Welcome
Services | Clergy | Messages
The Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue is a small, traditional,
egalitarian synagogue in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village.
We offer Friday evening and Saturday morning services every week throughout
the year. We also have services on the Holidays and Festivals and at other
scheduled times. Our services employ a traditional Hebrew liturgy, a range
of beautiful and spirited melodies, broad congregational participation, and
learned and engaging divrei Torah.
In addition to our services, we offer Tot Shabbat and Family Programs for
children and their families, as well as Talmud and other Adult Education
classes on a variety of Jewish topics.
We are especially proud of our clergy. Rabbi David Gaffney, a pulpit rabbi
of vast experience and learning, joined us in 2001, after a long and
distinguished career in Jacksonville, Florida. Hazzan Moses, who
joined us in 2007 after receiving her investiture as a hazzan from the H.L.
Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary, brings to our
community an inspiring style of davening.
Our community reflects, and celebrates, the rich diversity of our Greenwich
Village neighborhood: couples and singles, old and young, professionals and
blue-collar workers, professors and students, observant and secular,
knowledgeable and beginners, straight and gay. We welcome all.
See you soon!
Services
SHABBAT & HOLIDAYS
Join us every Friday evening at 6:00 pm for Kabbalat Shabbat and 9:00 am Shabbat and Holiday mornings (except special services as noted in the Calendar). Our services feature a full yearly cycle of Torah readings, equal participation by men and women, and a wonderful “haimish” atmosphere.
During the summer months, enjoy a lovely Kabbalat Shabbat and Shabbat Kiddush in our garden!
TOT SHABBAT
Join us the first Friday of every month, 5:30-6:00pm, for TOT SHABBAT, a joyful, interactive service the whole family will enjoy. We are also instituting Saturday morning Tot Shabbat services beginning in November; check the calendar and watch your mail for more information.
MINYANNAIRES
On the first and third Sunday of each month we hold morning minyan services at 9:00 am., followed by a dairy brunch. On the first Sunday we also feature a discussion on a topic of interest to the Jewish community. This is an ideal time for those who have never put on tefillin to learn how—and for those who have forgotten how, to re-learn.
HIGH HOLY DAYS
Our High Holy Day services are held at N.Y.U. Law School on Washington Square South. First Day Rosh HaShanah services and Yom Kippur Neilah services are followed by a luncheon and break-the-fast, respectively, in the same location.
»See Calendar
HOLIDAYS
We hold services on all Jewish holidays throughout the year, featuring Purim Megillah readings, Hakafot, shaking the Lulav and Etrog, and much more.
»See Calendar
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Clergy
Rabbi David Gaffney
A native Jerusalemite, was raised on the Lower East Side in New York City. He attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School where he was ordained as a rabbi, the youngest student to be so honored. Rabbi Gaffney received his BA degree from Brooklyn College, with a major in psychology; his MA in Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University, and was honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The rabbi was a student in the Doctoral Program in the Department of Religion at Columbia University when he was invited to assume the pulpit at the Jacksonville Jewish Center in Jacksonville, Florida. In that setting, Rabbi Gaffney was instrumental in creating a full-service congregation that included nursery school, kindergarten, a Solomon Schechter Day School consisting of eight grades, a Hebrew School and a High School. In addition, synagogue activities included extensive youth, adult education and cultural programs.
Rabbi Gaffney has also served the larger community in a variety of capacities. He was president of the Southeast Region of the Rabbinical Assembly; a member of the Board of The Jewish Federation, a member of the Board of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and its Inter-Faith Committee and a member of the Board of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service. He also led in efforts to facilitate the resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet Union. Rabbi Gaffney has also been involved in a variety of organizations committed to the welfare of the State of Israel.
In assuming the pulpit at the Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue, Rabbi Gaffney expressed the hope that CSFA would always be a synagogue composed of warm and caring, sensitive and thoughtful congregants. He maintains that to be part of the synagogue is to be part of a larger collective Self which has the experience of 40 centuries and has extracted from that experience the wisdom and values, the spirit and inspiration to help inform our personal and social lives. To be part of our synagogue means to be part of a caring congregation and to share with others the opportunities of growing Jewishly and humanly; an intimate circle with whom we can experience the joy and celebration of Jewish life.
