Rabbi Ben-Zion Lanxner was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel. He then moved to Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium, where he was reared in a Chassidic Orthodox environment (his family is from the Belz Chassidic lineage).
At a very young age he began his training in the Eastern European Traditional Yeshiva and Cantorial school. He studied at the Rambam Talmudic School and the Wilrijch Chassidic Yeshiva in Antwerp.
Since childhood, Rabbi Lanxner possessed a beautiful and powerful voice. He started his career as a soloist in the Great Orthodox Synagogue in Brussels at the age of seven, where he often sang duets during the Yamim Noraim with the very famous and world renowned Cantor Bergman, a frequent Israeli guest of the synagogue. At age 16, Rabbi Lanxner received the honor to co-officiate, for the first time.
Rabbi Lanxner studied hazzanut with the world-renowned Cantor Yehoshuah Lerer, a prodigy from the school of Cantor-Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Rivlin in Jerusalem. He obtained his s’micha (rabbinical ordination) from the Rabbinic Centre and Beit Din in Brussels, and served as the rabbi/hazzan of the Orthodox Beth Israel Congregation in Brussels for ten years. Rabbi Lanxner was also invested as a hazzan (cantor) by the Cantors Assembly of America.
His first American position was at Tiferet Israel Congregation in Dallas, Texas. This was followed by 16 years as cantor and as choir and educational director at Beth Ahm Congregation in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and 16 years as the rabbi and hazzan at Congregation B’nai David, also in West Bloomfield. Since July 2015, Rabbi Lanxner has enjoyed his current post, that of rabbi and hazzan at Congregation Agudath Jacob in Waco.
Rabbi Lanxner is a member of both the Rabbinical Assembly of America and the Cantors Assembly of America. He plays the guitar and is fluent in Hebrew, French, and Yiddish. His favorite hobbies are oil painting, reading, composing, and cooking. He has two children, his late daughter Jennifer (Tiferet Chaya) (zt”l) and son David (Florida), and six grand children. His wife Susan holds a Master Degree in Jewish Education from American Jewish University, in Los Angeles, and is a popular bar/bat mitzvah teacher.