Cantor Binyamin Glickman is a fifth generation Yerushalmi. As a boy he sang in the famous Rivlin Choir with whom he appeared on the radio as soloist. After graduating as a conductor from the Rubin Academy of Music, he began to conduct choirs in Israel. He performed in the second and third Zimriyot in 1955 and 1958 with the choir of the combined religious kibbutzim of Emek Bet Shean. From 1960 he served as Cantor of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, California, for 22 years. During this period he returned to Israel to participate in the 67 and 73 Wars. While serving as Cantor of Beth Jacob he was also the music director of the largest Jewish Day School in the West where he developed a 250 children choir and a 44 children orchestra. He taught hundreds of children how to become Torah readers and Cantors. More than 30 young adults who were his students are serving today as cantors on the High Holidays. As a matter of fact, one of his students, Josh Sharfman, recorded the whole year-round services and put it on the Internet, accessible to anyone who would like to learn at www.Virtualcantor.com.
From 1970-1980 he also served as the music consultant to the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles, serving the orthodox, conservative and reform schools. During that time he took a Youth Choir, which he established, to Israel to participate in the triennial Zimriyah.
In 1982 Cantor Glickman and his family returned to Israel and he was immediately appointed as the Director of the Center of Jewish Music in Gush Etzion. At the same time he was invited to conduct the Jerusalem Cantors’ Choir. He was their conductor for ten years until he left back to the United States in 1992. In 1991 he took this choir for a concert tour to the United States where they performed before communities on the East and West coasts.
In 1986, Cantor Glickman established and directed the "Shirat Yerushalayim", the Jerusalem Center for Jewish Music. Its main goal was to preserve our rich musical heritage and to transmit it to the next generation. Shirat Yerushalayim produced publications, recordings and choirs across Israel, and in 1990 and 1992, under the auspices of Shirat Yerushalayim and the Joint Distribution Committee, Cantor Glickman led seminars in Moscow and Leningrad for cantors from all over the former USSR.
In 1992 Cantor Glickman returned to the United States to serve as cantor in Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, Connecticut. In 2001 Cantor Glickman returned to Los Angeles to take the position as cantor in Congregation Mogen David. In the summer of 2003, he brought his Los Angeles Choir to Israel on a Musical Solidarity Mission where they joined with Cantor Glickman’s former choirs and together they performed in concerts in Jerusalem, Ramat Gan and Gush Etzion.
In february 2007, Cantor Glickman was again invited to conduct the Jerusalem Cantors Choir.
These are some of the highlights of the activities of Cantor Glickman who has dedicated his life to Jewish music with the strong belief that through music you could bring Jews closer to God and Israel.