Shalom from TBD Religious School
Shabbat newsletter compiled by Gal Kessler Rohs, Education Director
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This week, our choir director,
Steve Bermann
, who is also our incoming 4th and 5th grade teacher shared his cantorial and teaching focused bio with me. I wanted to share that with our families as an introduction to our incoming religious school staff, and those who we credit for enriching our temple spiritual services. Have you even heard Steve sing LeDor VaDor? Now that's Wow!
I'll be sharing in this mail also about two other cantors affiliated with TBD- Cantors Judy Sofer and Doug Cotler, who will be co leading TBD's spiritual services on August 16th and 17th, respectively.
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Cantor Steve Bermann comes from a family of Cantors, Rabbis and Holocaust survivors.
He has a Bachelors Degree in Teaching as well as another Bachelors Degree in Music Performance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a Teaching Certificate of Music Literacy from the Kodaly Musical Training Institute in Boston.
He has also studied at UCLA, USC and CSUN and studied with music coaches from the Vienna Staatsoper, the Los Angeles Musical Theater Workshop, and the Los Angeles Opera. Along with his work as a Vocal Soloist, Cantor, and Conductor he has also been a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has performed with luminaries such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy, Grant Gershon and Sir Antonio Pappano.
He has toured Europe, Asia and Israel as a soloist and Baritone with professional classical music ensembles.
Cantor Bermann has taught as a full time substitute in the Philadelphia School District, teaches singing privately and is a Credentialed California Educator. He is the conductor and rehearsal pianist of the Sweet Singers of David volunteer choir at Temple Beth David and is our Cantor for the 5779-5780 High Holy Days.
Although his first language was Yiddish, he has sung in many languages and can hold a conversation in German and French.
He loves learning things along with his students and cherishes those aha moments when his students achieve something they thought they were not capable of.
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Cantor Judy Sofer
is the Cantor at Temple Beth Shalom Long Beach. She is a member of the Cantor’s Assembly and has been serving fulltime in the cantorate for the last 25 years, currently serving on the Executive Council. She originally officiated at Adat Ari in Anaheim Hills 1991-1994, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center 1994-2011, and arriving in Long Beach in 2011-present. Besides leading regular Shabbat and holiday services with her adult choir, training bar/bat mitzvah students, she has initiated musical Torah School services and has recently lead drum circle services and a new Saturday morning service, Ruach Shabbat, together with her son Leeav (of Mostly Kosher). She has also produced many extremely successful cantors concerts including her third concert at TBSLB as a tribute to Rabbi Hazzan Emeritus David Kane that was performed by members of the Cantors Assembly including the current president, Alberto Mizrachi on December 29.
Cantor Sofer also serves as the Cultural Arts Program Coordinator for the San Gabriel Valley Jewish Federation and in that capacity she oversees numerous performing arts programs including a performing theatre ensemble, the JFed Players (producer and sometime director), conducts a community choir, Kol HaEmek and helped to create a Jewish Youth Orchestra along with producing community coffeehouses, leading trips to Israel, and establishing a Visual Arts Exhibition.
Cantor Sofer grew up in Fullerton, California, studying originally at UCI and then going to Israel on the Junior Year Abroad Program, finishing her degree and teacher credentials at Hebrew University in Jerusalem where she remained for 11 years. Having been involved as a singer, pianist, and actor in her high school and early college years in such groups as the Fullerton Civic Light Opera and other groups, she continued to perform professionally in Israel in Teatron HaCameri in Tel Aviv, making children’s English teaching television programs in Herzlia Studios, and traveling with her own puppet theater in Israel, as well as teaching music and piano in the local schools.
Upon arriving back in the United Stated in 1985, she first completed her Master’s Degree in Directing at California State University in Fullerton, graduating in 1990, and then returned to Cantorial school at Hebrew Union College in 1991.
Cantor Sofer will be at TBD next Friday, August 16th, to co lead Shabbat services with Rabbi Lachtman.
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Congregation Or Ami’s Cantor,
Doug Cotler
, is a Grammy Award-winning composer and an accomplished singer, songwriter and musician. Blessed with a warm and expressive voice, Doug’s sensitive and penetrating interpretations of liturgy as well as his insightful and humorous songs about Jewish events and heroes have placed him in the forefront of contemporary Jewish music. He and his wife, Gail, have two sons.
