When religious school resumed in the Fall of 2020, we pivoted and found different ways of teaching remotely. Religious school tefillah for the K-3rd graders was done by pre-recorded video, and here is me “teaching” Lechu Neranena. The kids already knew it, so it was more like a song-leading session.

… another tefillah moment for lock-down religious school… it’s much more fun with the kids in-person, because I make the grown-ups act silly and the kids think it’s hilarious.

When COVID shut everything down, the FJMC came through with a weekly “l’chayim” on zoom for International Kiddush Club. One week the guys asked me if I would lead Kabbalat Shabbat in a couple of weeks. I was the first cantor they asked. It was such a success, they have continued each week bringing in cantors from all over North America! This is the most recent edition that I did, but you can find three others on my LinkedIn profile.

On my last Friday night at Anshe Emet Synagogue, I invited my friends, Hazzanim Liz and Steven Berke, to sing with me. Here’s just a snippet of the evening, singing L’cha Dodi.

One year on Purim we had a fundraiser in which members of the congregation could pay to pie the clergy in the face. These were two recent b’nei mitzvah who took great pleasure in pieing me at very close range.

A song my mother taught me. We think it’s a Chanukah song, although there is no reference to Chanukah in it. It’s a prayer for our soldiers in Israel, and it’s a personal favorite of mine. I have been unable to locate any information about who wrote it.

Thanksgivukah Song 2013: That year that Thanksgiving and Chanukah fell on the same day. Rabbi David Paskin wrote a song with help from Ayelet Paskin and Dana Reichman Gitell. We had a party. I was asked to sing this song.

“Schach goes Here” Congregation Beth Shalom had ongoing challenges when the volunteers from B’nei Akiva would deliver the schach on the Saturday night before Sukkot, and never put it in the right spot. After I experienced the fact that no amount of detail and maps would get the schach delivered to the right place, I joked that they needed a sign with flashing lights. Then I made a sign with flashing lights. It worked. Never again did we find the schach in the wrong place on Sunday morning.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I set excerpts from his “I Have a Dream” speech to Haftarah trope.

Well, this d’var Torah wrote itself. #quarantinelife

Test trope lesson

In the fall of 2020 we were all trying to figure out how to teach religious school online. I was asked to create some videos for the religious school, and had no idea how to make a video. This is me teaching myself how to make a video on zoom. No children actually viewed this video, but I keep it around because it makes me laugh every time I see it. This is NOT actually the way I teach trope! LOL!