Cantor Ben-Zion Lanxner has returned to Beth Hillel Synagogue in Bloomfield to serve as guest cantor for the High Holidays. Born in Tel Aviv, Lanxner moved with his family to Brussels, Belgium as a young boy, where he was reared in a Chassidic Orthodox environment. Inspired to compose and interpret his first choir and cantorial pieces at a very young age, Lanxner and his older brother, Cantor Yaakov Moshe Lanxner, performed throughout the country and were widely known in Brussels as the “Golden Voices.” He began his career as a soloist in the choir of the Great Orthodox Synagogue in Brussels at age seven and, at age 16, officiated at the synagogue as guest cantor.

After studying hazzanut with Cantor Yehoshuah Lerer, he served at Beth lsrael Congregation in Brussels, Belgium. He then moved to America, where he was appointed cantor at Tiferet lsrael Congregation in Dallas, Tex.

After joining the Conservative movement, Lanxner became cantor and choir director at Beth Abraham Hillel Moses Congregation in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where he served for 16 years before becoming cantor and educational director of that city’s Congregation B’nai David.

Cantor Lanxner plays the guitar, is a Ba’al Tokea (blows the shofar) and speaks fluent Hebrew, French, Yiddish and English.