Cantor Rebecca Garfein

Cantor Rebecca Garfein, mezzo-soprano, is the senior cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City and is the first female cantor to hold this position. Cantor Garfein made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 with Mandy Patinkin in a benefit concert for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater. She graduated cum laude from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and in 1993 received her Master’s Degree in Sacred Music and Cantorial Ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR).

How do Reform congregations commemorate Kristallnacht?

Cantor Rebecca Garfein
Kristallnacht, which literally means, “the night of broken glass,” occurred on the night of November 9, 1938, and marks the beginning of the Holocaust. On Kristallnacht, Jewish homes, synagogues, and businesses were destroyed by the Nazis and the streets in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe were covered with glass from the shattered windows of synagogues, Jewish homes, and businesses.