The cantorate runs through Cantor Josh Perlman’s blood: his father and three brothers are all cantors, and he grew up singing in his dad’s synagogue choir.
“It’s kind of the family business,” the Germantown resident said.
As the longtime cantor at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, Perlman sings with his wife, son, daughter and five grandchildren on the High Holidays. What is it like being part of such a musically vocal family? “You shouldn’t be prone to headaches,” Perlman joked. “It’s very loud sometimes.”
The cantor leads Shabbat Sing programs with B’nai Israel’s nursery school, leads prayer services, sings with Hebrew school students and teaches b’nai mitzvah students one-on-one for the year leading up to their coming-of-age rite.
“That’s just a wonderful thing to have that kind of connection with our congregation,” said Perlman, who recently marked his 25th year serving B’nai Israel. “I’ve gone through generations of kids going from the nursery school to me training them for bar and bat mitzvah.”
The same pre-teens he once taught are now getting married, and Perlman feels fortunate to officiate some of their weddings. “It’s a remarkable way to spend time in a congregation where you’re so familiar with everyone and it’s more like a family instead of a job.”
It was actually his family and upbringing that led Perlman toward the cantorate. His father served as the cantor at Temple Emanu-El, a Conservative shul in Rhode Island, for more than two decades.
“My dad taught me everything I know about being a cantor vocally,” he said.
“I think it was just natural for all of us,” Perlman said of the decision that he and his brothers made to pursue the cantorate. “As we were getting older, we would take different parts of the services and for High Holidays, we would go to different places, and then it just became the natural thing to do.”
He has fond memories of the family harmonizing together and putting on countless “Perlman 5” concerts.
“Growing up in a household of cantors and singers was very inspirational,” he said. “When people would come over for dinner and we would sing, they would just be amazed at how that happened. It was so many beautiful voices they were listening to, and it really moved them.”
Perlman learned how to improvise early on — he doesn’t write down any of his music.
“It’s an amazing tool because there are moods in each service, for every holiday and day of the week and everything else, so to be able to improvise melodies within those melodies, it makes it more interesting, not just for the people, but I feel like I’m doing something new for God all the time,” he said.
After moving out of his Providence, Rhode Island, home, Perlman studied under various voice coaches and began his career at a New Mexico synagogue for a decade — coincidentally, at a shul also called B’nai Israel.
But he wasn’t happy living in the Southwest. “I never really cared for it there,” he said. “It was too high and dry for vocals.”
Settling back on the East Coast, this time in Rockville, Perlman said it was “nice to come back to the ocean.”
Perlman remains close with his family: his son lives 10 minutes away on one side, and his daughter and son-in-law live 10 minutes away in another direction: “We gather a lot.”
He also meets with fellow local cantors once a month and regularly communicates with them online.
“Sometimes, if somebody’s looking for something, they’ll pick up the phone and call me: ‘Hey, do you have this piece?’ Or I’ll call them and say, ‘Hey, do you have this piece?’ or ‘Do you have a recommendation for this kind of a program?’ We just go back and forth,” Perlman said.
Thanks to his long career, Perlman serves as a mentor to less experienced cantors in the area.
“Sometimes, clergy have different things going on in their congregations, and they look to us older colleagues to help them through those rough times,” he said.
His favorite piece of wisdom to impart on them is not to take oneself too seriously: “It’s a family; it’s not a job. If you treat it like a job, it’s going to be a job. If you treat it like a family, it’s going to be a totally different experience.”
Humor is something Perlman is widely known for within the B’nai Israel community.
“I love making people laugh,” he said. “From babies to adults, that’s just what I do. Really, in any situation I’ve ever been in, humor always deescalates anything possibly going on.”
Perlman, who enjoys when others are happy and laughing, often uses this tactic during b’nai mitzvah tutoring.
“A lot of times when 12-year-olds come into a cantor’s office, they’re nervous because it’s scary — even though they know me and they know I’m funny — but that first lesson really lets them know they can just relax and breathe and do the best that they can,” he said. “And the humor really helps with that. It really takes them through the process without any nervousness.”
While retirement is on the horizon for Perlman, he plans to continue in his longstanding role for “at least a few more years.”
“I enjoy my job and my congregation [and] the people in it; they’re all just amazing people,” Perlman said.
