Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Soundtrack of Our Spirit 2016

Ilene Safyan, “Hashkivenu”

Portland, Oregon

Age: 63

Song: “Hashkivenu”

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ilene Safyan currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she has become one of the West Coast’s most celebrated Jewish musical artists. Whether in her role as cantor, teacher, performer or composer, Ilene weaves the multicultural musical strands of the Jewish experience into a rich, harmonic tapestry of sound. She has shared her music at holiday services, Shabbatons, concerts and simchas throughout the US, Canada and Latin America.

Her six cds of Jewish music have been recognized by such publications as Entertainment Weekly, the American Library Association and Parents’ Guide to Childrens’ Media. Parents’ Choice Magazine awarded her “Just in Time for Chanukah!” (recorded with Margie Rosenthal) the Gold Medal for excellence in childrens’ recordings; “Where Dreams are Born” was awarded the Silver Medal.

Her work has been featured on XM radio’s Hanukkah station, Children’s Media Network, WQXR and NPR and is a part of the Dartmouth and FAU Jewish Sound Archives.

Ilene serves as cantorial soloist at Congregation Neveh Shalom, one of the largest synagogues in the Pacific Northwest and Congregation Havurah Shalom, in Portland, Oregon.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.