About EMJC

Rabbi Cantor Sam Levine

Rabbi Cantor Sam Levine has been EMJC’s Cantor since 2004. He was born in Jerusalem, raised in Toronto, Canada, and spent a decade in California’s Monterey Bay area before moving to New York. He graduated from H.L. Miller Cantorial School and the Seminary College of Jewish Music at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. His musical interests are diverse: he is an aficionado of traditional Jewish liturgical music, plays in a Ladino ensemble, and has played in various folk-rock-country groups. He directs EMJC’s Chorus, composes and arranges music for the synagogue, and writes and records original songs. Rabbi Cantor Levine lives in Brooklyn.

Rabbi Emeritus Dr. Alvin Kass

Rabbi Emeritus Dr. Alvin Kass was the spiritual leader of EMJC for 36 years until his retirement in 2014. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in History from Columbia University, and a B.H.L. and M.H.L. from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he also received rabbinical training. He earned a Ph.D in History and Philosophical Foundations of Education from New York University. Besides graduating Summa Cum Laude and being the Class Salutatorian of his undergraduate class at Columbia, he was also a Quackenbush Foundation Scholar and a Harry J. Carman and National Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Rabbi Kass was appointed to the New York City Police Department in 1966, making him the most tenured chaplain in the NYPD. In 2002 he was promoted to Chief Chaplain. He teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and lectures at Temple Emanuel’s Skirball Center. He is the author of Politics in New York State, 1800-1830 (Syracuse University Press, 1965).

Audrey Korelstein

Director of Education & Engagement Audrey Korelstein is a specialist in Jewish education and creates childhood and family programming in New York. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University, magna cum laude, and a Master of Arts from The City University of New York, Hunter College (Anthropology and Archaeology). She was a Lipsey Scholar, a scholarship recipient from the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women, and she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.