Yair Shahak is an award-winning educator, violinist, and cantor based in the New York City metropolitan area.
He made international headlines when he became the first ever American to win first place at the International Bible Contest for Adults (Chidon HaTanach HaOlami) in Jerusalem in 2016, after winning the National Bible Contest for Adults (Chidon HaTanach HaArtzi) in New York in both 2014 and 2016. From 2010-2015, he served as a full-time Instructor of Hebrew at Yeshiva University, and in 2013 was awarded the Lillian F. and William L. Silber Professor of the Year Award, an honor chosen by the student body for his “lucid explanations” and “warm, crystal-clear methodology.”
He holds a B.A. in Bible, Music, and Hebrew Language & Literature, an M.A. in Biblical and Semitic Studies & Languages, and cantorial ordination from Yeshiva University, as well as a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music, where he studied with Daniel Phillips and was the recipient of the Adele Lerner Prize in Chamber Music. His Tanakh-infused poetry has been published in Hador: The Hebrew Annual of America and he has served as a cantor and scholar-in-residence at numerous synagogues and Ivy League universities in the tri-state area and beyond.
Shahak has been performing as a singer and violinist with all the major (and minor) bands and orchestras in the Jewish music industry since 2007. He is also the founder of VaYehi Orchestra, a band for all occasions that specializes in the perfect synthesis of contemporary, classical, and old-world Jewish music.
He is currently the Chair of the Hebrew Department at the Frisch School in Paramus, NJ. He is also Cantor and Spiritual Leader of the Rimon Center for Jewish Learning in East Windsor, NJ, as well as High Holidays Cantor at the Young Israel of Pelham Parkway Jewish Center in the Bronx.