Meet Our Religious Leader, Scott Tepper

B’ruchim ha-ba’im! Blessed are you who have come here! Welcome to the United Brothers Synagogue web site. It has been my pleasure and privilege to work with the United Brothers community as Religious Leader since September 2002.

I am not an ordained rabbi or cantor. I earned my B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University spending my junior year in Jerusalem at Hebrew University’s Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora. I then earned a Master of Education at Harvard University. I sang with the Zamir Chorale of Boston, America’s leading Jewish chorus, during college and graduate school. My knowledge of music, Jewish music, and Jewish life was substantially enriched by the time spent with the chorus' director, Prof. Joshua Jacobson.

In 1973, I led High Holy Day services for the first time. Through the 1970s and 1980s, I led High Holy Day services in a variety of settings, as an assistant to rabbis and cantors, as co-leader, youth service leader, and as ba'al tefillah (“prayer leader”), at Brandeis, Dartmouth College, and synagogues of almost all denominations in the Boston area. In the late 1980s, I learned about Jewish Renewal, and began to attend the B'nai Or of Boston congregation. After getting to know the leader, Lev Friedman, I began to co-lead High Holy Day services at B'nai Or. Initially, I was mostly leading in a classical style, as a complement to Lev's Renewal style.

Over time, I learned from Lev and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi how to balance and liberate classical Jewish practice with techniques like chanting English texts in traditional musical modes, reviving and encouraging movement and meditation, and opening to the personal and conscious aspects of religious life and practice. I brought these ideas into my own prayer-leading style. The United Brothers community has been wonderfully open to trying out new approaches.

We use the Reconstructionist movement’s Kol Ha-Neshama siddur (prayer book) for Friday nights, because of its accessible English translations and readings, and alternatives for exploration.

Professionally, I am a technical trainer and training consultant. As manager of customer training for software companies, I had the chance to visit some fascinating places, and also had the chance to seek out Jewish life wherever I went (travel tip: there is no synagogue in Kuala Lumpur.)

I am always happy to be in Bristol for our monthly Friday night services, accompanied by our amazingly talented musical director and organist, Patrick Aiken. I invite you to join us in our exploration of the variety of Jewish religious experience.

Kol tuv, u-le-hit’ra’ot! Wishing you all goodness, until we see each other again!

  Scott Tepper