Cantor Justin Callis

Cantor Justin Callis is thrilled to join the clergy team at Congregation Kol Ami. A native of West Hartford, CT, he was an active participant in his home congregation of Congregation Beth Israel, before studying Theatre and English at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He was an active participant in the religious music scene in Chicago, working extensively as a teaching artist, music director, and composer with youth of all ages and backgrounds.

Cantor Callis received his Masters of Sacred Music and Cantorial Ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, where he received the Reuben Peretz Abelson Prize for dedication to Yiddish Song, the Temple Israel of Boston Cantorial Prize, and the Lee Gura Memorial Prize for Synagogue Choral Music.

While in cantorial school, Cantor Callis served as the student cantors for Congregation Rodeph Sholom and East End Temple in New York, NY, as well as Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, DC. Throughout his career, Justin has studied under Cantor Scott Simon, Cantor David Berger, Cantor Pamela Siskin, Natasha Ulyanovsky, and Laura Deutsch. 

An avid composer, Cantor Callis received the Dr. Jack Gottlieb DFSSM Student Composer Prize for The Song of Jonah, a cantata for soloist, choir, and orchestra written as part of his thesis.  His choral composition, Shabbat—based on the poem by Rachel Bluwstein—was honored with the Ben Steinberg Young Composers Award in 2025.

Outside of the synagogue, he can be found exploring new restaurants and going to the theatre with his wife, Samantha, reading an eclectic mix of novels and comic books, and trying to learn to play another unusual instrument.