Meet Chazzan Avraham Yaakov Taylor – the lead cantor for our High Holiday tefillot – with his grandfather Shalom Ravhon.
In September 2026, Chazzan Avraham Yaakov Taylor, will lead our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur tefillot for the fourth consecutive year. The residents of Beit Tovei Ha’ir enjoy his davening, and he considers this one of the highlights of his year.
“It is an honor to serve as the Chazzan for this community”, says Reb Avi Taylor. “I feel that it’s the many merits of the congregation that give the tefillos their power, and give me the strength to serve as their representative. I look forward to returning each year to a community that has come to feel like our extended family.”
Chazzan Taylor was born in Yerushalayim, and raised in Beit El and London. He studied at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva High School, at Yeshivat Slabodka, and also at the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute. He belongs to the Modzitz Hasidic community and has close ties to the courts of several other Hasidic dynasties. He is not just a chazan, but also a composer and researcher who documents and preserves the niggunim (melodies) of the Modzitz tradition, along with the broader history and philosophy of the Hasidic movement.
At the Institute for the Documentation and Preservation of Modzitz Niggunim, he built and ran the institute’s website and YouTube channel, produced a series of discs of Modzitz melodies, and organized numerous events to teach the music, in collaboration with well-known singers, chazanim, klezmer musicians, and choirs. He contributes to “Atikin”, a journal dedicated to preserving authentic Jewish musical traditions, and continues to produce documentary recordings of Modzitz niggunim for the Heichal B’shir Zimrah website of Modzitz Hasidim.
Less well known is Reb Avi’s military history as an IDF Rabbi. From 2012 to 2017, he served in various Haredi IDF units, providing spiritual support for religious soldiers. During the recent war until today, he serves as the Rabbi of an IDF unit based at the Tel Aviv Ichilov Hospital.
As an internationally-renowned Chazzan, Reb Avi has performed at events and Shabbatonim across dozens of communities in Israel and around the world. His performances weave together song and storytelling, offering audiences the historical background of each niggun alongside the Hasidic teachings behind it. In 2013, he released an album dedicated to the Rosh Hashanah prayers and their traditional melodies, as sung in communities across Israel.
This is the musical tradition that he brings to Beit Tovei Ha’ir when he leads the davening in the atrium at the heart of our building. The residents sit in the lobby or on their balconies around the atrium to listen and daven with him. Among them is his grandfather, Shalom Ravhon, plus his wife and children, but they are really part of a larger extended family.
For Reb Avi, the Rosh Hashanah tefillot at Beit Tovei Ha’ir are far more than a cantorial engagement. He and his family have built genuine relationships with the residents over his years at Beit Tovei Ha’ir, sharing Yom Tov meals with them. “I eat there with the family, and it’s a very special experience for everyone,” he explains. “But the connection that we feel goes beyond our immediate family ties. We really feel like all the residents are like our own grandparents!”
