Bangor synagogues add choirs for High Holidays

For many Mainers, fall foliage and cool, crisp autumn mornings are nothing to celebrate. People mourn the loss of warm summer days and see the fall season as a long, slow slide into the seemingly endless death of winter darkness. Yet for Jews it is the season of Teshuvah, or turning, a time to sing in a new year, reflect on the past one and renew commitments for the next.

On Monday, the sound of the shofar, or ram’s horn, will sound in synagogues around the world to announce the beginning of the High Holidays with Rosh Hashanah. Jews’ observance of this important holy time conclude Sept. 30, with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

Two of Bangor’s three synagogues, Temple Beth Israel and Congregation Beth El, have formed choirs to usher in the new year, 5759, when sun sets on Sunday. However, preparation for the High Holidays began in earnest Sept. 12, with Selichot services. Both choirs performed at late evening services, which ended at midnight, symbolically marking the moment when the gates of forgiveness are opened.

“At Selichot services, we say penitential prayers to prepare us for the High Holidays because Jews pray to get into the mood to pray,” said Deborah Marlowe, cantor at Beth Israel, the city’s Conservative congregation.

Marlowe, a former professional opera singer, formed the choir last month to give members an opportunity to sing and hear Jewish music. The pieces she selected ranged from traditional tunes to “Adon Olam,” composed by Salomone Rossi in the 16th century, to the modern liturgical works of Max Janowski and Joseph Myerov.

Rabbi Laurence Milder of Bangor’s Reform synagogue led Beth El’s first choir last year during the High Holidays. This year, the choir added the Selichot service to the others sung for — Erev Rosh Hashanah on Sunday, and Erev Yom Kippur, Sept. 29.

Milder selected some widely sung folk melodies, as well as some new compositions that he said he “picked up at conferences where I meet other composers. I’m not looking for choir pieces. I’m looking for songs for the congregation. The Beth El choir sings to enhance the beauty of our congregation’s worship. We sing not to perform, but to enable others to sing along.”

Following a recent rehearsal at Beth El, Sharon Silberman-Hummels observed, “This music is really different what I am used to singing with the Renaissance Singers. A lot of it is liturgy, but we learn it in a very folk style. The rabbi sings to us, then we sing back to him. It’s an old style of learning, but it’s really fun.”

While choirs and hymnals are an integral part of the majority of Christian churches, none of Bangor’s three synagogues has ever been known for its music. Even though “music is central to the way Jews pray … [and] the Torah should be made to be understood … in musical and sweet tones,” according to Milder, no local synagogue is large enough to support the services of a full-time rabbi and cantor, whose role is to assist the rabbi in singing or chanting the prayers.

“A synagogue without a cantor has a rabbi without a right arm,” declared Marlowe, who has been helping to lead services, as well as conduct youth and adult education classes at Beth Israel since January. The congregation has been without a rabbi for more than a year. Marlowe added that many large synagogues have pipe organs. In the past, services have been almost operatic, with the rabbi and cantor often harmonizing the prayers.

“We have always been a singing synagogue, but we have not done it in a formal way in a long time,” said Bill Small, a member of the choir and board at Beth Israel, noting that nearly a decade ago, the late Marshall Stern organized a synagogue choir that lasted about a year. “This is the high point of the Jewish year. The beautiful liturgy offers us a time to really think about things, and with [Marlowe] as our leader, we can’t go wrong.”

Marlowe, who performed using her maiden name Cook, made her operatic debut in 1972 in England. For the next 13 years, she performed in the major opera houses of the world, singing Gilda in “Rigoletto,” Olympia in “Tales of Hoffman,” Queen of the Night in “The Magic Flute” and many more. She recorded the title role in “Dinorah” and the role of Naiad in “Ariadne auf Naxos” with Leontyne Price.

However, since returning to the United States, Marlowe has concentrated on Jewish music. In Philadelphia, she studied with Max Wohlberg, the professor who 45 years ago created the curriculum for cantors used at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She was the last private student to study intensively with the well-known cantor before his death in 1996.

“I would not have been an opera singer had the cantorate been open to women when I was younger,” she said. “When I returned to the states in 1985, I saw an ad in the paper for a cantor. I knew synagogues were starting to hire women, so I applied and got the job. I knew the services, but I wanted to know how to be cantor, so I approached Professor Wohlberg. … I want to write a book with all the knowledge he gave me, so it will not be lost.”

However, for these High Holidays, Marlowe, who also works at Temple Beth El, Portland’s Conservative congregation, will fly to Lebanon, Pa., where she is under contract to serve as cantor for the observances. Rabbi Barry Krieger will conduct services at Beth Israel and Max Furmansky of Kfar Saba, Israel, will serve as cantor.

On Monday, Jews will begin what Milder called “the process of personal introspection that tradition requires Jews to do annually. The purpose is to examine our lives to see if we have achieved our goals and met our obligations. Then we can begin to reorient, redirect and turn our lives.”

In contrast to the celebratory tone of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur is the most solemn day of the year for Jews, the rabbi said. It is marked by fasting, penitence and prayer. Work, eating, drinking, washing, anointing one’s body, sexual intercourse and donning leather shoes are forbidden the most traditional Jews.

For more information on holiday services, contact Congregation Beth El, 945-4578; Beth Israel, 945-3433; or Beth Abraham, 947-0876.