Cantor Hollis Suzanne Schachner

Cantor Hollis Suzanne Schachner (she/her) has been delighted to serve on the clergy team of Temple Shir Tikva since July 2001. She believes in the power of music to strengthen community in prayer, friendship, and across differences, and sees her leadership role as empowering the congregation to raise up its own voice. She is passionate about learning and teaching Torah, advocating for social justice, and is a dedicated pastoral counselor. Cantor Hollis is especially excited about exploring new pathways to deeper connections through meditation, Mussar, Jewish yoga, and the contemplative offerings of the TST Center for Jewish Spirituality.

Cantor Hollis grew up in Miami, Florida, where she was a musical theatre major at the New World School of the Arts and studied in the jazz and vocal performance departments of the University of Miami, where her crowning achievement was fronting a Joni Mitchell Ensemble before graduating with double majors in Music and Judaic Studies. She was then the Cantorial Soloist at Temple Israel of Greater Miami where her voice was heard weekly throughout South Florida on a live Shabbat radio broadcast. During her studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion she served Temple B’nai Israel of Woodbury, Connecticut for three years until her ordination in May, 2001.

Cantor Hollis is a founding board member of the organization “Uprooted: A Jewish Communal Response to Fertility Journeys,” a member of the second Clergy Leadership Program cohort of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and was trained by Manchim: Advanced Certification in Mussar Facilitation program of The Mussar Institute.

Cantor Hollis is still a musical theatre nerd who also loves throwing pottery, cooking for crowds, reading in coffeeshops, travelling and camping. She and her husband Cantor Jeffrey Stock are the proud parents of Gavriel and Liat who are blessed to have had the gift of growing up as children of Temple Shir Tikva.