Myrna Rabinowitz

Myrna Rabinowitz is a singer and songwriter of Jewish music. She has recorded six albums of Jewish music: three with Vancouver’s Jewish World Music band Tzimmes in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino; two albums of Jewish sacred music with the group Shir Hadash including Hanna Tiferet Siegel and Harley Rothstein in Hebrew and English; and she has recently released her first solo album “Hashiveinu” which includes original soulful music for Shabbat prayers and blessings for life’s celebrations from birth to marriage. Myrna has performed in Canada, the United States and internationally and is well known for her heartfelt interpretation of Jewish song.

The daughter of holocaust survivors, Myrna grew up in a Yiddish- speaking home in Montreal where she developed her love and appreciation for Jewish music. The seeds of creating original music for prayer were planted by Rabbis Daniel and Hanna Tiferet Siegel in the early beginnings of the Or Shalom community in Vancouver. Music and song is her vehicle to connecting to the Source and to the soul in all of us. Through her music, her song and her voice, we are transported.

In addition to singing from her soul, Myrna has dedicated her life to her family and to language teaching, mainly in the immigrant community as an ESL Instructor and ESL Teacher Trainer at Vancouver Community College. She has also taught Yiddish at the Vancouver Peretz Institute and the Jewish Community Centre. Myrna was first trained as an elementary school teacher in Montreal and taught elementary school for a few years before moving to Vancouver. Currently, Myrna is a part-time ESL Teacher Trainer, has three grown children, is married to Barry Rabinowitz, and continues to be a very active member and leader of services at Or Shalom.