Cantor Elizabeth Sacks: Music that Speaks to Our Experience

Worship and prayer are at the center of Jewish life. Cantor Sacks explores how we can continue to create meaningful and transformative worship experiences through music and song. Cantor Sacks serves as the Senior Cantor of Temple Emanuel in Denver, Colorado. Raised in New York, Cantor Sacks was ordained as a cantor in 2007 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). She was a recipient of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship in Jewish communal leadership and earned several awards as a cantorial student for Traditional Hazzanut, Talmud, and Midrash. Cantor Sacks holds a B.A. in Jewish Studies and Music from Harvard University where she was active in Harvard Hillel and music community service programs. From 2007-2012, Cantor Sacks served as the Associate Cantor at Central Synagogue in New York, where she focused on worship, education and young professional engagement. Cantor Sacks was also a faculty member at Mechon Hadar, an educational institute that empowers Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah learning, prayer, and service. Cantor Sacks is currently the chair of the HUC-JIR Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music Alumni Association and the vice-chair of the HUC-JIR Council of Alumni. Cantor Sacks is married to Elias Sacks, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Cantor Sacks, Eli, and their son Charlie live in Denver.