When asked how and why he became a Cantor, Doug responded:
“Like so many others, my grandmother’s first step in America was on Ellis Island. It was 1905. She was 15. She had left her parents in Russia, in a shelter just outside Slutsk, now a major industrial city, but then a small community not too far from Minsk and Pinsk. When I was a boy, these were just funny sounding names. The hardships and pogroms that had driven my grandmother’s family out of their homes were rarely mentioned. She was strong, hard-working, resourceful, and as a mother, totally dedicated to her family. She carried within her an embrace of Judaism that was directly out of Sholom Aleichem. I have always seen her as one of Tevye’s daughters.
In her later years, she lived in her daughter’s home, and each Shabbat she would light the candles in a softly whispered ritual that was a private, reverent moment for her. Three grandsons, of which I am the youngest, usually ricocheting loudly from baseball diamond to refrigerator as sundown approached, would see the shawl on her head and instantly go silent and motionless. Her hands would circle in the air above the candles, and then cover her face as she recited the Shabbat blessing. After the special dinner she had prepared was eaten, we would all go to temple.
My father was the Cantor. My grandmother loved him. We all did. He was my inspiration. As I listened to my father stretching the notes and pulling the emotion out of every prayer, I remember thinking it remarkable that my grandmother knew them all by heart. These days, however, most congregants repeat them word for word-usually with little understanding of what they really mean. But I’m not criticizing. Ritual is supposed to get you in the mood, to center you, to get your mind off the world outside.
As a sweet singer of Israel, I try to help the worshipers do that, to lead them through the words and into the heart and spirit of what the ritual is all about. I learned that if I embrace Judaism as my grandmother did, it will envelop and protect me just as she enveloped and protected it. She lit those candles every week. For me, a boy growing up as one of the only Jews in a small farming town in California, she kept the flame alive.”
You can get more information on Cantor Cotler’s music
here
and and you can contact him via e-mail
here
.
Shabbat Shalom,
Gal Kessler Rohs
, Education Director
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Religious School Registration is underway
Our first day back will be September 8th, 2019 #cantwait
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Application and registration for our Religious School is underway! Our first day back will be September 8th, 2019, where we will focus on friendship making, community building, and replenishing ourselves towards the Jewish High Holy Days.
Our school is located in Temple City, we are under the umbrella of the Union for Reform Judaism, and partner with the Jewish Federation of San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys. We are a diverse and caring community where students are inspired to develop a love of Judaism in its many forms.
Guided by the values of Hesed (kindness), K’dushah (holiness), Tsedakah (justice/charity), and Limmud (learning), our purpose is to nourish the hearts, souls, and minds of our students. Our educational programs and staff aspire to provide a foundation for students to comfortably participate in all aspects of Jewish life.
Registration forms can be found on our website or by clicking
here
.
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Torah Portion this week
Parashat Dvarim
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Parashat Dvarim is the 44th weekly portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading.
In this portion Moses said to the Israelites: “Remember God said, ‘I have set this land before you, go in and take possession of the land…’ Now God, your God, has multiplied you and you are now like the stars of heaven in multitude. May God add to you another thousand times as many as you are now, and may God bless you.
This brings back flashbacks of our school Israel day where we learned about the meaning of Israel to the Jewish people. See how we all sang HaTikvah in the video below. To read about the portion, click
here
.
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High Holy Days at TBD
we're already in the planning
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Seeking plush toy donations
for children in need
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Next time you come to TBD, please consider adding a plush toy to the baskets in the lobby.
Elle
will allocate the donations to children and animals in need, as part of her Mitzvah Project.
Thanks for your Mitzvah involvement!
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Flyers, flyers, flyers
oh, and a few more flyers
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Useful Reading
and further resources
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- Dr. Jackie Green was last week's birthday girl. Read about Dr. Green, and how she plays an iMeet Miriam in last week's Temple Beth David Religious School eblast here.
- Vista Del Mar improves the mental health and welbeing of children and families. We are collaborating with them in their mission. More about Vista Del Mar here.
- Shalom, and welcome to Temple Beth David of the San Gabriel Valley! Watch our video here.
- Dates to volunteer at Union Station in preparing breakfast for the homeless.
- We will use “Navigating the Journey” as a part of our adult Jewish Education series after the High Holy Days as a refresher and introduction to acquire more knowledge in Jewish life cycles.To purchase a copy now, so that you can have a head start with the classes that will begin in October, click here.
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See you at tonight's Shabbat and Haftara
services focusing on Tisha B’Av with Doris
Robin and Laurie Averritt
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