Hazzan Shayndel Adler began her journey as prayer leader around the age of ten years old as a soloist in Cantor Moti Fuchs’ children’s choir at Temple Beth Shalom (TBS), a Conservative synagogue in Southern NJ. She continued leading prayer at TBS and also at another shul, Temple Har Zion, through her Bat Mitzvah and Confirmation from Hebrew high school. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Nashville, TN where she graduated high school and studied Psychology at the University of TN in Knoxville.

In 1995, she moved to Israel and attended an ulpan on Kibbutz Ein Dor, where she studied Hebrew and taught kindergarten. After a year in Israel, Shayndel moved to Berkeley, CA and became an early childhood educator and a Hebrew school teacher. Then she moved to the redwoods of Northern CA to complete a degree at Humboldt State University in Liberal Studies Elementary Education with minors in Speech Communications and Teaching English as a Second Language. She earned a Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential and taught all subjects, with a special emphasis on music, in many of the local schools. Through all of her years in Humboldt, Shayndel was a prayer leader and religious school teacher at Temple Beth El in Eureka.

After completing her teaching credential, Shayndel served in many positions at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach, CA: as a songleader for the religious school and preschool, high school youth group director, Hebrew and religious school teacher and soloist in the High Holiday choir.

In Southern CA, Shayndel studied the healing arts and earned her certification as a holistic health practitioner. On the days that she was not working at the synagogue, she was a part-time therapist, with an emphasis on helping people to recover from traumatic injuries as well as geriatric and prenatal care. Shayndel was always interested in the field of music therapy and in 2000, she began her training to become a singing teacher of ‘The School of Uncovering the Voice’, a spiritual and therapeutic singing modality.

In 2005, Shayndel moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills with her husband and daughter. She taught full- time at a Waldorf Charter School (an approach to education that integrates music and art into all subjects) and also taught Jewish music and religious school for Chabad of Roseville. She subsequently had two more beautiful children; became a cantorial soloist and religious school teacher at B’nai Harim in Grass Valley and taught choir, music, art, Hebrew and all core subjects at multiple Waldorf Schools. In 2009, she recorded an album, ‘Shema: Hebrew Songs for All Ages’ with a correlating songbook as a resource for Jewish music for the cycle of the year.

As a lifelong prayer leader, Shayndel yearned to deepen her knowledge of Jewish liturgy and Judaica and in 2011, she was accepted into the Aleph Cantorial Ordination Program. After eight years of seminary, and interning as a cantor at Congregation Bet Haverim in Davis, CA, she was ordained as a Hazzan/Spiritual Leader in January 2019. Shayndel has officiated as a High Holiday Cantor in various synagogues in California, NJ and the Virgin Islands over the past ten years. She currently serves as a cantor at two congregations and is a singing teacher and education consultant in Davis, CA. Shayndel is skilled in traditional nusach, congregational melodies, chant and niggunim and composes original liturgical pieces. Her leadership style is engaging, spiritual, heart-opening and accessible.