November 18, 2025
“The role of the khazn is to make the sound reach heaven and reach our soul, and affect us and change us, and make us connected, l’dor v’dor, to our ancestors—and to those living now, and to those in the future, so that we’re a chain.”
When Cantor Linda Rich talks about the chain connecting us from generation to generation, it’s not just an abstract metaphor. Cantor Rich is herself a fifth-generation cantor. And as the first woman to serve as cantor in a Conservative congregation, she stands as a link at the intersection of inherited tradition and a shifting landscape of leadership in American Jewish life.
The finale of our Voices of Change series turns to Cantor Rich’s story—from being shaped by early immersion in her family’s traditions, to finding her own route to her bashert vocation.
Cantor Rich discusses the joys of cantorial leadership in prayer and lifecycle events, and the opportunity for self-discovery along the way. Her perspective offers a clear view of both continuity and transformation: how a deeply rooted lineage can evolve, adapt, and still “make the sound reach heaven.”
Make the Sound Reach Heaven: An Interview with Linda Rich
Happy Birthday, David Amram! The 95-year-young polymath that has released two new albums this year can’t seem to stop making music. When Moment Magazine recently asked the forever-young composer, optimist, and well-spring of sage advice if there was a route to happiness, he replied: “Do what you dream you were put here to do. Even if you have to have other ways to pay your rent.” At 95, Amram is still doing just that, actively composing, performing, and “still trying to get it right,” just as he was when we interviewed him at 86.
