Rabbi Hazzan George Mordecai
There are so many people who have helped me arrive at this moment. I could not have journeyed down this path without the loving support of Michal, Gabriella and Eliora who were always encouraging me to work towards the smicha dream through the good times and when the going got tough. Additionally, my father and mother, Meyer and Hilda Mordecai, have been supportive and affirming of the process from the start.
Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, with whom I am so honoured to work in Sydney, showed me all those years ago that it was indeed possible to be in conversation with and participate in a Judaism that was progressive, egalitarian and open to dialogue with other traditions and cultures. In so many ways he helped set me on my spiritual and professional course.
Reb Elliot Ginsburg brought me into the ALEPH community and encouraged me to work towards the rabbinate within a Renewal framework. His mentorship and teaching over the years have helped me to understand what I wish I had discovered decades earlier - that my spiritual home is with Jewish Renewal. If it wasn’t for his persistence and encouragement I would have never had the courage to journey down this path. Reb Nadya Gross listened and advised wisely and patiently for many years as I struggled with so many spiritual and psychological barriers on my way to this moment.
I am eternally grateful to Reb Miles Krassen. He has been a mentor and Rebbe to me over the last 15 years and continues to inspire me with his visionary teachings and interpretations of our mystical texts, always from a broad planetary view. I could not have continued to serve as a kli kodesh without his constant support, teaching, intellectual and spiritual guidance. Rabbi Aubrey Glazer and I co-created so many rituals, incorporating music and poetry to explore the liturgical sound and word scape. My first serious look at Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav was with him. One of my names – Uriel – was given to me by Aubrey as we completed our studies at JTS together.
My great-great-grandparents, Baba Reuben and Siti Chahla.
Just before we, the Frankel-Mordecai clan, moved to Australia, back home for me, I was blessed to fulfill a dream that took decades to unfold. My friendship with Joey Weisenberg led to our collaboration on a recording by the name of Safra. “Safra” in the Judeo-Arabic of the Iraqi Jews as well as in regular Arabic means to go on a journey. This recording recalls many of the sacred melodies that accompanied my family’s journey from Iraq to Burma, India, Borneo, Singapore and finally to Australia where I was blessed to have them lovingly imparted to me.
Before I met all these wonderful friends, companions, mentors and teachers I had the great fortune of being exposed to Jewish spirituality through music and prayer from a very early age. I attended a regular minyan in a kindergarten-turned-synagogue for Yamim Noraim, where our small Judeo-Iraqi community would chant the liturgy together. It was there that I was first blessed to experience the transformative power of tefilah and devotional singing. My Uncle Shaul Abraham z’l noticed my interest and prepared me to lead services in the Judeo-Iraqi tradition from a young age. Additionally, from my youth I have clear and strong memories of my siti’s (my grandmother’s) and my siyidi’s (my grandfather’s) home. On Shabbat and Sundays many of their Iraqi Jewish friends would visit, drink qahwa (strong black Arabic coffee), play Tawlee (backgammon), eat baklawa and listen to Oum Kultoom, Fairuz, Abdel Wahab, and other great Arabic singers and composers. Songs like ‘Lama Ba’ada Yatathana’, an old Andalusian love song, and ‘Faug Nahal’ were standards at their home.
Great-grandfather Yehazkel and great-grandmother Masooda, from my maternal grandfather’s line.
It is my hope that the liturgical music of my culture will find its place in congregations and world music stages around the world. I strongly believe that these chants have something important and meaningful to contribute to the ongoing conversation around communal singing and emerging singing communities networks.
I want to give a big shout out to the awesome Emanuel community in Sydney and to my colleagues there- Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio, Rabbi Rafi Kaiserblueth, Rabbi Orna Triguboff (the first Renewal Rabbi in Australia who has brought Reb Zalman’s teachings down under), the Goodly Reverend soon-to-be-Rabbi Sam Zwarenstein, Andrea Catzel, the synagogue musicians and the Emanuel office staff. They are all the most wonderful people to work and to frequent the local cafes with. I am honoured to be a part of this inspiring team of creatives and ritual artists. I am also deeply grateful to Merril Shead who lovingly applied her astute editorial eye to my teshuvah.
Two years ago when I arrived back in Sydney I began working with an amazing group of seekers, putting my years of training with the ALEPH Ordination Program and Reb Miles Krassen to the test. We formed an Idra, “The Circle” at the Emanuel Synagogue, gathering weekly on Thursday evenings and monthly on Shabbat mornings to learn and experience everything from Kabbalistic and Hassidic text study, meditation, yoga, chant, sacred dance, storytelling and sound healing. The Circle is a collaborative, co-creative group where attendees bring their hearts, experiences, specialties and insights to this deep enquiry. I am grateful to the Circle community and feel blessed to facilitate this sacred work with these awesome and inspiring people.
I have been working as a Cantor for over 25 years in many different congregations. My road to Smicha has been a continuation and deepening of my clergy work in synagogues that began professionally from the early 90’s. I look forward to applying what I have learned over the last 15 years with Reb Miles and seven years in the AOP to help inspire all interested seekers to engage deeply - and definitely subversively - with the timeless spiritual teachings and practices of our tradition. We need our traditions, filtered and reimagined through the lenses of Planetary and Paradigm Shift perspectives now more than ever.
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