Meryl Weiner has been serving the Temple Micah community since the spring of 1998. Prior to coming to Temple Micah, Meryl served as Cantorial Soloist for several congregations throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.  Most notably, she spent ten years as Cantorial Soloist at Temple B'nai Shalom, in Fairfax Station, Virginia, and four of those years as their Religious School Director.  At that time, her responsibilities also included teaching music and directing the youth and adult choirs. More recently, from 1997 to 2006, Meryl enjoyed her role as the music specialist at Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C. At Temple Micah, in addition to her liturgical role, she teaches Torah and Haftarah cantillation to sixth grade and B'nai Mitzvah students, and leads a number of ongoing programs and classes for adults and students.

Meryl organized the first choir at the Northern Virginia Jewish Community Center in 1983 and sang in a two-woman show that raised the funds to establish the JCCNV theatre department. She has done solo work in the cantorial and adult choir concerts in the Washington, DC area since the early 1990's and was proud to represent Temple Micah at the Strathmore Music Center in the spring of 2005 in the concert entitled, "350 Years in Song: A Celebration of Jewish America." Each year she is invited to help lead the American Jewish Committee's Diplomatic Seder and to sing at their Annual Dinner. Meryl is a member of the Executive Board of the Women Cantors Network and chaired their Washington, DC conference in 2004.

Meryl is a native of New York where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the State University of New York. Before moving to Virginia in 1976, she worked as a middle school learning disabilities specialist and as a mental health caseworker for Rockland County Social Services. She has been a lifelong member of Reform congregations, and began to share her love of Jewish music during her tenure as a NFTY songleader in the 1960's. She and her husband, George, raised their two adult daughters in Springfield, Virginia.

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cantorial soloist and adult educator

Educational Activities

Besides serving as the voice of the congregation, Meryl is involved in many educational activities at the temple. These include:

• Kol Isha Monthly study from a woman's perspective--this year engaging in an intensive study about God--Sundays from 1:00-3:30 - open to all
• Tot Shabbat Monthly Friday night worship, potluck dinner, and arts and crafts activities for toddlers through 1st graders and their families
• Adult B'nai Torah Two-year Tuesday evening course that teaches basic Hebrew and Torah trope in preparation to be called to the Torah for the first time
• It's a Girl Thing- Grades 7/8 Monthly Sunday night dinner meetings with 7th & 8th grade adolescent girls to enhance self-esteem and leadership skills through Jewish values
• New Member Group; Monthly meetings on Thursday evenings - discussions with Rabbi Manewith and Meryl Weiner
• Conversational Hebrew; Weekly lessons in basic conversational Hebrew on Thursday afternoons
• Hebrew Level II (Advanced Beginners); Weekly lessons for those who can read Hebrew on Tuesday evenings
• K'Tonton Parent-Toddler Group; Weekly meetings with parents and their toddlers on Friday mornings