Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth host dinner dance to celebrate rabbi, cantor

Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth in Rockville Centre hosted a dinner dance on March 16, celebrating the official installation of Rabbi Michael G. Cohen and Cantor Eryka Velazquez as the spiritual leaders of the congregation.

Since both Cohen and Velazquez joined the synagogue in July 2020, at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, the congregation never had an opportunity to celebrate. To make up for missed time, congregants gathered at the synagogue on March 16 for a special dinner dance in their honor.

Rabbi Cohen grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion — one of the oldest Jewish seminaries in the United States.

He spent five years in the United States Army Special Operations Command as a Sergeant of psychological operations, and nine years with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division as a Jewish chaplain. During his time in the service, he was deployed to Haiti, Korea, Kuwait, Qatar and Afghanistan.

Before joining Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth he served other Reform congregations in Arizona, California, Tennessee, and British Columbia.

In addition to his duties with the temple, Rabbi Cohen currently serves as a fire chaplain for the Freeport and Rockville Centre Fire Departments and a police chaplain for the Rockville Centre Police Department. He is also a member of the Rockville Centre Human Rights Commission.

He is married to Dr. Sharon Poczter, a world-renowned economist and professor at Yeshiva University, where she chairs the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at the Sy Syms School of Business. Together, they have a son, Neil, and two attention-loving dogs named Cooper and Lobo. 

Cantor Velazquez moved to New York from Southern California, to attend the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, where she was ordained as a Hazzan, and the William Davidson School of Jewish Education.

Music and singing have always played a major role in her career as a trained vocalist utilizing the power of prayer and song to help connect present-day Jewish people with ancient traditions.

She also has a deep-rooted love for teaching. While studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary, she taught music, liturgy, B’nai mitzvah, and Judaica to students at Camp Ramah in Conover, Wisconsin, the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side, the South Huntington Jewish Center and the Women’s League of Conservative Judaism.

When she is not up on the bimah, Velazquez enjoys taking in a Broadway show with her husband, Cantor Gil Ezring, or singing the Shema to their daughter.