I will never forget my first High Holiday preparation with the choir at Temple Beth Am.  I had been told ahead of time that the choir had been together for a very long time; some of the members had been singing at services since before I was even born!  It was a little intimidating for this brand new, 30 year old, newly invested cantor, but I was determined to win them over and make sure they knew how much their contribution to our worship services was valued.  I walked in to the sanctuary, introduced myself, and then heard from each and every one of them how many years they had been singing in the choir.  Having never worked with a cantor before, they were, understandably, a little wary of me.

The first thing I did was to as them to take out their High Holiday books and see what music they were singing.  The good news was that they had a lot of the music that was appropriate for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  The bad news was that it was not organized in books, and even when it came to prayers which were done at every service (double services in both the evening and morning in those days) like the Bar’chu, there would be only one copy.  It would keep getting moved from service to service, and when a particular prayer could not be found in time, a member of the choir would have to go out and photocopy music during the service!  This would not do, so I spent my first week here making beautiful, organized binders for each choir member with tabs for Rosh Hashanah evening and morning and for Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur morning, afternoon and neilah.  At the next rehearsal, I proudly handed a brand new binder to each choir member, thinking that this would certainly endear me to them.  “Look,” I said.  “Now you just turn the page and you’re ready to sing the next prayer!  Isn’t that great?”  To my surprise, their response was, “If we don’t have to look for music and go out to the photocopier, then what are we going to do to pass the time in between the prayers that we sing?”

Since that time, there has been much water under the bridge.  I am happy to say that we have all become friends and have shared many laughs, many good times, and many, many Shabbat services together.  We have also mourned together and comforted each other as we lost some of the original members of the choir: Bernie Siff, Milt Rosenthal, Esther Tafler and most recently, Shy Ross.  We have now completed twenty high holidays together, and while some people have come and gone, many of those same original choir members are still singing with our choir!

It is with great love and pride that I invite the congregation to join us on Friday evening, May 23^rd, to honor these unsung (pun intended) heroes of our worship services.  It is an evening to honor all those who have sung in our choir over the years, from those who started with Bernie Siff some 52 years ago to those who have joined in recent years.  Our services have been enhanced by their talent, their commitment and their love for Judaism, and it’s time for Temple Beth Am to publicly thank these sweet singers of Israel.  Please mark your calendars and plan to spend that Shabbat evening in temple.  It will be an evening of beautiful music, and honor to those who create it.