In the last 30 years, Temple Beth Am has moved from a soloist to a cantor, enjoyed the leadership of three different rabbis, gone through numerous directors of education and seen multiple changes of staff in the office. The one person that has remained constant for all those years is our temple organist, Barbara Roth-Donaldson. When Barbara began playing the organ at our services in 1976 , Alfred Friedman was the rabbi and Bernie Siff was the soloist and choir director. Since that time, the worship style of the Reform movement has undergone major transitions and Temple Beth Am has continued to move with the times and adjust its own worship style accordingly. During all these transitions, though, Barbara has continued her service to Temple Beth Am as a loyal and committed member of our community, as well as a dedicated member of our staff.

This January, Barbara Roth-Donaldson will be retiring from her position as organist of Temple Beth Am. Now the grandmother of 9, Barbara will be taking some much deserved and well-earned time with her husband, Frank. In conjunction with Barbara’s retirement, we are revamping our worship services to reflect the greater trends in our movement.

Over the last few years, as the trend in Shabbat music in Reform Judaism has moved away from the formality of choral singing and more towards traditional chanting and the less formal folk-style music, the choir and organ have not played as prominent a role in our weekly Shabbat worship as they once did. Because the High Holy Days, by their very nature, are more majestic in style, the organ and choir are still integral to those services, and they will continue to have a place in our Shabbat worship, but with less regularity than had once been. Our population, too, has changed over the years, and while our long-time members still enjoy the choral element of our services, our younger members are less moved by that kind of music and prefer a style worship style that is more contemporary and more inclusive of congregational singing. Our challenge, now, is to find a balance between the different styles of Shabbat worship to satisfy the greatest amount of our membership.

In the meantime, please join us for a very special Shabbat service as we HONOR BARBARA ROTH-DONALDSON on Friday evening, January 18th at 8:00pm. We are greatly indebted to her for her invaluable service to our congregation over 30 years, and this will be a wonderful opportunity for all of us to thank her in person.