Rabbi Katz

Rabbi Daniel Katz, Ph.D. comes originally from New York. He studied there, as well as in Philadelphia and North Carolina, and also studied abroad in Italy and Israel. His doctoral dissertation was about a Latin treatise from the fourteenth century that describes a newly developed system of music notation, which enabled musicians to write down rhythms precisely for the first time. Since then he has been researching the history of Ashkenazi synagogue music. He also composes original religious and secular songs.

Rabbi Katz has lived in Germany for about twenty-five years. He has served in traditional as well as liberal synagogues, and has taught liturgy and music at several universities. From 2021 to 2024 he held a grant from the German Research Foundation for historical musicological research at the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne. His official tenure at the Jewish Liberal Community of Cologne began in May, 2024; however, he had previously led services there on many occasions.

Rabbi Katz is one of seven founding members of the General German Rabbinical Conference. He works together with other Conservative (Massorti) and liberal rabbis to represent the diversity of German Judaism. Although he is most closely associated with the Massorti movement, he also has experience with Reform and Orthodox Judaism. He has been a frequent participant in interreligious discussions with Christians, Muslims, and members of other faiths. In addition to his academic articles and conference papers, he also writes about Judaism and is a regularly featured speaker in the German on-line series “Ahavta- Begegnungen.”

His most recent publications are:

“The Death of Kashtan, or When Did Cantor Hirsch and his Father Salomon (Kashtan) Become Weintraubs?” in The Journal of Synagogue Music, vol. 49, no. 1 (Oct. 2024), pp. 65-81 and

“Das Verhältnis Staat und Religion. eine jüdische Perspektive” („The Relationship Between State and Religion: A Jewish Perspective“), in Auf wessen Seite steht Gott? Zur Aktualität der Barmer Theologischen Erklärung am Berfuskolleg angesichts gegenwärtiger Instrumentalisierungen von Religion, ed. Andreas Obermann and Daniel Bauer (Münster and New York: Waxmann, 2024), Glaube - Wertebildung - Interreligiosität. Berufsorientierte Religionspädagogik, vol. 3, pp. 39-48.