Cantor

Jen Roher

Cantor Jen Roher served as the Cantor of The Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim from 2005-2010 before moving to Los Angeles in 2010 for eight years. Cantor Roher has served as the Cantor of Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge, CA; the Cantor of the Synagogue at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, where she also served as the Music Director for HUC-JIR’s graduation and ordination ceremonies; the B’nei Mitzvah Program Director for Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village, CA; and a member of the staff at Temple Judea in Tarzana, CA.

Cantor Roher is an active volunteer in the American Conference of Cantors on a regional and national level. She has served on the ACC’s Publications Committee, which guides the projects of Transcontinental Music Publications, occasionally serving as a music editor. She has presented workshops, led worship, and sung in concerts at ACC national conventions as well as at URJ Biennials, and served as a mentor for new members of the ACC. She has co-chaired the Midwinter Conference of the Western Region of the ACC, and the ACC’s national convention in 2020. She currently serves as the ACC’s Convention Coordinator and is a member of the Executive Board.

In 2018, Cantor Roher and family returned to Ohio and settled in Columbus, which allowed her to return to Temple to serve the community on a part-time basis. It has been wonderful to be a part of this vibrant community again, teaching students of all ages, officiating life cycle events, hosting concerts, and participating in events and programs in the Jewish community and beyond.

Cantor Roher received her Master’s of Sacred Music from the HUC-JIR Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music in 2004, and was ordained as a cantor by that institution in 2005. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Music Education from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, and also attended the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. She is an alumna of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program.

Cantor Roher met her husband, Ryan Smith, in 2005 at the Temple. They married in 2007, and have two sons, Elijah and Gabriel. The Roher-Smith family lives in Columbus, OH, where Ryan works as an editor at the Columbus Dispatch.