Articles by Cantors
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I remember the first moments that I sat in the sanctuary at Temple Beth El of Great Neck and heard my cantor, Barbara Ostfeld, sing the majestic Avinu Malkeinu of Max Janowski for the first time. With the organ and the choir joining her, I felt the emotion well up inside of me as I realized the impact that this incredible music had on me. I
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Twenty-first century synagogues and organizations seeking to engage the next generation of Jewish leaders can learn a lot from the early Zionists. The promotional materials that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) created to encourage thousands of Jews in Europe to settle in Eretz Yisrael were based on unique cultural developments that were being
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Until early in my synagogue involvement, Shavuot meant a Jewish holiday when you ate blintzes. I vaguely understood that Shavuot had something to do with God and Torah at Mt. Sinai. I suspect that this is the situation for most Reform Jews.
Unlike its sister festivals Passover and Sukkot, there’s nothing to build and no special
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Passover is the holiday when lay people become leaders. The entire ritual of the festival (that most people observe) is conducted in the privacy of their homes! The seder is a time for cooking, gathering, singing, and engaging with our tradition. A lively exchange between family and friends is the hallmark of a meaningful observance of the
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Passover, perhaps more than any other holiday, opens wide the doors between our past and our future, between our people and all people. As we retell our stories in both our homes and synagogues, we are able to find myriad ways in which our journey from degradation to redemption and from slavery to freedom becomes the story of all people around
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