»A message from Rabbi Gaffney.
Hazzan Moses
Listen to our Hazzan: Selections from Kabbalat Shabbat
Originally from Los Angeles, Hazzan Moses is delighted to be living in New York and serving the Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue.
Hazzan Moses received her investiture as a Hazzan from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America with a Masters of Sacred Music in May 2007. She also holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theater from Syracuse University and an M.S. Ed. in Museum Education from Bank Street College of New York.
Hazzan
Moses has served in several pulpits, including the Midway Jewish Center, Syosset, New York; Congregation Ahavat Achim, Howell, New Jersey; Congregation Agudas Achim, Iowa City, Iowa; and the Orangetown Jewish Center, Nyack, New York. She has been a guest artist and Cantor at Congregation Ansche Chesed in New York City; Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Isabella Friedman Camp, Falls Village, Connecticut.
Hazzan Moses has also produced and performed in many concerts, such as “From Broadway to the Bima” and “Sha’alu Shalom Yerushaliym,” A Benefit concert for ATZUM, an organization dedicated to pursuing social justice in Israel. She has spent summers working as an educator for Camp Ramah in Nyack, New York, and the Nesiya Institute, a pluralistic program in which Israeli and American teenagers experience the land of Israel while exploring Judaism through the arts.
Hazzan Moses is married to Rabbi Jay Moses, who serves as the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program at the Wexner Foundation and is the proud mother of Caleb Heschel Moses and Ezekiel Henry Moses.
»A message from Hazzan Moses.
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A Message From Rabbi David Gaffney
The author of the 149th Psalm offers what may well be a defining description of our congregation, The Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue. The psalm begins — and I paraphrase — “Halleluyah, sing a new song to the Lord: God’s name is praised in the company of warm and caring, sensitive and thoughtful congregants.” This is what we, as a congregation, aspire to be. To be part of our synagogue is to be part of a larger collective Self that has the experience of 40 centuries and has extracted from that experience the wisdom and values, the sprit and inspiration to help inform our personal and social lives. To be part of our synagogue is not only to enjoy uplifiting services; it is to discover for ourselves from Torah discussions and classes what is important and sacred and how to find strength to help us cope with life’s challenges.
To be part of our synagogue means to be part of a caring congregation and to share with others the opportunities of growing Jewishly and humanly. It means an intimate circle with whom we can experience the joy and celebration of Jewish life.
To be part of our synagouge is to attach oneself to the Jewish heritage and to raise to lofty significance the great milestones of our life, to keep alive our people's most treasured memories and to nurture and act on our faith in the possiblities of a time of justice and peace by living out the imperative of gemillat hesed-acting compassionately and humanely.
Please consider this an invitation to contact me for any information and/or to visit us at services. We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you. Come and help us create a community that "sings a new song to the lord."
A Message from Hazzan Moses
The Hebrew word “hazzan” stems from the word “hazah,” to see or “hazon,” which is defined as “vision.” It is a great honor and privilege to be able to carry out my “hazon,” my vision of the cantorate here at CSFA.
Being a Hazzan is a beautiful synthesis of everything I aspire to do and be. It is a gateway to a way of life focusing on a combination of all my passions; Judaism, prayer, teaching, and music. I want to empower, inspire, and ignite all of these passions in you and other people who may be seeking a spiritual and observant lifestyle. It is my sincere hope to be a role model who leads with enthusiasm, integrity, and humility, guided by Jewish morals, values and ideals.
Rabbi David Wolpe writes, “Poetry and song in Hebrew are expressed by the same word, shir. The lyric and the lyre can catch the current of the human soul. Words are powerful but music stirs the soul.” I have chosen to take on the role of Hazzan because I yearn to stir souls, to elevate people to their own personal and collective prayer and healing through the powerful languages of music and liturgy intertwined. It is my hope to merge these two languages into one, communicating our loftiest praises, emoting our deepest supplications, expressing our fears, pleas and requests with a sense of understanding and urgency to the Divine.
Yehuda Halevy, the great Hebrew poet wrote to Zion that he was a “harp for all your songs.” Together as a community, may we each hear our own individual harps that accompany our collective song.
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