Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller came to Bet Am Shalom synagogue in 1989 with her husband, Rabbi Lester Bronstein. Together they led our Shabbat and holiday services in spirited, heartfelt song and prayer. Cantor Schiller founded and directed our congregational choir “Shirat Ha’am.”
Cantor Schiller also served as the Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman Professor of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual and Professor of Cantorial Arts at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. Her compositions include “Halleluhu,” a multi-rhythmic setting of Psalm 150, “Lamdeini,” “U’kratem D’ror– Proclaim Liberty,” an American/Jewish response to 9/11, and various commissioned works for choirs, synagogues and interfaith liturgical groups. “A World Fulfilled,” a solo recording of her compositions, was released in 2002. A collection of her synagogue compositions, “Azamrah, Songs of Benjie Ellen Schiller” was published in 2019 by Transcontinental Music. In 2019, Cantor Schiller received the “Hallel v’zimrah” award from the Jewish Choral Foundation for her compositions of Jewish choral music.
Cantor Schiller has served on the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality rabbinic and cantorial programs and the North American Jewish Choral Festival. She is certified by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality as a Jewish mindfulness meditation teacher.