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Click on names below to view bios
Rabbi Benjamin Sharff
Rabbi Floyd L. Herman, Emeritus
Cantor Ellen Schwab
Dick Forman, Executive Director
Director of Youth Education Sheila Mentz
Cantor Ellen Schwab -
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 My first memory is of singing, singing for joy on the porch of my home on a lovely summer day. I was three. I have been singing for joy ever since. It is now my joy to serve Har Sinai Congregation, by singing with and for Congregants of all ages in settings formal and informal, supporting the mood of the moment.
A second memory is of becoming the first Bat Mitzvah in my Modern Orthodox synagogue and then attending services every Shabbat morning for the following year. The passion of the elderly worshipers as they chanted Etz Chaim was imprinted upon me.
Their tearful smiles encouraged me to love the Torah, the chant and the flow of the service.
I became a Reform Jew the moment I heard the Janowski Avinu Malkeinu when I first attended a Reform High Holyday service. I felt the passion, I could relate to the elderly gentlemen with whom I prayed so earnestly and that passion has never left me. I was sixteen.
As I studied Education and Theatre at San Diego State College I also performed in the musicals of the day and began to study opera. American Folk Music was also a keen interest. And the love of Jewish song remained with me.
I began to study cantorial music at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles and went on to study with a number of well known cantors. I also studied the emerging new synagogue song and created a program called N’shamah Y’teirah, The Added Soul. This was a two year program sponsored by Hebrew Union College Los Angeles and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now known as the Union for Reform Judaism. I had the joy of traveling to many Congregations who had no musical personnel to teach and to sing for services.
After spending a year in Jerusalem, where I attended Hebrew Union College, I served as cantor for temple Beth El and Center in San Pedro California. I was then chosen to be the first Jewish professional cantorial presence at Isaac M. Wise temple in Cincinnati, Ohio. To sing at the very same wooden pulpit from which Rabbi Wise preached was an awesome and thrilling responsibility. Prior to coming to Baltimore I served temple Beth El in San Mateo, California for 18 years as their cantor.
Har Sinai Congregation’s long history of musical excellence drew me here; her people welcomed me and made me one of their own. The sounds of her voices, young and old lift me up and connect me to those long ago moments of Shabbat morning worship.
It is my personal mission to bring the spirit of synagogue song to our Congregation by creating musical services that blend and feature selections from many eras and musical genres. I wish to inspire our B’nai Mitzvah students, to bring them and their families to the bima in confidence, and to foster the creation of a life long memory and commitment to Judaism. Community is of the utmost importance to me. For me, building and supporting our Har Sinai Congregation community is a treasured aspect of my position.
Come to us at Har Sinai Congregation and Sing for joy!
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