Lay Prayer Leaders (Shatz/Cantor) Development

Target $25,000 per year

Recently, an additional four students completed our Lay Cantors (Shatz) Program: training to become “Prayer leaders” (Sh’leechay Tsibur). We now count eight active participants who are serving. They have successfully completed 8 out of 10 concentrated study weekends and demonstrated that they can lead services. They are taught by our veteran prayer leaders and by a professional cantor who teaches them via Skype. They can lead all Shabbat and Holiday prayers, most can read Torah, and deliver an explanation of the weekly Torah reading. Prayer leaders participate in public memorials with visiting Jewish groups as well as act as “ambassadors” and teachers in local schools and at civic events (link to Konstancin Hanukah).

We want to enhance current capabilities as follows:

• Provide leadership for Shabbat and religious holidays for all nine congregations twice a
  month
• Expand repertoire of Jewish religious music and synagogue practice; add new music
• Offer interchange between prayer leaders and visiting cantors and song leaders
• Provide seminars with visiting cantors three times a year
• Introduce new Hallel melodies
• Raise the level of each leader to read from the Torah scroll
• Prepare High Holiday services
• Prepare lay prayer leaders to participate in memorial events
• Prepare lay prayer leaders to lead britot, baby naming, funerals, weddings and other life cycle events

Objectives:

• Increase 5 more from current 8-9 leaders: new total 14
• Each Shatz leader to attend/lead 5 memorial and/or public events per year

Activities:

• Follow and encourage those who show an interest in becoming prayer leader
• Encourage talented people from the “world of music” to seek alternative application of
  their skills
• Publicize via website, social media; a video short of the visits of David Wisnia, Albert
  Mizrachi etc.
• Assure current shatzim they will have expanded opportunities. For example, as we expand the number of Beit Polska congregations and activities, we will need more shatzim; and we need to have more shatzim available to attend Polish community
  activities, and to meet with non-Polish visiting groups

• Ability to serve congregational needs through leading singing and
  forming choirs
• Teaching the weekly Torah portion and reading from the Torah
• Add two or three lay cantors who can lead High Holidays
• Ability to preside over some life cycle events as authorized by the
  community
• Preside over memorial gatherings with local community and
  visitors

Partnering Organizations:

• 7,000 Euro matching grant from the Dutch Humanitarian Fund to support this work (the
  7,000 Euro matching requirement will be met via in-kind program expenses).
• Cantor Wisnia will train shatzim in Poland, January 2015
• Cantor Heather Batchelor to coordinate with Rivka (Iza) Foremniak including Cantors
  Gole, Rosner, Mizrachi, Edry,Wisnia
• $5,000 from the World Union for Progressive Judaism

Staffing:

• Cantor Heather Batchelor
• Rivka (Iza) Foremniak
• Rabbi Gil Nativ
• Zivah Nativ

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