Shulem Lemmer

Lemmer was born and raised in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in New York City.[3][4] He is a fifth-generation American, from a Hasidic family of the Belz movement.[5] Belz is a town in Galicia, in eastern Europe, where the Belz dynasty originated.[5][6] Lemmer is the youngest of eight children.[7]

Lemmer studied at the Belzer Cheder in Borough Park, and attended the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem, living in Israel for six and a half years.[8][9] He began performing at small family events when he was 10 years old; when he was 13 his sister Tzippy, who later died at 23 years of age in a car accident a few weeks after she was married, encouraged him to perform on stage at a brother's wedding.[10][11][12] His older brother, Yanky, is the cantor in Manhattan's Lincoln Square Synagogue.[13] The Lemmers are second cousins once removed of Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz.

Before becoming a full-time singer, Lemmer was the director of marketing at a technology firm start-up based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[14][7][6] He also still works as a cantor during the High Holidays at Congregation Ahavath Torah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Englewood, New Jersey.[11]

Lemmer is a tenor.[6] He has not had any formal training; he researched vocal training on YouTube and Google, and learned how to perform "on the job".[6] He released an album in 2015 entitled Shulem.[11]

He is the first born-and-raised Hasidic Jew to sign with a major record label, having signed with Universal Music Group under its classical music Decca Gold imprint.[7][6] Lemmer consults with a team of rabbinic advisors; his contract stipulates that he can refuse a performance for any reason.[13]

In April 2019, Lemmer sang “God Bless America” at Citi Field.[15] He has toured in American and Israeli cities, and sung in London, Krakow, Frankfurt, and Zurich.[12]

The music on his November 2019 major label debut album, The Perfect Dream,[1] is produced by Jon Cohen and accompanied by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[16][17][18] It consists of English, Hebrew, and Yiddish songs, including the Israeli song “Jerusalem of Gold,” and “Bring Him Home” from the Broadway musical “Les Misérables.”[7] Other songs are the ballad "Hushabye Mountain" from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, "When You Believe" from the animated movie The Prince of Egypt, Louis Armstrong’s jazz song “What a Wonderful World,” Paul Simon's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Avinu Malkeinu," Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You'll Never Walk Alone” from the musical Carousel, and "The Prayer."[11][19][6][17] The title track of the album, "The Perfect Dream," is an original song written for Lemmer by lyricist Don Black.[6]

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lemmer was recruited by the Department of Health and Human Services to raise awareness about the virus to Orthodox Jewish communities.[20]

• Shulem (2017)
• The Perfect Dream (2019)

Lemmer lives in the North Dover section of Toms River, New Jersey, having moved there with his family in 2017.[6][14] He is married, and has three children.[21]

In 2019, he was awarded a Jew in the City All-Star Award.[22][23]

• Shulem homepage
• "Shulem Lemmer singing with Shira, 'Chad Gadyu,'" June 13, 2015
• "Yossi Zweig interviews Shulem Lemmer, Simcha Leiner, and Eli Levin," The Lakewood Scoop, January 2020.