Music Connects our Community

I always loved to sing. From the time I was four years old, I went to synagogue with my older brother, and the tunes of the shabbat morning service were swimming around in my head well before I learned to read the words. I went to Camp Ramah and enthusiastically embraced the singing culture, memorizing the words to the songs for the Zimriah – music festival – and for the blessing after each meal. I desperately wanted to lead the Birkat Hamazon – grace after meals – on shabbat because it was the long version, and on occasion I was thrilled to have this honor. Continue reading

Learning to Read Torah

One of my fondest wishes as a little girl was to do everything the boys do on the Bimah. From the age of four I attended Junior Congregation accompanying my older brother. It was just the two of us. My father was at work, and my mother had gone to shul on Friday night and was enjoying a shabbat of her own making at home. By age five I knew all the prayers by heart. The service was held in a small, simple room in the basement of our synagogue. It was filled with children, and it resonated with laughter and song. There I learned to daven, I was a chazanit, I had aliyot, I held the Torah, I sat on the Bimah. All the “jobs” were accessible to me. One shabbat, after a major snowfall, when it was too dangerous for our mother to drive us, my brother and I trudged through the heavy snow to the synagogue so that we would not miss the service. Continue reading