Elohim neshama debbie friedman biography
The Beth Elohim Adult Choir is a small group of talented and dedicated member volunteers, including director Judy Kramer. Formed in with a core group of 4 singers, the choir has grown to 21 members, many of whom have been with the choir since its earliest days. The choir sings at High Holiday services, Sabbath morning services at the request of Bar/Bat Mitzvah families, and other occasional events.
Once a year, the choir presents a very special Friday evening service (Shabbat Shirah – Sabbath of Song) in which most of the elements of the service are choral settings. This popular annual event has introduced to the congregation a wide variety of Jewish liturgical music and the richness of our musical heritage. Repertoire ranges from the Renaissance music of Salomone Rossi; to 19th European composers such as Lewandowski and Mombach; to Yiddish, Ladino and Sephardic folk tunes; to contemporary composers like Jeff Klepper, Charles Davidson, Meir Finkelstein, Ben Steinberg, Debbie Friedman, Stephen Glass and many others.
The choir has commissioned four pieces: Mizmor Shir Chanukat Habayit by Charles Osborne (for the dedication of our current building); L’chu N’ran’na by Robert Applebaum; Elohai Neshama by Robert Solomon (in honor of Rabbi Mintz and Naomi’s 30 years of service to our congregation); and another setting of Elohai Neshama by Benjie Ellen Schiller (in honor of CBE’s 50th anniversary).
Rehearsals are held on Thursday evenings from – for approximately weeks prior to the High Holidays and the annual music Shabbat, usually held in the spring. Other rehearsals are scheduled on an ad hoc basis, depending on planned events. If you have some choral singing experience and would like to explore becoming a choir member, contact director Judy Kramer at CBEChoir@ or call the synagogue office.
Spotlight On
From left: Dr. Uri D. Herscher, Founding President and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center; Dr. Joshua Holo, Dean of the Jack H. Skirball Campus of HUC-JIR in Los Angeles; and Rabbi David Ellenson, President, HUC-JIR
The HUC-JIR/Los Angeles campus was named in tribute to and loving memory of Jack H. Skirball in a ceremony on Sunday, February 6, , attended by members of the Boards of Governors and Overseers, faculty, students, and civic leaders of the Los Angeles community.
Rabbi David Ellenson, HUC-JIR President, stated, "It is truly fitting that this campus be named after Jack Skirball, whose vision and philanthropy guided the creation of this campus and played a central role in acquiring its location. The Jack H. Skirball Campus pays tribute to his devotion and commitment to Jewish life and American society as a whole, and we are honored that his name will add to the prominence of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in the Los Angeles community and the larger world. We are enormously grateful to the Skirball Foundation for their generous gift of $10 million to sustain this campus and its mission to train the intellectual, spiritual, and professional leaders for the Reform Movement and klal Yisrael."
Dr. Uri D. Herscher, Founding President and Chief Executive of the Skirball Cultural Center, noted, "Jack H. Skirball believed deeply in the values of the Jewish tradition. He was often heard to say that the Jewish tradition has so much to contribute to the ideals of peace, social justice, integrity, and moral concepts. He felt it was essential for Jews and the rest of the world to be aware of the deep roots of the Jewish story. By having an integral role in the development and growth of the College-Institute throughout the decades, he had an opportunity, in his own way, to have a share in the telling of that story, a
Our Staff, Teachers, and Board
Bob Schechter and his wife, Susan, live in Weston and Monterey, MA with their poodle pack. They are blessed with two adult children, Mike and Brian, one daughter in law, Anya, one daughter in law to be, Michelle, and, just recently, one beautiful granddaughter, Lila.
Bob served in several leadership capacities at Temple Beth Elohim, most recently as board president from through Bob is also a past chairman of the Boston Children’s Museum and along with Susan, has volunteered and worked with a number of not for profit organizations. He is a Kivvun 3 alum, a Meah graduate and a frequent participant in Jewish studies.
Professionally, Bob is a mostly retired technology industry executive who continues to dabble in the industry serving on corporate boards and occasionally advising entrepreneurs. He worked in the software industry at the dawn of the personal computing and internet eras and later in the telecom industry as it transitioned to the mobile era and became part of the internet.
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