Inviting, engaging, and sustaining relationships with kids and their families.
The future starts here.
I have been songleading for kiddos since I was a kiddo myself, and after 25 years in synagogues, schools, JCCs, and camps, I know what a weekend of music can set in motion: families who come back, staff who feel equipped, and a community that keeps singing after I go home. My doctoral research, the first formal study of Tot Shabbat, confirmed that shared musical experiences shape a family's Jewish future.
A residency is a complete consulting engagement with an immersive on-site experience at its center. It puts that evidence to work with your people, in your spaces, around your goals, and your community keeps what we build.
of families attending four or more Tot Shabbats in a year joined that congregation
leaders and families across 24 states in the first formal study of Tot Shabbat
of songleading across synagogues, schools, JCCs, and camps
How a Residency Works
three phases-
01
Discovery + Design
Before the visitI interview your key stakeholders to understand your motivation, your programming, and your goals, and together we design an on-site plan that models what I teach. This phase includes marketing and messaging support, with promotional language, images, and a community playlist, so the music reaches your families before I do.
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02
Making Music with Your People
One to four days on siteI lead programming directly with children, families, and educators while modeling facilitation practices, curriculum choices, and engagement strategies your staff can observe, learn from, and keep. The relationships your families build with you matter far more than the ones they build with me.
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03
Report + Follow-Up
Four months afterYou receive a written report with reflections, recommended systems and structures for sustainability, and implications drawn from what I observed, heard, and facilitated, with follow-up support included while you implement.
Two Shapes, Designed to Flex
Every residency is designed from discovery. Most take one of these shapes.
Shape One
One Institution
Your synagogue, JCC, day school, or camp hosts a residency built around its own goals: worship that welcomes every generation, learning for kiddos and their grown-ups, and professional development for the people who lead them all year.
Shape Two
One Community
A whole community plans one weekend together. The preschool, the day school, the congregations, the local Jewish Federation, PJ Library, and the JCC each host the experiences that fit their people, and share the planning, the costs, and the joy of hearing the entire community sing.
Musical Experiences
Programming is mixed and matched based on what we learn in discovery. Every experience is developmentally appropriate, evidence based, and designed in collaboration with your leadership to fit your community. If what you need is not on this list, I am happy to develop custom options with you.
Early Childhood
Schoolwide Sing-Along
A joyful all-school gathering, led in partnership with your staff, that builds Shabbat excitement and Jewish belonging from the earliest years.
Pre-readers + Their Grown-ups
Tot Shabbat
A foundational Jewish experience highlighting simple, relevant prayer concepts and ritual practice, designed for the kiddos and the grown-ups in parallel.
Infants + Toddlers + Caregivers
Babies on the Bimah
A musical session designed to delight and welcome your youngest congregants and the grown-ups who love and care with them.
Baby-and-me
Jewish Family Jams
Music and movement that blends Jewish education with community-building, free play for kiddos, and schmooze time for adults, with a track record of engaging and retaining young families.
Whole Community
Intergenerational Sing-Along Service
A meaningful, musical worship experience for every age and stage that invites personal reflection and communal connection.
Elementary + Up
Religious School Prayer Experience
A prayer experience that complements classroom study, extends understanding, and gives students meaningful roles in worship.
Families + Classrooms
Holiday Story-in-Song
Seasonal sessions that carry a holiday's story through music, movement, and participation, timed to your calendar.
Families, with Federation or PJ Library
PJ Havdalah
A modern spin on an ancient ritual, welcoming the community to close Shabbat together with story and song.
Teens
Teen Songwriting + Songleading
Workshops that invite older students to explore Jewish identity through musical expression and hand them meaningful leadership.
Workshops
Professional development and parent education are a distinct offering: available virtually or in person, standalone or woven into a residency, and always tailored to your context. These are a few recent examples, and I custom design workshops around your community's goals when what you need does not exist yet.
For parents + caregivers
We Return: Regulation, Reflection, and Repair for the New Year
The High Holidays hand us a built-in rhythm of reflection and repair, but that rhythm depends on regulation. Drawing on Dr. Becky Kennedy, Brené Brown, and music's power for co-regulation, families leave with strategies, a repair framework, and a soundtrack for the season.
Cultivating Connection: Why Spiritual Development Matters at Every Age
Dr. Lisa Miller's research shows spiritual development is one of the most powerful protective factors for lifelong well-being. This workshop shares the evidence and practical tools for nurturing it at home.
Passover Story in Song
The Exodus story carried through music families can bring straight to their own seder, with songs and rituals that make the story stick for every age at the table.
Celebrating Jewish Holidays at Home
Practical, participatory sessions, offered in person or remotely, focused on what families can actually do the following week.
For educators, songleaders + clergy
Why Singing Together Works: The Neuroscience of Music, Breath, and Bonding
Brain-based principles that turn song into strategy: how singing syncs breath, builds bonding, anchors memory, and supports mood modulation, with songs modeled throughout.
What Makes Tot Shabbat Succeed? Evidence from Leaders and Families
A data-driven workshop built on my doctoral research, examining what actually brings families back.
'Tot Shabbat' Is Not 'Just' for Tots
Intergenerational design principles for services that educate and delight children while inviting their grown-ups to reexamine their own relationship to Judaism.
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Practical AI Use in Jewish Education
Hands-on strategies for using AI well in Jewish educational settings, taught to educators and cantors nationally.
Every Body Sings: A Tot Shabbat Experience
A modeled Tot Shabbat designed with many paths to participation to engage every age and stage: singing, movement, props, musical manipulatives, and zipper songs where the room writes its own verses. Participants experience the design from the inside, then unpack why it works.
Passover Story in Song, educator edition
The same story-through-music approach, built for educators, songleaders, and clergy to carry into their own classrooms and seders.
Every workshop in the parent column is also available as an educator workshop, adapted for the people who do this work all day.
“Last year: unorganized, chaotic, loud. This year: purposeful, thoughtful, and intentional.”
Every Residency Includes
Discovery interviews with your key stakeholders before the visit.
Marketing and messaging support, including a community playlist and promotional materials.
One to four days of on-site programming across ages.
Modeling and strategy your staff can observe, learn from, and keep.
A written report with recommended systems, structures, and implications.
Four months of follow-up support as you implement.
From the People Who Hired Me
“As the result of Dr. Aronoff’s work with us, we were able to implement a student-driven religious school program for K-2, develop a robust Tot Shabbat experience, and develop stakeholders to support our work.”
“We hired Emily to be the musician-in-residence at a family retreat and she was fantastic. Her energy and enthusiasm come from a wealth of both Judaic and child-centered expertise, and her musical moments were a true highlight of our event…Emily is great to work with, and inspiring to sing with. 10/10 would hire again!”
Share these songs, and I’ve got everything you need to lead them.
My songs are written to be leadable: developmentally appropriate, structurally sound for group participation, and easy for your community to keep singing after I leave. My music is featured by PJ Library, Behrman House, and Transcontinental Music, and it is streaming everywhere.
I have written and recorded a catalog of roughly 87 original songs, including Pray and Play, my new 25-song collection with a companion songleader guide.
Explore the Music
Tell me about your people.
Every residency starts with a conversation about your community and what you want to be different a year from now. I will bring the research, the repertoire, and the plan.
Book a Connection Call
