CBI Blogs

Shalom Chaverim,

This week I had the privilege of leading members of The Music Club that meets at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin in the singing of some Chanukah songs. Sue Bilich, a member of our greater temple community and The Music Club kindly invited me to participate. It was an honor to stand next to Sue as she took a few minutes to explain and teach what Chanukah is and then sing some fan favorites: Maoz Tzur, O’Chanukah, Ocho Kandelikas, and I Have a Little Dreidle (including some renditions written by our very own religious school students). As the program was introduced the speaker spoke about the importance music plays in our daily lives, emphasizing its greater impact during the holiday season.

This reflection is true for us here at CBI in our many prayer spaces. Whether a Friday night service or t’fillah on a Sunday morning with 2^nd through 5^th grades or on a Wednesday afternoon with our Hebrew school students. I know that the choices in melodies I make will resonate differently depending on the week we have had, the number of times we have sung something (especially if it is new), and the reason you have joined us in our space. Melodies can connect us to time at summer camp, the synagogue we grew up in, or what we sang in our Sunday school classrooms. It is my hope that, more often than not, what we sing brings our community a feeling of safety, security, and knowing that you are home in our sacred spaces. Like you are putting on your favorite, cozy sweater.

Now, imagine if a melody brought about negative feelings from a time you wish you could forget. A time when a person, a teacher, violated your student/teacher relationship in the most abhorrent of ways. A time when you tried to speak up and weren’t listened to. A time when none of the students before you were listened to either.

In November of 2021, a report was released from HUC-JIR (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) documenting decades of sexual harassment accusations and other forms of misconduct across all four campuses of the Reform Jewish movement’s seminary. Named in this document was Bonia Shur, author of more than 300 compositions that are in use in synagogues and on stage across the country and abroad including the melody we have been singing for our Kedushah during Shabbat morning worship. Now deceased, Shur worked at Cincinnati's campus from 1974 to 2003. Because of his tenure, we continue to live in a time when survivors of his abuse are still alive today.

Out of deep respect for these individuals and our desire to make our spaces as inclusive as possible, we are going to embrace and adapt to a new musical setting of this piece of our liturgy. Elana Arian has written a beautiful and accessible version that I am excited for us to start learning. With a special note of thanks to Aaron Perchonok, our Technology Coordinator, and producer of immense talent, I hope you will find this teaching video that we created helpful.

Sometimes, learning a new melody is hard and can make our cozy prayer space feel unwelcoming. My hope with this video is to give you the opportunity to listen, learn, and experience this change slowly, at your own pace, so when you join us on a Saturday morning you can feel just as at home as you did previously.

Shabbat Shalom