Rabbi Yosef Goldman is Senior Advisor of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute. Raised in a mixed Orthodox Ashkenazi and Mizrachi home, Yosef has taught and led prayer in communities of every Jewish movement. He has served as a ba’al tefillah for some of the most spiritually vibrant and creative prayer communities in the United States and Israel, including Romemu and B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, the Kitchen in San Francisco, and Beit Tefila Yisraeli in Israel. For over a decade, as a consultant, Yosef has advised synagogues and prayer communities seeking to deepen the communal spiritual experience through musical prayer. 

Yosef’s original Jewish music is sung at synagogues, schools, and camps across the country. As a sought-after vocalist, Yosef performs and records with a wide range of Jewish artists. He is a longtime featured vocalist in the Hadar Ensemble (led by Joey Weisenberg) and a founding member of the Middle Eastern Jewish music ensemble the Epichorus. Along with trombonist Dan Blacksberg, Yosef was selected by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts for its 2018–19 Jazz Residency. His first album of original music, Open My Heart, will be released by the Rising Song Institute in fall 2019.

Yosef received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2013, with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling, and was also awarded a Master of Sacred Music. He most recently served as Rabbi and Director of Sacred Music at Temple Beth Zion–Beth Israel in Philadelphia.