Biography
Cantor Michael Smolash is thrilled to join the outstanding clergy team of Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest, Miami, and is excited to get to know each and every member of this inspiring community. He arrives after serving for twenty-one years at Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, where he crafted one of the most vibrant Jewish worship programs in North America. Cantor Smolash has coproduced four albums of worship music, which are available wherever you listen, and is a member of the Recording Academy. As a composer, Cantor Smolash’s material has been featured in the Union for Reform Judaism’s Ruach series, as well as in the Songbook for Kabbalat Shabbat at multiple URJ Biennial Conventions, Merri Arian’s new songbook Leveling the Praying Field, and the most recent Shireinu vol II. He has also been a pioneer of the use of Youtube videos for synagogue outreach. As director, Cantor, producer, or music director, he has created an online video presence garnering over three million views.
Cantor Smolash is also a student of Australia’s Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf, one of the foremost teachers of kabbalah today, and teaches classes and individual learning on the mystical aspects of Judaism for progressive communities. His lecturing engagements on kabbalah include Henry Ford Hospital’s Provider Health Summit, Jewish Federation’s JLearn, the Legacy Heritage OnBoard program, the Interfaith Leadership Council, Camp George (Ontario), and The Shul, (West Bloomfield, MI). Cantor Smolash’s classes, Intro to Kabbalah and User’s Guide to the Soul are available at Temple Israel’s YouTube page.
Before serving as a full-time cantor, Cantor Smolash worked in Music Theatre across Canada for 15 years while also serving as Chazzan Sheini at Holy Blossom Temple (Toronto). His roles included Sparky in Forever Plaid, Billy Lawlor in Forty Second Street, Matt in The Fantasticks, and understudying the great Michael Bublé in a swing review, Forever Swing. His last role was in the Toronto cast of The Producers, where he covered the lead role of Leo Bloom, as well as those of the entire male cast of singers, actors and dancers. He is a proud member of the American Conference of Cantors, the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, and the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, and has served as president of the Michigan Board of Cantors. He also produced and directed the Michigan Board of Cantors’ annual Stephen Gottlieb concerts from their launch for five consecutive years, with a sold-out house every performance.
Cantor Smolash was honored by being invited to lead Friday night services at the Biennial Conference for Reform Judaism in 2009 in Toronto – one of the largest gatherings of Jews in North America. In addition, he has lectured on recording a congregational album for the American Conference of Cantors.
On the concert stage, Michael is a sought after artist both for new commissions and gala musical events. He has premiered several new works for voice and orchestra by Stephen Glass at the historical Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal. He also created the role of Cham in The Flood According to Cham by Broadway legend Gershon Kingsley, and the role of King David in a new oratorio by Eyal Bitton. Michael was featured in an evening with Charles Strouse, composer of Annie, where he sang the premiere of Charles’ new composition, Jerusalem. He was also a featured soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in their performance of Liberation by Meir Finkelstein.
A proponent of contemporary Jewish music in the shul, Michael created WJEW: the first twenty-four-hour synagogue internet radio station that had a regular audience of listeners in over twenty countries, WJEW was featured as an “Achiever and Exemplar” in Reform Judaism magazine. Students at the station interviewed some of the most influential Jewish personalities in North America, including Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (TLC’s Shalom In the Home), recording artist Matisyahu, and Rabbi Paul Yedwab (author of Sex in the Texts).
Cantor Smolash is most proud of his two amazing children, Ayla and Cedar, who are at college in Toronto and Ann Arbor, and are both emerging leaders of the Jewish community.
