Temple Sinai in Oakland and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley have long enjoyed a fruitful, non-secular musical partnership. For more than 15 years, St. Mark’s Choir has participated in Friday night service at Temple Sinai, and Temple Sinai Choir has sung Sunday Mass at St. Mark’s. The two choirs have also presented joint systems of pieces through Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, among other composers.
Sinai Temple singer Ilene Keys and George Anton Emblom, choir director and organist of the Sinai Temple and St. Mark, had planned to bring members of both choirs to Israel in early 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic forced them to postpone it. Finally, at the end of October, 36 members of the two communities went to the Holy Land for an interfaith and singing visit.
On Friday, January 27, tour participants will focus on the two-week adventure and sing on the premises of Temple Sinai.
In an interview after returning home, Keys told J. that the organization had visited places in Israel and the West Bank that are for Jews (Western Wall, Masada, Tzfat) and Christians (Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Manger Square, Mount of Beatitudes). ).
“It was attractive to see the connection between church members and the temple,” he said. “On the bus, other people were interacting and sharing their stories. “
Although participants did not hold concerts, they sang Shabbat installations at two Reform congregations—Kehilat Kol HaNeshama in Jerusalem and Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv—and a Mass at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem, as well as more casually at various stops on the tour. Their repertoire included Hebrew prayers and Israeli songs, as well as hymns and Christian songs.
“The only song we sang that referred to Christ on our excursion ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem,’ a carol we sang in Bethlehem, so it fits into this context that our Christian travelers can sing the original text,” Keys said. “Of course, no one was forced to sing anything that felt uncomfortable singing. “
Keys added that Emblom, with whom he has worked for more than 25 years, has been “very susceptible to this. “
“We felt there because of the concept of resilience and the courage to do what needed to be done,” Keys said. “We also sang the same song at Yad Vashem in the Hall of Remembrance. “Other visitors to the Yad Vashem museum were very moved by the impromptu performance, he said.
This was Laurie Leiber’s third trip to Israel with Temple Sinai and Keys. Leiber, an Oakland resident and soprano in the choir, traveled with her husband, Phil Rubin, who is a tenor. I didn’t know before,” he said of his first participation in an interfaith tour. For example, he says he learned he was captured by the Romans, condemned and crucified within 48 hours.
The nonstop tour was exhausting but also exciting, Leiber said. “There is an explanation for why interfaith is rarely unusual enough,” he said. “It’s hard to see everything you need to see when you have Jews and Christians. “But, he added, “when you sing, you take back power. It’s like an herbal energizer and an antidepressant.
Several of the travelers became ill with covid and had to self-isolate, according to Keys, but were able to sign up for the tour before it ended.
Emblom, the choir director, first visited Israel in 2005, when Temple Sinai presented him with an all-expenses-paid gift in honor of his tenth birthday at the synagogue. Since then, he has been eager to return and share the wonders of Israel with others.
“One of the things we were able to do in this was to help other people incorporate the spirit of music, and that requires a lot of confidence,” he said. “Everyone respects each other’s traditions. “
He recalled how a woman from London approached him after choirs sang at St. Cathedral. George. ” I was just delighted with what we were doing,” she said. bring other people together. ‘”
Andrew Esensten is J. Previously, he was editor of the English edition of Tel Aviv-based Haaretz.