Our Clergy
Rabbi Eric Yanoff
Rabbi Eric Yanoff received his rabbinic ordination and a MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City in 2004. While at JTS, Rabbi Yanoff interned at Temple Israel in White Plains, served as a hospital chaplain at Westchester Medical Center, and taught Bible, Talmud, Philosophy, and Drama at the Solomon Schechter High School of New York.
A 1998 graduate of Princeton University, Rabbi Yanoff majored in Comparative Literature with a concentration in Jewish Studies, focusing his thesis work on the theme of childhood memory in French Holocaust survivor literature. As President of the Princeton Triangle Club, Rabbi Yanoff also co-wrote and produced several musical comedies which toured around the country. He continues to pursue his loves of playing piano and composing music and lyrics.
From 2004 to 2010, Rabbi Yanoff served Congregation Shaarey Zedek in the suburbs of Detroit, where he led several trips to Israel for teens, adults, and clergy colleagues. In 2010, he and his family moved to Philadelphia to join the beautiful Jewish community at Adath Israel. Since arriving at Adath Israel, he has felt blessed to be part of such a vibrant, energized, and diverse synagogue community that is growing – in numbers, depth, and ruach (spirit).
He is Past President of the West Bloomfield Interfaith Clergy Association and Community Forum, and currently serves as the Rabbi for Golden Slipper in Philadelphia, as well as on boards and committees for Camp Ramah in the Poconos, the Rabbinical Assembly, and Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. He is currently Co-President of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia.
Currently a LEAP Fellow through CLAL and the Katz Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Rabbi Yanoff was also named a STAR-PEER Fellow, joining an interdenominational cohort of rabbis to study with world-renowned rabbis, sociologists and organizational practitioners to gain a skill set to address key challenges posed by contemporary American religious life. He also joined a Young Rabbis’ Delegation of American Jewish World Service, traveling to Ghana to work in a school for rescued child slaves and those who are in danger to be sold into slavery. Rabbi Yanoff believes passionately in the ability of the Conservative synagogue to re-imagine itself to meet the needs and questions of the next generation of Jews.
Rabbi Yanoff met his wife, Dava, while on staff at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. He and Dava, a nursing student and dance teacher with a MA in Early Childhood Education, teamed up to design and implement the drama and Judaics curriculum at Ramah. They were married in September of 2003. In January 2007, Dava and Eric were blessed with their first son, Aiden Lev, followed by the arrival of Ezra Matan in December 2010 and Avi Ronen in April 2014. In November 2018, they welcomed their daughter, Anael Sarit.
You can reach Rabbi Yanoff at (610) 934-1918 or by clicking here.
Rabbi Andrew Markowitz
A Philadelphian through and through, Rabbi Andrew Markowitz grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, attended Akiba Hebrew Academy (receiving his high school diploma on the old Adath Israel bima) and graduated from Temple University with distinction.
Rabbi Markowitz received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2017. While studying for ordination, he earned his MA in Jewish Education from the William Davidson School of Education. Throughout Rabbi Markowitz’s tenure in Rabbinical School, he had the privilege of serving as an eved hashem, a communal servant, in a variety of settings. He interned at The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford, CT while simultaneously working as a campus Rabbi at the Hillel of the University of Hartford. Rabbi Markowitz spent his final three years at JTS serving Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, NJ as Director of Youth Engagement and Rabbinic Intern. Additionally, he had the privilege to spend a summer working as a hospital chaplain at Summit Medical Center in Summit, NJ in the oncology unit.
Most recently, Rabbi Markowitz served as Associate Rabbi/Director of Spiritual Programming at Beit T’Shuvah in Los Angeles - an inpatient Jewish addiction treatment facility and synagogue that combines the best practices of a traditional rehab with Jewish spirituality. He is certain that his finely honed skills of pastoral care and spiritual counseling will translate seamlessly into the congregational setting.
