Rachel Goldman Neubauer

Rachel Goldman Neubauer
Cantor

Rachel Goldman Neubauer currently serves as Student Cantor, spiritual counselor, and de facto ritual director at Beit T’shuvah.  She is abundantly grateful to work alongside Laura Bagish and James Fuchs, two spectacular musicians that partially make up the Music in Recovery program in which she leads.
Growing up in the classical music scene as a chorister from a young age, Rachel had already sung on some of Los Angeles' largest stages (such as the Hollywood Bowl and the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion) and trained for several years in opera before choosing the path of the cantorate. With the help and encouragement of great mentors and teachers, her passion for Judiasm and desire to leave a positive mark on people's lives along with her love of music made such a choice inevitable. 

Currently in the Cantorial program at the Academy of Jewish Religion Los Angeles, Rachel is both tremendously enjoying her ever-expanding Jewish knowledge and eager for her ordination in 2014. Though still very young in the Cantorial world, Rachel has already spent many years pouring energy into finding ways to communicate her neshama (soul) through singing and engaging congregants during worship. Her undergraduate studies at the American Jewish University sparked a great interest in Jewish philosophy and rabbinic texts--she has enjoyed bringing such texts to her spiritual counseling clients at Beit T'shuvah, Working frequently with the Beit T'shuvah Band, she also has been able to broaden her experiences with more contemporary Jewish Liturgical Music. A big fan of the 12-step program and a first-hand witness to the potential of recovery, Rachel spends much of her time with colleagues exploring ways to expand and deliver such messages of hope and openness to the Jewish Community at large. While working under her mentor Cantor Patti Linsky at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, Rachel was able to take over all of the B'nai Mitzvah preparations during the Cantor's medical leave for seven months. During this time, Rachel developed a great love and ability for working with adolescents in a Jewish setting--a skill that has helped her tremendously in her work with addicts in early recovery.
A product of Beit T’shuvah herself, Rachel has proudly been a member of the Beit T’shuvah community for 5 years.  She is married to her husband Nathaniel, whom she met through the Beit T’shuvah community.