Our Rabbi

Rabbi Davis – or 'Reb Melody' as she prefers to be called - is a 'local' girl, (depending on whose definition of 'local' one follows.) She has lived in the Lehigh Valley for 23 years. Home is a 260 year old stone farmhouse nestled by the Little Lehigh in Emmaus. She lives there with her husband Edwin - who refers to himself as her “ Hubbitzen ” - and their three children: Spencer, Jonathon and Annelise.

Reb Melody's journey to the rabbinate has been fascinating, challenging and circuitous. At the age of three, she knew she wanted to be a rabbi. After being pointedly informed that only men could be rabbis, she and Judaism parted ways. Yet every position she held had a “God” element to it.

She jokingly refers to her previous careers as 'past lives.' She worked sporadically as an actor, singer and director, then returned to college. While managing her husband's photography studio, Reb Melody taught taught traditional and contemporary holiday music in Hebrew, English and Yiddish to grades Pre-K through 6. She has also instructed children from 4th through 6th grade in a three day a week in after-school Talmud Torah program.

In her quest to share ' yiddishkeit ,' - Jewish life, customs and practices, Reb Melody is the rabbi of Temple Israel of Lehighton for a monthly Shabbat morning service. She also serves as the Jewish Chaplain at the Country Meadows Retirement Community in Allentown. Reb Melody has a deep and abiding love for Judaism. She seeks out comfortable and joyful ways for people to come closer to God. She believes that each individual has a different way to approach The Eternal. Some of the modalities that she hopes to share are drama, inter-linear Torah chanting, music, poetry, dance, literature, chanting and meditation.

Reb Melody is not only a teacher, but the perennial student. She enjoys learning from people of all ages. Her door, mind and heart are open to you.

Jill Pakman has served as the Cantor of Temple Covenant of Peace in a part-time capacity since September 2003. Although she had been viewed as the Temple’s “Student Cantor” while completing her Masters Degree in Jewish Music/Cantorial Studies, Jill has functioned as a Cantor/Cantorial Soloist since 1989. Her first position after leaving the USAF Band in Omaha, Nebraska was Temple Emanu-El in Wichita, Kansas. Jill then went on to work in South Florida where she resided for more than four years. She returned to her home in the Yardley, Pennsylvania area in1994 and has been engaged in Cantorial work in and around the area for thirteen years.

Jill has trained, literally, hundreds of B’nei Mitzvah students as she began tutoring just after becoming a Bat Mitzvah herself, due to the fact that she was able to learn the trope/cantillation system by chanting her Haftarah portion. Now that Jill has completed her Masters Degree and will have more time to devote to TCP, she looks forward to having the oppotunity to work with/train the B’nei Mitzvah students at the Temple as she brings more than thirty years of experience in preparing students for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony.

In her expanded capacity at TCP, Jill intends to lay the foundation for B’nei Mitzvah preparation and prayer book literacy along with continuing to expose the religious school students to Jewish music.