Hazzan Neil Schwartz
Hazzan Schwartz served Agudas Israel from Fall 2007 through July 2012. He grew up in Northern Minnesota, and has degrees from Carleton College (1975) and the Jewish Theological Seminary (1980). He also has 5 units of CPE hospital Chaplaincy training.
Locally, Hazzan Schwartz served as the Jewish Chaplain for the University of Saskatchewan, and a Board Member of Multi-Faith Saskatoon. Nationally, Hazzan Neil is a member of the Cantors Assembly and the American Conference of Cantors, and NewCAJE, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education.
He is on the Faculty of Hebrew College in Boston, teaching online courses in chanting Bible and liturgy. Hazzan Schwartz is helping to develop software to teach both of these subjects, and he is also a M.A. candidate at the University of Saskatchewan.
Our Rabbi Emeritus (Late)
Rabbi Roger V. Pavey
Rabbi Roger Pavey passed away on October 21, 2009.
Rabbi Pavey was born and brought up in England, son of an Ashkenazi mother and a Sefardi father.
Educated at the University of London (BA, BD Honors), yeshivah and Leo Baeck College. Semikhah (ordination as Rabbi), Leo Baeck College, London, l967.
He served synagogues in London and Southend on Sea, Essex. He came to Canada,1980, and was Rabbi in Saint John, NB, and Sarnia and Kitchner-Waterloo, ON before coming to Saskatoon as Rabbi of Congregation Agudas Israel, 1988-98. He served as the part-time rabbi at Agudas Israel Congregation from 2000 – 2009.
He taught Jewish Studies and Hebrew at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan.
He was a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and an Associate Member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly.
He was married to Patricia, and had two sons, Jonathan and Daniel, and three grandchildren. Patricia Pavey was adult program librarian at Saskatoon City Library.