When Cantor Erica Wisner first walked into Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, she wasn’t looking for a career. She was newly married and had recently relocated from New York City, so she simply wanted to find a synagogue. But sitting in the sanctuary during her first Friday night service, she experienced something she still struggles to explain.
“I felt like I was home,” she said. “I could imagine my future children becoming b’nai mitzvah there, and I didn’t even have children yet.”
Now, after more than 12 years serving the congregation in a variety of roles, Wisner has been ordained at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles and will be officially installed as Shomrei Torah’s cantor on Oct. 9. She’s now the only ordained cantor serving in the pulpit of a Sonoma County synagogue…