Shul’s fundraiser to pay tribute to Jewish composers

Shirat Am Shalom Choir was formed in 2013.
Shirat Am Shalom Choir was formed in 2013

A growing congregation north of Toronto is holding its first-ever fundraising musical production that will feature pieces from the Renaissance to Yiddish folk tunes to George Gershwin classics.

On May 28, Am Shalom Congregation, a Reform synagogue in south Barrie, is presenting Simcha, a show that pays homage to Jewish composers from the 17th century to the present day.

“We thought it would be nice to celebrate Jewish composers over the centuries and have a broad spectrum of music that is Jewish-oriented, with relation to the composers or the music itself,” said Shirat Am Shalom choir director and pianist Marilyn Reesor, who has been leading the 15-member choir since it formed in 2013.

In addition to pieces by the famous Italian Renaissance composer Salomone Rossi, 19th-century German siblings Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, German Jewish liturgical composer Louis Lewandowski, German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach and Russian-born American pianist Mischa Levitski, the event will also feature musical guests such as Anna Trubashnik, cantor emerita at Temple Emanu-El in Toronto, and cellist Alyssa Wright.

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Howard Bloom moved in 1998 from Toronto to Simcoe County, where he and his wife bought a farm north of Barrie and raised two children. He said the congregation – founded in the 1970s and formerly known as the Simcoe County Jewish Association, before its building was erected around 2003 – is growing.

“There are about 80 to 90 member families… I noticed the other day that we have 30 children in the Jewish school, and that is a prime example of a growing community when you see small children in the system,” Bloom said.

As important as it is for Am Shalom to serve the Simcoe County Jewish community, Bloom and Reesor see the fundraiser as an opportunity to reach out to the broader community as well.

“I think it’s important that we share the Jewish music, the Jewish composers with the Barrie and Simcoe County community… We invite the cottagers that are up on a Saturday night to come out and to be part of a beautiful evening that will close with a Havdalah, and to share the music that is happening in the congregation,” Bloom said.

“There are a lot of people in Barrie who have not been to this synagogue and are interested in coming in and having a little bit more of a connection with the Jewish community. We’re reaching out to all of Barrie, and you can almost consider this an open house. We’ve had a lot of response from people outside the community who are very excited to come in and experience a bit of the Jewish culture and Jewish music,” said Reesor, who isn’t Jewish but connected with the shul through “musical friends” who are Am Shalom members.

She explained that Gerald and Liz Levine reached out to her when they decided to establish a fund in memory of Gerald’s parents to facilitate a formal music program at the shul.

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The funds raised from the May 28 event, which she hopes will attract about 200 Jews and non-Jews from the local community and beyond, will go toward enhancing the music program and purchasing new instruments.

Bloom praised Reesor for her talent and dedication to bringing the best out of the three-year-old choir.

“Marilyn is very accomplished. Being a choir leader and a musical director who isn’t Jewish makes it even more special, because she is very talented musically. She brings a musical direction that is unbiased, that really speaks to music and quality and something that fits us as a choir, and she’s taken us from a lay choir to an emerging talented group of people.”


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