, both in New York City, Eisner Camp, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis for the new CCAR Machzor.

 

In 2019 Cantor Franzel was the recipient of the American Conference of Cantors’ Baal Chazon award in the area of Sacred Music for his original musical compositions interpreting the teachings and stories of Rebbe Nachman.

 

Cantor Franzel is a member of the American Conference of Cantors, longtime member of the ACC Nominating Committee, is a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and is a serious and longtime devotee of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.