From: allender@ils.nwu.edu (Laura Allender)
Subject: Re: Conservative Choirs
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 19:00:05 GMT

janiceg@marvin.Eng.Sun.COM (Janice Gelb) writes:
> In article 5224@cbnewsl.cb.att.com, stank@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (Stan Krieger) writes:
> < < At this distance, it's hard to say just what he was objecting to. 
> < < Choirs are pretty standard at conservative services, especially for
> < < Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, although a Hillel might not have the
> < < resources to organize one.  Many orthodox shuls have choirs 
> < < (generally all male).  Presumably the style of the service, and 
> < < perhaps the role of the choir (if it did more than conservative 
> < < choirs usually do), bothered him.  
> < 
> < My only experience with a Conservative synagogue choir was in the
> < early 1960's (in my early teens). My feeling then was that it made
> < a farce of the entire service.
> < 
> < The synagogue (Temple Beth El in Margate, NJ) had been founded in
> < the late 1950's, as Jews were moving out of Atlantic City into
> < the other towns on Absecon Island, and we did not have a Cantor.
> < For the High Holidays, a quartet was hired to accompany the Rabbi,
> < who davened the large-crowd services (on RH, these are the
> < Torah Service and Musaf; on YK, there are Kol Nidre/Ma'ariv,
> < the Torah Service, Yizkor, and Musaf, and Ne'ilah).
> < 
> 
> My choir story dates from my college days: I went to a commuter jr. 
> college so I could combine my first two years of university into one. 
> Anyway, the first Rosh Hashana right after I started school I was 
> heading up the back stairs of my Conservative synagogue and bumped 
> into my new jr. college choir teacher, a Baptist.  Turned out he 
> had been the lead bass in the choir there for years!  


I realize that it might be astonishing at first that a choir member
was not Jewish, but Jewishness does not make for better or more
inspirational singing.  I often have thought of joining the choir
at my synagogue but my schedule prohibits it, so I can only be
thankful that the synagogue allows anyone to sing in the choir.
Max Janowski was our cantor and composer and music director for
fifty years, we all know his melodies, and at high holidays we
sing with the choir (or hum in the background), and we eagerly
anticipate hearing and humming with his Avinu Malkenu, 
just as my friends from other traditions anticipate singing their 
favorite melodies on the high holidays.

In my days in a multi-ethnic community choir (the Chicago
Children's Choir), we sang all kinds of music, 
including Jewish music, at churches, synagogues, nursing homes,
schools, etc... if we hadn't had Jewish choral music to sing, I think
my parents would have withdrawn me from one of the most wonderful 
experiences of my life.  Jewish choral music
has a place and a time when it comes to services, but it is important
that the tradition continues -- most importantly because it is a beautiful 
means of communicating the spirit of our prayers with traditional 
(and new) melodies played out to their fullest.  
 
So go out and join your synagogues choir or a community choir (& if
it's a community choir bring in Jewish & Israeli music) and continue
the tradition of excellence in Jewish music. 

Laura