It all started with a guitar in a summer camp dining hall in Warkwick, New York.

Jordan was ordained as a Cantor in May of 2023 from the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, after receiving their Masters in Sacred Music from the institution in 2022. Before then, they graduated with a bachelor’s degree in both Global Politics and Music Composition from Washington & Lee University in 2018, a combination some have referred to as “majoring in Pete Seeger.” Cantor Goldstein fell in love with the power of communal singing and Jewish music while attending multiple URJ summer camps, and at the ripe age of 15, they started telling everyone they could that one day, they were going to be a cantor. Over a decade later, they are doing exactly what they set out to do!

While they’ve known some things for a long time, plenty of other adventures have come up along the way: they are a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, as both bisexual and non-binary. As of their ordination, they became part of the first ever cohort of out trans/non-binary cantors ever ordained at HUC — or anywhere else for that matter.

When they aren’t at Congregation Beth Chaim these days, you can find them grabbing the nearest guitar to initiate a jam session, picking out a new flavor of ice cream to try at the Bent Spoon, playing with their rabbit (named II Samuel, after the book of Prophets), or fitting in a session with their D&D party.