Cantor Jeff Klepper is a leading figure in American Jewish music, recognized as a pioneer of congregational singing with guitar accompaniment in Jewish worship. His songs have helped shape the sound of contemporary Jewish life in synagogues, camps, and schools across denominations.
His compositions, including the widely beloved “Shalom Rav,” written with Dan Freelander, are sung throughout the Jewish world. His influence extends from the cantors, songleaders, teachers, and musicians who perform and teach his music to the generations of students, campers, and worshippers who sing it.
Raised in New York City, Jeff grew up singing Jewish songs at home and with his extended family at holiday gatherings. At age 11, he studied with synagogue composer Abraham Wolf Binder at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, gaining an early appreciation for traditional Jewish music.
Jeff began playing guitar in 1962, the year Bob Dylan wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and was strongly influenced by the folk music of Pete Seeger. In 1964, he was captivated by the Beatles’ explosive sound and spent much of the mid-1960s with his ear attached to a transistor radio.
After moving to Albany, New York, Jeff began leading songs while in high school, both in his NFTY region and at Reform movement summer camps. There he befriended a dynamic young songleader named Debbie Friedman, of blessed memory. Together with others, they helped forge a new style of Jewish song, drawing on the harmonies and rhythms of late-1960s folk-rock. While still a teenager, Jeff composed his first songs and made his first recordings. He would eventually appear on all seven volumes of the Songs NFTY Sings series.
In 1972, Jeff teamed up with Dan Freelander, a future rabbi, to write and perform contemporary Jewish-American popular songs. The duo eventually called themselves Kol B’Seder (“everything’s OK”). Drawing on influences as varied as the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, and Shlomo Carlebach, they blended the melodies and harmonies of folk-rock with the fervor of Israeli and Chassidic song.
Their early compositions, including “Modeh Ani” and “Lo Alecha,” quickly became popular throughout NFTY. Within a few years, their songs were embraced in Conservative and Orthodox youth movements, Jewish day schools, and Israel. “Shalom Rav,” composed in 1973, became a defining melody of a new style of Jewish worship, connecting past and present, young and old. So familiar is it in worship today that many regard it as a traditional melody. Over their fifty-year partnership, Kol B’Seder released eight original albums and performed across the United States and in Israel, England, and Russia.
In 1980, Jeff graduated from what is now the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College in New York. He then lived in Haifa, Israel, where he served as cantor at the Leo Baeck Education Center. From 1982 to 2000, he was cantor of Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston, Illinois. He also earned an M.A. in music from Northeastern Illinois University.
In 1992, Jeff joined Debbie Friedman in creating Hava Nashira, the annual songleader training workshop in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. He also served on the editorial committee and as a music editor for Mishkan T’filah, the Reform movement’s prayerbook.
Jeff and his family live in Boston. He served as cantor of Temple Sinai in Sharon, Massachusetts, from 2003 to 2019 and is now cantor emeritus. He also taught Jewish music at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, for two decades. In 2005, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his 25 years in the cantorate. In 2007, the Zamir Chorale of Boston honored him for his contributions to contemporary Jewish music.
His published songs appear in The Kol B’seder Anthology and The Jeff Klepper Anthology (Transcontinental), as well as in numerous Jewish song collections. His recordings, both solo and with Kol B’Seder, are available on Bandcamp.
