by hazzantzius | May 7, 2012 | Family, Featured, Judaism
My congregation, Temple Israel of New Rochelle, just honored me at their annual gala fundraiser for ten years of service. It was a really lovely evening.
by hazzantzius | May 1, 2012 | Featured, Music
I recently composed a setting of V’sham’ru for my congregation. It’s a call and response and you can have your community singing it without much teaching at all! And I want to share it with you for free!
by hazzantzius | Apr 4, 2012 | Featured
For the past few years, we’ve reclaimed the tradition of counting the Omer at our Temple. I like it because of the anticipation of counting up (not down!) to Shavuot, the anniversary of the receiving of the Torah, and celebrating our Confirmation students.
by hazzantzius | Mar 7, 2012 | Featured, Music
I’m really looking forward to singing with the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus in their production of Sholem Aleichem dir, Amerike! The 1956 Birnbaum/Rauch operetta, is based on Sholom Aleichem’s Motl, Peyse dem khazns (“Motl, Peyse the...
by hazzantzius | Dec 21, 2011 | Featured
For those of you who missed the concert, please watch the highlights! More video to come! [youtubegallery] Highlights from the Afro-Semitic Experience|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gstS7Xn11ZA Shomeir Yisrael|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp0fuDFd5wc...
by hazzantzius | Dec 13, 2011 | Featured, Judaism, Music
One of the most famous of Christmas songs is by a Jewish composer: Irving Berlin. I don’t care what face tradition you grew up with; White Christmas is a terrific song and it makes me think of the season. But where are all the great Hanukkah songs? Where is the...
by hazzantzius | Oct 8, 2011 | Featured, Sermon
Rabbi Alvin Reines, professor of philosophy at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1958 until his death in 2004, taught that religion exists because we realize that we are each destined to die. Because our life is finite, with a beginning and an end, we...
by hazzantzius | Sep 30, 2011 | Sermon
On September 21, 2011, at 10:53 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Troy Davis was executed by the state of Georgia. He was tried and convicted for the assault of two men and the murder of a third, a police officer, in Savannah, Georgia in August of 1989. As with other...
by hazzantzius | Feb 17, 2011 | Featured, Sermon
God passed by before [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Eternal God, the Eternal God, omnipotent, merciful and kind, slow to anger, with tremendous love and truth. Who remembers deeds of love for thousands [of generations], forgiving sin, rebellion and error. Who does not...
by hazzantzius | Sep 10, 2010 | Sermon
“You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down… some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.” –Aaron Copland