Moontower Minyan
High Holy Days 5785 / 2025
With gratitude, humility, and much excitement, Moontower Minyan is pleased to offer High Holiday services for the very first time in Texas at The Cathedral, a beautiful, warm and inviting space in East Austin.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR ROSH HASHANAH
Rosh Hashanah @ The Cathedral, 2403 East 16th St
Tuesday, September 23rd at 10am
Tickets: $54
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR KOL NIDRE – SOLD OUT
Yom Kippur, Kol Nidre @ The Cathedral, 2403 East 16th St
Wednesday, October 1st at 7pm
Tickets: $36
These services will incorporate Torah reading and traditional prayers along with alternative readings, and musical accompaniment featuring our esteemed local musicians who provide ancient and modern liturgical sounds of Jewish music from around the globe.
Description of what a ticket gets you:
* Rosh Hashanah morning and Yom Kippur Kol Nidre services led by Rabbi Dan Ain with music from local musicians (SEE LINEUP BELOW)
* A traditional Torah reading and procession.
* Plain-sense explanations of the religious aspects of the holiday.
* Prayer.
* Shofar blowing.
* Meditation.
* On Rosh Hashanah: Vegetarian Taco Lunch from Tacodeli, plus apples & honey.
* Family-friendly lounge area downstairs for parents of young kids.
* Plenty of Street Parking in Residential Neighborhood.
(NOTE – Tickets are sold separately for each event, please purchase both if you plan to attend Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur)
A note about costs: We do not make a profit on our ticket sales for the High Holidays, but aim to cover costs with ticket purchase. We are able to offer our year-round programming with your generous (charitable donations) and hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work.
About Us
Rabbi and Co-Founder
Dan Ain is a rabbi, preacher and connector. Along with his wife, writer Alana Joblin Ain, he founded the Moontower Minyan in Austin, which seeks holiness through facilitating honest conversation, promoting tradition and ritual, and creating space where people can speak freely and exchange ideas within the context of Judaism.
He also serves as the Parent Life Educator at Shalom Austin – a position launched in the summer of 2024 to identify community needs which extend beyond the gates of the Dell JCC.
Rabbi Ain has worked both inside and outside the margins of the Jewish organizational world; meeting people wherever they are while supporting and enhancing the work of our communal institutions. Since his ordination from The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2008, he has served as the rabbi of The New Shul in Manhattan, and was Director of Tradition and Innovation at New York’s 92nd St Y. He founded the Brooklyn based organization “Because Jewish” and served as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco from 2018-2022, when he relocated to Austin.
President and Co-Founder
Alana Joblin Ain is a teacher and writer. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Quarterly West, Tablet, The Forward, The New York Times, Modern Loss, Crab Orchard Review, Dossier, and in the anthology Mothering Through the Darkness.
Alana has taught undergraduate writing at Hunter College, where she earned her MFA in poetry, and has also led writing workshops within organizational and private settings.
In addition, she co-founded the Brooklyn based organization Because Jewish and currently lives in Austin, Texas with Dan and their two children.
Alana leads Moontower Verses, our conversation series featuring writers, artists and creative types on what it means to be human and alive.
Musical Director
David Rabinowicz was born into a multi-cultural family; every member of his immediate family was born on a different continent.
The lessons David learned growing up surrounded by different languages and traditions shine through in his holistic and multifaceted approach to music.
David draws deeply from his Jewish and Latino roots, and from a multitude of instruments, instrumentalists, and genres in an endless effort to find a musical and artistic voice that is truly his own.
David sings, plays guitar and piano, and writes with the band Big Love Car Wash
Elliot.wavs is an artist, writer and producer who makes soulful pop for people with big feelings. For the last 20 years, he has been a composer, a music teacher, a summer camp songleader, a front-man, a side-man, and through it all, a songwriter. As soon as he was tall enough to reach the keys, Elliot.wavs was playing piano. He honed his musicianship as a guitar player, studying jazz at the University of North Texas. There he also explored Afro-Cuban percussion, sang in Jazz choirs, and studied baroque counterpoint, all while steeping in DFW’s unique blend of gospel and modern jazz. After moving to Austin in 2016, Elliot.wavs began recording and touring with acts such as Karma Stewart, Courtney Santana, Calliope Musicals, and Honey Made. In 2020, he recorded his most ambitious project yet, featuring Austin legends Brannen Temple and Red Young. His first radio placement was in 2024 with the song “Fort Flutter” written as a theme song for an art installation at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Alex Freeman is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, and visual and movement artist based in Austin, Texas. While studying at A. N. McCallum Fine Arts Academy, he began his professional career as a bassist at the age of fourteen with under-18 phenoms Charlie Belle. Shortly after graduating high school in 2016, Alex spent three semesters studying music performance as well as modern and improvised dance at Austin Community College. He has since returned in full force to music, having performed at SXSW, three times at ACL, scoring several short films, as well as performing with Austin and Texas legends Sara Hickman, Pamela Hart, Andre Hayward, Jeff Lofton, and Soul Man Sam. Alex currently performs and writes with the psychedelic Afro-funk collective CAZAYOUX, the post-punk band goofus, rap duo and former KUTX Artist of the Month Geto Gala, Austin-area jazz provocateur Tony Bray, as well as being the house bassist for The Stage Austin.
Rachel Silver’s life is defined by music and Jewishness. Her mother Susie is a Jewish educator who instilled in her a very strong sense of Jewish identity.
Rachel started training in voice at eleven and began singing classically at 16. She has sung in Austin Opera, with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin, and more recently, with Austin punk band, Constellation.
She received her degree in Jewish studies from the University of Texas in 2020, and continues to tutor kids the reform Jewish prayer book, in preparation for their B’nei Mitzvah. Her versatile vocals allow her to sing for many genres, but singing Jewishly is the closest to her heart.
Mike Bass is a singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist. He blends indie-folk, folk, and Americana with unique fingerpicking, snapping, and percussive elements on the guitar while playing. He is bilingual in English and Japanese, and has original songs in both languages. You can find him performing and creating in a mixture of in-real-life gigs and online. Mike also co-directs ScrapFest, a scrap metal sculpture competition and art festival located in Lansing, Michigan, where teams get one hour to pick up to 500 lbs of scrap metal, and get one month to make a sculpture, with the resulting sculptures being displayed and auctioned in Old Town Lansing in mid-July, drawing 12,000+ attendees and artists from all of the world to come and enjoy the festival. Mike is originally from Lansing, Michigan, and is now based in Austin, Texas.
Jonathan Troen is a leading authority on emotional intelligence, inner leadership, and sustainable success. As the creator of the Self Love Revolution and the Emotional Intelligence Mastery System, his groundbreaking methodology helps people break free from burnout, build deep emotional resilience, and create lasting fulfillment – both personally and professionally.
He is also co-founder of the renowned Austin mindfulness center, Austin Yoga Tree, and a respected voice in the personal development world.
Jonathan’s core message is this: Success begins with how you treat yourself. When you master that relationship, every part of your life transforms.
