Composer and singer Peri Smilow is serving as artist-in-residence this year at Temple Emanu-El in Edison.
Photo courtesy Peri Smilow
Advertisement
February 3, 2009
A musician known for her ability to express Jewish concepts through song has helped Temple Emanu-El in Edison to enhance Shabbat and its traditions.
Peri Smilow has been artist-in-residence this year at the synagogue as part of a challenge spearheaded by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, for congregations to enhance the Sabbath.
“Responding to Rabbi Yoffie, we wanted to expand, to reclaim Saturday morning as Shabbat,” said Diana Herman, Emanu-El’s Shabbat initiative chair. “We set up a task force and developed a number of programs.
The goal is for members to “enrich their own personal and family Shabbat experiences,” said Herman.
Last spring and summer, Emanu-El held meetings to discuss the concept of Shabbat in the Reform tradition. As a result, it has instituted changes, including family and musical services, and incorporating bar and bat mitzva ceremonies into the service.
“We have a great turnout on Friday night, but we wanted to make people understand that Shabbat doesn’t end on Friday night,” said Rabbi Deborah Bravo.
Smilow — a singer, songwriter, educator, and community organizer — has been instrumental in delivering that message, said Bravo.
“She has a really great soul,” said the rabbi. “She is a wonderful teacher and educator and a great storyteller. She’s been a wonderful asset in this process.”
Smilow, who has released three CDs, sees her role as “augmenting worship in a congregation without a full-time cantor.”
Her role is “to bring the music of the contemporary Jewish world to contemporary congregational life,” she said in a phone interview. “I’m a national touring artist and spend a lot of time on the road. I love singing, I love composing, and I love performing.
“But one of the downsides of being a touring artist is that I come in and out of communities very quickly. It’s very difficult to put down lasting roots. I really appreciate the opportunity to be an artist-in-residence because it feeds my personal need to connect and get to know the audience.”
A resident of South Orange, Smilow grew up in East Brunswick — serving as a song leader at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. Three years ago, she was artist-in-residence at a temple in Bloomfield.
She said spending the year with a congregation allows her the opportunity to craft her programming to “inspire and enhance” the needs of her audience.
Smilow kicked off the year at Emanu-El by leading a Selihot program and has since appeared monthly. During a special artist-in-residence weekend Jan. 24-25, she did “a lot of teaching,” she said. “We wanted to build on the general idea of change because the week before included the inauguration of Barack Obama.”
The weekend included sessions highlighting change in Saturday morning worship, in a person’s life, and in the community and on how “Jews can build upon our personal passion to care and for tikun olam [repairing the world].”
Smilow, who holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University, draws on her experience as an educational consultant specializing in nonprofit management, curriculum design, community service learning, and intergenerational programming.
She worked for many years with young people in Boston and New York City who did not thrive in traditional school settings.
All the while she continued to sing in synagogues on weekends and work in professional musical theater.
“I see my music and mission as a way to get the word out about people being connected to communities and the power of the individual to change the world,” said Smilow.
Her most recent recording, Peri Smilow and the Freedom Music Project: The Music of Passover and the Civil Rights Movement, features an 18-voice choir of young black and Jewish singers celebrating the freedom music of their traditions. It resulted in national stories on television and radio.
In March, Smilow will serve as artist-in-residence for the World Union of Progressive Judaism Connections Conference in Israel and in November at the UJR biennial conference in Toronto. Her next album, Blessings, will be released later this year and draws on Smilow’s experiences as a cancer survivor.
“My long background in community organizing and education led me to have a slightly different approach to Jewish music,” she said. “I look at it as a tool to help the Jewish community look inside itself and outside. As Jews we have a responsibility and can have a powerful impact on the community around us. I want to be part of that shift.”
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
--TOP--
