This year marks my twenty-fifth year as a cantor, and my twenty-first year at TKC. My husband David and I were discussing this recently, and I’d like to share a few thoughts with you, my TKC family.
David asked me if the actual life I’ve had as a cantor turned out at all as I had envisioned it when I started out. We talked about my twenty-one years here. TKC is a larger community now than it was twenty years ago. Our physical facilities are very different, though we have been at the same location for my entire time here. The social hall and school building are about ten years old, as is our remodeled, comfortable sanctuary. The lobby that connects the sanctuary, the social hall and the administrative offices did not exist when I first came here. That area was on the outside! (Part of the roofline of the old Sanctuary building is still visible; ask me about it and I’ll point it out to you.) You could drive a car through the area that is now our lobby.
The old social hall (such as it was) was where the library and board room are now. It was tiny and not very fancy, but that never put any kind of damper on the beautiful simchas we held there over those early years of my tenure here.
But of course the most important thing about the Kehillah is the people that make it up. The adult volunteer choir and our wonderful accompanist Keith Nash have been a fixture of Kehillah life for the past twenty years, and many of its present members have been singing in it for almost the entire twenty years. Some very deep friendships have been formed through this choir. And of course, all that beautiful music…
Rabbi Winokur and I have been working together for the last twenty-one years. What we have learned from each other over these years is impossible to quantify. I believe our Rabbi-Cantor relationship has lasted longer than any such relationship in the metro Atlanta area.
Hundreds of our precious children have passed through our Religious School and Road to Confirmation programs over the last twenty years. For some of those years I had regular classroom duties as part of my cantorate; for some of them I worked on various projects during the school year. The years I’ve worked with a number of Education Directors, especially with Diane Zimmerman and with Catherine Rosing, have been among the most rewarding of my time at the Kehillah. I am thankful that I have been able to be a part of the educational programs we’ve put in place for our children.
I have so many wonderful memories of working with various Junior Choir members and adult volunteers over the years, teaching adult Hebrew, touring Israel with congregants, hamming it up in Purim shpiels and worshipping with all of you, my friends. A day does not pass in which I do not offer a prayer of thanks to God for the great good fortune I’ve had in being the cantor here all these years. Simchas that have made me dance, and occasions of loss and sorrow that have given me profound pause have fallen about me and covered me not unlike a gentle but copious snowfall. My children have changed from Pampers-clad babies to independent adults during the time I’ve been here; so many changes have occurred during the past twenty-one years, yet so many things have stayed the same, indeed becoming richer over time.
My answer to David was, “No, it was not what I envisioned, it was better than that!”
Thank you all so much for allowing me the honor of serving as your Cantor for the past two decades.
B’Shirah,
Cantor Barbara G. Margulis
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