Rabbi Albert Sebastian Chait MBE (born 26 February 1986) is an Orthodox Rabbi, Cantor, and Senior Rabbi to the United Hebrew Congregation in Leeds, United Kingdom. [1] [2] [3] [4] As a prominent younger Rabbi, his community service, talks and singing have a notable online presence, as well as in traditional national media. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Known by all as "Alby", he was born in Liverpool, son of Helena Chait and Rev. Henry Mark Chait, Cantor to the Southport Hebrew Congregation and later the Greenbank Congregation in Liverpool. He attended Manchester Jewish Grammar School, moving in 2004 to the Midrash Shmuel Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Chait supports Liverpool FC. [9]
Tutored by his father in cantorial music and ministerial duties, Chait first led services age 14. At 19 he was appointed in Leeds, where he is now Senior Rabbi to the United Hebrew Congregation, the largest UK congregation outside London, as well as Jewish Chaplain to Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust. [10]
Chait has led varied initiatives, such as in Holocaust Education, [11] and supporting healthcare workers. [12] With a notably high impact online especially during the pandemic, in January 2022 he was awarded MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for service to the Jewish community. [2] [10]
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this prayer leader is often referred to as a cantor, a term also used in Christianity.
Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah, known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance of the day was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset in 1959. It is held on the 27th of Nisan, unless the 27th would be adjacent to the Jewish Sabbath, in which case the date is shifted by a day.
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This is a timeline of women rabbis:
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