Rabbi Yosef Goldman

Yosef is a prayer facilitator, composer, educator, and rabbi. Raised in a mixed Orthodox Ashkenazi and Mizrachi home, Yosef has taught and led prayer in communities of every Jewish movement. He has served as a ba’al tefillah (prayer leader) for some of the most spiritually vibrant and creative prayer communities in the United States and Israel, including Romemu and B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, the Kitchen in San Francisco, and Beit Tefila Yisraeli in Israel. For over a decade, as a consultant, Yosef has advised synagogues and prayer communities seeking to deepen the communal spiritual experience through musical prayer.

Yosef’s original Jewish music is sung at synagogues, schools, and camps across the country. His first album of original music, Open My Heart, was released by Hadar's Rising Song Institute in winter 2019. As a sought-after vocalist, Yosef performs and records with a wide range of Jewish artists. He is a longtime featured vocalist in the Hadar Ensemble, with Joey Weisenberg, and a founding member of the Middle Eastern Jewish music ensemble the Epichorus. Along with trombonist Dan Blacksberg, Yosef was selected by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts for its 2018–19 Jazz Residency. His next album, Abita, will be released this fall.

Yosef received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2013, with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling, and was awarded a Master of Sacred Music. He and his wife, Rabbi Annie Lewis serve as Co-Senior Rabbis at Shaare Torah, in Gaithersburg, MD, outside Washington, DC, where they live with their children, Zohar Lieba and Shir Emet.