Zöe Jacobs – the leader bringing the sound of music to shul

They were not a family who attended shul every week, but any involvement Jacobs, 45, did have in Jewish life as a child was “very positive”. When her batmitzvah came around, she “started to really love being Jewish and being in synagogue”. The scheme that the shul has now for its bnei mitzvah students, where an older student teaches a 12-year-old, is the same programme that existed when she was having her own batmitzvah. “It was truly life changing,” she says. “I absolutely loved it. I realised I love music, I love Judaism, and then I loved becoming a teacher...”

At that time, she did not yet know what a cantor was, because cantors did not exist in Britain’s Progressive movement. At 17, she went to Kutz in America – a youth leadership summer camp of the American Reform movement for Jewish teenagers who were passionate about their Judaism. She loved the music there and met the cantor Ellen Dreskin who explained her role to Jacobs.

“I realised she was describing my perfect job and all the things that I was the most passionate about coming together.”

She immersed herself further in Jewish music, took singing lessons, and at 22, after a degree in Jewish history at Southampton University, she embarked on training to become an ordained cantor, at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion based in New York and Israel.

“It was a complete gift, and I loved it,” says Jacobs. “But then the question was: would there ever be a job in the UK for me?”

Zöe JacobsPhoto: Josh Mason-Barkin

Luckily, FRS, which had been looking for both a rabbi and a music director, took the plunge by appointing her – the first ordained clergy whose responsibility was music – in 2009.

“I often say, a cantor is a singing rabbi,” says Jacobs. “And FRS were quite open minded about it, and said, ‘well it’s never been done before – let's try.’”

Her greatest priority from the beginning has been bringing in young people to play on a Friday night. Jacobs sits at the heart of this big group of musicians.

“Weirdly, I don't love performing,” she says. “I'm taking responsibility for the music, but I'm very rarely making the music on my own. I am really committed and invested in communicating text and leading prayer. That's what I care the most about.”

The FRS choir now totals 45 people. “For me, a really good Shabbat or festival is one where a lot of musicians have been involved. That's always going to enrich the community, because the more voices, the more meaningful it is. When I sing with a choir and there's lots of beautiful harmony, it gives me the shivers, and I can't stop smiling. That's what fills my soul.”

While Jacobs became the first cantor in the Progressive movement after her return to England, she stresses that there was already a rich history of Jewish music in Anglo Jewry. She cites the Progressive movement’s strong choral tradition, due to the music directors before her, and she singles out Viv Bellos for her “extraordinary number” of choirs in her role at Alyth shul.

“My American colleagues are jealous of the fact that we have a 45-person choir, and it is amazing,” says Jacobs.

In her role, Jacobs makes her choice of music both according to the Jewish calendar and what hopes to achieve in the service. A musical choice well-made will, in itself, communicate the text. “You can get a sense of, is this evoking joy? Does it have the weightiness of the High Holy Days? Hopefully that melody is helping to communicate the text, so you don't need to be super knowledgeable about what the liturgy says, if the music helps to narrate that liturgy.”

For almost every text, there are somewhere between five and ten compositions with which Jacobs is familiar, which each communicate the text in a different way. That Jacobs’ new role began not long after October 7 has dramatically shaped her services. Every Shabbat service has differed, with the music tailored according to events in Israel and beyond. “I'm intrigued to see what it's like to lead our community when Israel's not at war, honestly,” she says, sombrely.

“There have been weeks where I thought, is it just too much sad music, because we're choosing gentle music as the world is so hard and we need to give people space. But other times we've said, we need some joy, and if nothing terrible has happened, we're going to use Shabbat to pick people up a little bit.”

She adds, “Essentially, the music, just as a soundtrack in a film, helps to create that emotional journey, and that accompanies the liturgy.”

When most Jews think of the well-known liturgical song Shalom Aleichem, the traditional tune written by Samuel Goldfarb comes to mind. But at FRS, Debbie Friedman's version is most often sung.

“It was probably the last song she wrote before she died,” says Jacobs, who was taught by Friedman at Hebrew Union College where she was ordained. “It's really beautiful, and it has a totally different feel and is in a different mode. It has a slightly more peaceful, almost ethereal quality to it.”

Friedman died at 59 in 2011, leaving a vast anthology of contemporary shul music. “If I had to pick one person whose way of leading music had the most impact on me, who taught me so much about what it means to lead a community, to bring joy, and whose music really impacted the soundscape of Jewish music, it would be Debbie.”

Friedman’s songs are on the setlist for Saturday’s concert, which includes performances by Jacobs and fellow women cantors working in the Reform movement – Rachel Weston, Sarah Grabiner, and Tamara Wolfson, and Chessy Weiner who is in training. Also joining the event will be chazan Jacky Chernett, from the Masorti movement, who was ordained and working from 2008.

The concert also features Judith Silver, with whom Jacobs often sings, Gareth Malone, made famous from fronting BBC documentary The Choir, and who now directs the FRS choir, and instrumentalist Theo Travis.

Since the concert honours 50 years of women in the cantorate, American singer Barbara Ostfeld, the first woman cantor, will be at its heart, as one of those who paved the way.

“I feel like I'm standing on incredibly important shoulders,” says Jacobs, adding her gratefulness that to be a woman cantor in 2025 – in the Progressive movement at least – is “not a big deal”.

“I feel incredibly grateful for people like Barbara, who actually was the only woman in her class and was told, ‘Don't sing this: it's written for male tenors and you're an alto.’ So many women did have to go through a process of, how do I find my voice?”

The big question around her leading the FRS community had nothing to do with her gender, but instead: “What does it mean to be a cantor?”

The concert will also honour Jacobs, since she did not have an induction when she took on the new role.

“The concert will honour the fact that I have the privilege of leading this team, that FRS have been brave enough to let a cantor lead a clergy team,” says Jacobs. “That is where the honour is.”

Jacobs now wants to see more cantors in Britain and is keen to show people that the role of cantor as a member of clergy is something they should consider if they're passionate about music and prayer. In doing so, she hopes to inspire others to follow her path. “That would be the greatest gift for me.”