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September 10, 2004/Elul 24 5765, Vol. 57, No. 1
High Holiday highlights
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
Each synagogue's High Holiday services are unique. Rabbis put their personal touches on their sermons, children participate in services designed especially for them and congregations walk down city streets to bodies of water to share in the practice of Tashlich. Below is a compilation of firsts, special guests and other noteworthy information about this year's High Holidays in the Valley.
First-time happenings
Many congregations can boast firsts this year. Members of the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley will hold High Holiday services in their new synagogue. Chabad of Arizona introduces services in both North Phoenix and Anthem. It's the first year Rabbi Mendy Levertov will hold services for Chabad of North Phoenix - Rosh Hashana services will be in the AMC Theatres at Desert Ridge Marketplace. Also this is the first time at Arizona State University that Chabad at ASU will hold High Holiday services, led by Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel. Tiechtel will also blow the shofar several times during the day, at various locations across campus.
To accommodate its growing congregation, Temple Emanuel of Tempe will hold its High Holiday services at Phoenix Civic Plaza this year. The synagogue also offers several traditional, adult and teen services, to help make the experience more relevant to its younger and more senior members of the congregation.
Members of Temple Kol Ami will celebrate the High Holidays with their new spiritual leader, Rabbi Jordan Goldson.
Beth El Congregation welcomes Rabbi Barb Moskow to the synagogue. Temple Beth Israel welcomes Rabbi Jessica Zimmerman.
At the Desert Foothills Jewish Community Association in Scottsdale, Rabbi Robert Kravitz of the American Jewish Committee will run the show this year.
Getting children involved
Besides the multiple children's services available throughout the Valley, a couple of synagogues will increase children's involvment in other ways.
The Junior Eshet Chail, a group of young girls at the Sephardic Community of Arizona, volunteer each Shabbat to help in the kitchen and set the tables. This year, 10 of the girls helped stuffed envelopes for the High Holiday mailings.
This year the Temple Emanuel Teen Band will perform at the synagogue's teen High Holiday service on the first day of Rosh Hashana. The group of students, seventh-12th graders, will perform "A Nacht in Gan Eydn," an Eastern European piece. Julie Ivanhoe directs the band.
Special guests
Cantors and rabbis from all over the world will visit the Valley this year to officiate at High Holiday services.
Two cantors from Israel will join Shirat David, of the Scottsdale Sepharadic Synagogue, for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services. The Sepharadic cantors are Rafi Alon and Charlee Zrihen.
Joe Hazizah recently moved from France to be a cantor for the Sephardic Community of Arizona. He has Moroccan cantorial experience and has been a student of Rabbi David Pinto, a renowned Moroccan rabbi in France.
Professional opera performer Cantor Don Goldberg returns to Beth Emeth Congregation in Sun City West. Goldberg, who has been singing for 40 years, has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and was invited to sing for the late Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog. He has performed in many countries and several years ago he became the first non-Swede to lecture at the Jussi Bjoerling Museum, which is devoted to Sweden's greatest opera singer. He is currently a music lecturer and radio producer of opera programs for a Connecticut radio station.
At Temple Beth Emeth in Scottsdale, Cantor Ellen Jaffe-Gill of Los Angeles will lead services. Besides extensive musical experience, she is the author of three books, a contributing writer to The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, a teacher and an editor.
Cantor Drew Meyer will lead the service at Congregation Gan Shalom. He will also be the guest speaker on Yom Kippur afternoon.
Special guests Rabbi Charles Kroloff and Cantorial Solist Cindy Paley will lead services at Temple Gan Elohim in Glendale. Kroloff is the first past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis to lead a service in Phoenix. He's also a past president of the Association of Reform Zionists of America and of the Hebrew Union College Alumni Association, the rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanuel of Westfield, N.J., and the author of two books about the homeless from a Reform perspective.
Paley, director of children's music at Temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Calif., has recorded several children's music recordings, including "Shabbat Shalom" and "A Singing Seder." Her latest release, "Yavo Shalom," features contemporary Israeli songs of peace, love and friendship.
Rabbi Toba August and Cantor Ralph Resnick, both of Los Angeles, will lead services with Rabbi Beryl Padorr-Kaufmann of Kansas City at Congregation Or Chadash.
Sharing with others
For the third year, members of Beth Ami Temple, a Reform temple in Paradise Valley, will gather at Kivel Campus of Care to celebrate the High Holidays with residents and guests of the residential care facility. Rabbi Martin Scharf, Kivel's chaplain, runs the service with Cantorial Soloists Shelle Witten and Raquel Sharf-Anderson.
The congregation uses a unique High Holiday prayer book - a compilation of traditional High Holiday prayers and creative writings contributed by original temple members and Rabbi Fred Grosse, the synagogue's founding rabbi.
For a list of High Holiday services open to nonmembers, please see "Nonmember High Holiday services".
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