An inspiring educator, Rabbi Markowitz spent ten summers working, learning, and growing at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. His time at Ramah has had a profound impact on how Rabbi Markowitz understands the role that environment and relationships play in successful Jewish educational experiences. More importantly, Rabbi Markowitz met his wife, Michelle (who grew up in the Adath Israel community), while working at Ramah in 2007. They married at Adath Israel in 2012.
Rabbi Markowitz lives in Bala Cynwyd with Michelle and their sons, Simcha Ariel and Sasson Rafael. The Markowitzes are happy to be able to “return home” to Adath Israel.
You can reach Rabbi Markowitz at (610) 934-1917 or by clicking here.
Cantor Elizabeth Shammash
Cantor Elizabeth Shammash joined Adath Israel’s clergy team in July 2020. She received cantorial ordination and a Master of Sacred Music from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2007 and served as Cantor of Tiferet Bet Israel in Blue Bell, PA from 2007 to 2020. She enjoys sharing her passion for Judaism with congregants of all ages, connecting them to our rich liturgical and cultural traditions using music of diverse genres.
The daughter of a mother with roots in Latvian Jewry and a Baghdad-born father of Babylonian Jewish tradition who emigrated to America in 1947, Cantor Shammash feels the proud inheritance of two rich lineages. She is a member of the Cantors Assembly, for which she has served as a board member, and the American Conference of Cantors. She has participated in Cantors Assembly missions to Israel & Poland (2009), Germany (2012), Spain (2016) and looks forward to an upcoming mission to Italy in 2021.
Cantor Shammash is a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program and Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. She currently serves as a faculty member, teaching yoga and mindfulness to rabbis and cantors in the 18-month Clergy Leadership Program. She also teaches an ongoing weekly online yoga class for IJS, related to themes of the weekly Torah portion and the Jewish calendar. She is passionate about helping others bring Judaism into the body, voice and heart through both methodical and creative embodied practice.
Cantor Shammash received a B.A. from Brown University in Italian Studies, including a year of study at the University of Bologna. She is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music with a Master of Music in Voice Performance and holds an Artist Diploma from the Boston University Opera Institute.
Prior to entering Jewish Theological Seminary in 2004, her career in opera and concert included projects with New York City Opera, Beijing Music Festival, Israel Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra. Chamber music appearances have included the Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood and Marlboro Music.
Recent season highlights have included a program of Yiddish art song and an evening of Hebrew art song featuring Israeli composers, at YIVO in New York City. 2019-20 included a Leonard Bernstein 100th birthday concert at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center with the composer’s daughter, Jamie Bernstein as narrator. Cantor Shammash has recorded extensively for the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. She travels nationally with Divas on the Bima, a group she co-founded with three Conservative movement colleagues.
She and her husband, David Reed, make their home in Chestnut Hill with their dog Lenny.
Learn more about Cantor Shammash at www.elizabethshammash.com.
Find More Opportunities to Connect with Cantor Shammash here.
You can reach Cantor Shammash by clicking here.
Cantor Bernard Lowe, Emeritus
Cantor Bernard Lowe was born and raised in South Africa. From an early age, he participated in the life of the local Orthodox Synagogue and received intensive Jewish education, which included a thorough training in Jewish and cantorial music. He enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London in 1968 and spent his post-graduate years at the London Opera Center and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He spent a year studying and teaching at the renowned music school at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. After a period of intense study with Rabbi Ben Isaacson, himself a student of the great Cantor Israel Alter, Cantor Lowe was invited in 1980 to become Cantor at the largest Reform Temple in South Africa, Johannesburg’s Temple Emmanuel, where he served for five years. In 1985, he immigrated to the United States and took a position as successor to the late and revered Cantor Sol Sanders at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas. Following that, Cantor Lowe, along with his wife Callie and daughters Hedi and Jackie, moved to Philadelphia and to Adath Israel where he served as Cantor from 1992 to 2017.
