On Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20, Temple Kehillat Chaim will celebrate a milestone of extraordinary significance: our beloved Cantor Barbara Margulis will observe the 25th anniversary of her investiture into the Jewish clergy.
Hiedi and I first met Cantor when we joined TKC in January 1993 (we already knew Rabbi Winokur, who had married us in 1987). We quickly realized that Cantor, who had come to TKC in 1989, was already an integral component of our temple. We marveled at how seamlessly she and Rabbi conducted services together; the incredible teamwork they consistently display when working in concert was already quite well-developed when we arrived.
What has Cantor meant to us in the time she’s been here? Some rough calculations may give us some small idea of her collective contributions. Since 1989, I would estimate Cantor has officiated or co-officiated at somewhere in the area of 600-700 Friday night services; perhaps 250-300 bar or bat mitzvah services (during many of which she also led the Adult Choir); innumerable other congregant life-cycle events; scores of special services (such as High Holy Days); and countless hundreds of Religious School Tefillah services. That’s far from all. She’s attended 200+ Board of Trustees meetings, as well as large numbers of various committee meetings. She’s conducted untold hundreds of choir rehearsals and performances. She’s taught years of both Religious School and Road to Confirmation classes, as well as adult Hebrew. She’s represented TKC at many meetings of Jewish organizations. Yet, despite all of this and more, Cantor somehow found time to become a respected leader of the American Conference of Cantors, her professional association. She’s done this multitude of things with grace, class, and professionalism. Oh, and lest we forget, she’s also a loving and devoted wife and mother; in fact, the entire Margulis family embodies the strength, spirit, and character of our Kehillah.
Later this month, we will gather together to mark Cantor’s significant accomplishment. Many people will offer a multitude of words of appreciation and adoration, but none of us are capable of adequately depicting the vast quality and quantity of her (and her family’s) contributions to TKC, nor can we express anywhere near the gratitude that is her due. We can only try; we cannot possibly succeed.
Cantor Margulis, on behalf of everybody in our Community of Life, mazel tov! and todah rabah!
B’Shalom,
Tim Weiss
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