Ari Jacobson went from performing on cruise ships in Australia to leading musical programs for infants and toddlers in greater Washington.

The D.C. resident is a singer, guitarist and early childhood educator who is contracted as a musical specialist at Kol Ami: The Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community and as a children’s entertainer at the Edlavitch DCJCC. He has more than 20 years of experience educating and entertaining children of all ages.

“Superficially, it might seem that entertaining people on a cruise ship while they’re drinking their cocktails might be very different from leading a youth High Holiday service in northern Virginia,” Jacobson said. “Actually, there’s a lot of overlap.”

On board Carnival Cruise Line and P&O Cruises, Jacobson performed most days of the week for three to five hours straight before an audience that was “constantly changing.”

“People would come, people would go,” he recalled. “Every week, a new group would come on the cruise ships, and there would be everyone from the elderly to young children, people from all around the world.”

Jacobson not only put in many hours, but he learned to “read the room,” developing a broad repertoire of different genres, eras and styles of music “to be able to always have something in [his] back pocket” for various audiences.

“That is a set of skills that has served me every day since,” Jacobson said.

These days, Jacobson can be found strumming his guitar for fascinated infants or teaching the story behind the liturgical song “Ma Tovu” to a group of young children.

“You could just sing it and get them to memorize the words phonetically, which is how I learned it,” Jacobson said.

But he chooses to walk through the story behind the song.

“I can never overemphasize how much more effective and engaging it is to go through that story and connect the prayer to this narrative and how much more [kids] remember that,” he said. “More than once, later on, I’ll have a parent come up to me and say, ‘Ari, did you tell a story about a mountain and a donkey?’ That’s what they remember and take along with them.”

Jacobson, who shares songs on the YouTube channel Music with Mr. Ari, has enjoyed the craft since he was a boy growing up in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

“I definitely always loved music long, long before it occurred to me that it could become my career,” he said. “I always loved to sing.”

He studied music and theater in college. Jacobson described following his interests and finding the niche that paved the way for a career.

“What I’ve learned is that the smaller triangles you have skills and familiarity with on a Venn diagram, the more you can build as an artist, the more you can be able to find side jobs that actually can support you,” Jacobson said, referring to the central overlap of three circles.

His three-circle Venn diagram consists of music, Judaism and working with children: “Once you get into that little space, there aren’t that many people who have actual facility in all three of those.”

A decade ago, Jacobson moved to D.C. and began working with the Reconstructionist Jewish movement. Rabbi Julie Gordon, a former coworker, called Jacobson to let him know that her synagogue, Kol Ami, was seeking someone to run Tot Shabbat programs and youth High Holiday services: “That ended up working out really well,” he said.

Then, the leadership at Kol Ami realized their religious school would benefit from some music.

“So I started doing that once a month,” Jacobson said.

After that, the Kol Ami team asked if he would co-lead and provide music for a Passover second night Seder. “It’s kind of grown as the community has got to know me and, thankfully, appreciate what I do and what I have to offer,” Jacobson said. “There’s been more and more opportunities to enhance what Kol Ami is doing with music, and I’ve been really glad to have that role grow.”

The musician also performs for the preschool program at EDCJCC twice a week and runs weekly infant and toddler music classes with the JCC’s Parenting Center. Two days of the week, he leads baby and toddler classes privately.

“I always had an affinity for young children and loved playing with them and entertaining them,” Jacobson said.

He recalled a 2006 family gathering in New York City, where Jacobson, a recent college graduate, played with his 1-year-old cousin and sang to her. Jacobson’s aunt said, “‘Ari, you’re so good with kids. You haven’t heard of a place called Kidville [in] New York, have you? I heard you were looking for a job.’”

She added that the baby had just begun music classes there and perhaps Jacobson should send in his resume.

“That one little interaction has affected the course of my life ever since,” he said.

He hopes to spread the Jewish joy that he remembers from his own upbringing.

“I grew up having so many positive experiences connected to Judaism, and thought of it as something that was so joyful and a community that I felt part of, felt comfortable in,” Jacobson said. “When you can connect to a culture in a way that feels like something that is part of you, something that you’re pulled to, rather than something you’re being forced to learn … that is a beauty and a joy.

“That’s been such a joyful, welcoming and safe-feeling part of my life that I will feel very proud if I can pass that feeling along,” he said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com