iday services, by listening to the "old-time chazzanim, like Moyshe Oysher. I prepare by contemplat- ing what each song means, and read about the historical mean- ing gation T'Chiyah, describes how his congregation provides for the congregants' needs: "We have returning to us Toba Spitzer, who is a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Col- lege (in Philadelphia), and serves as a High Holiday resource." Though it has no cantor, T'Chiyah has several members who serve that function. Barbara Cash is one. A lawyer by profession, she has read music since she was 5, and started teach- ing Jewish music at age 14: "We have total eqiislity between men and women. The service is distributed less by gender, but more by capability, so everyone can participate." Ms. Cash says she is just one in- dividual within the group who makes the service. Another Congregation T'Chiyah member, Eugene Perrin, agrees with this concept. "The service is run by ourselves," allowing each congregant to feel vital and nec- essary to the whole. A professor at Wayne State Uni- versity School of Medicine, Mr. Perrin prepares for the High Hol- Birmingham Temple also en- courages an "interactive holiday experience," and then takes it a few steps beyond. Everything at Birmingham Temple, according to music direc- tor Maria Cimarelli, is approached from the cultural and historical perspective, rather than theolog- ical, and that includes music. "We use no God-type music," she says, "but we do use familiar tunes with some of the words changed." For example, one song is sung in English to the tune of "Avinu Malkeinu," and "Oseh Shalom," or "He Who Makes Peace," becomes "Oseh Ha'Olam," with the stress on olam, or "world," rather than any deity. Ms. Cimarelli explains that Birmingham Temple's weekly ser- vices and High Holiday services focus on a different daily theme, which is reflected in the musical selections. "For the children's services, we bring out the shofar, to give them the history "We also have two Detroit Sym- phony Orchestra players who are temple members: One's a klezmer- style clarinetist, and there's a cou- ple from the Metropolitan Opera Theatre orchestra." Ms. Cimarelli herself is a singer with MOT. She says that "people don't mind that I'm not Jewish, as long as I perform my duties." One of Ms. Cimarelli's temple duties is hiring other musicians for the holiday services. All she asks is that they have a working knowledge of Jewish music. And if they don't have that, she will work with them. "We are a combination of old Jewish traditions, newly created to fit our brand of thinking," she says. And part of those traditions is a dose of some of the most beau- tiful music in the world, albeit sampled and reassembled. Explains Ms. Cash, "I have a tendency to like the songs that are up-tempo, that make you smile. That's what suits our atmos- phere." El THE DYNASTY The Greenbaum family has a long tradition of leading services on the High Holidays. ALAN HITSKY ASSOCIATE EDITOR t age 5, he liked the attention Southfield, has been following in his he got when he stood on the father's cantorial steps for 11 years. corner and sang for soldiers. For the last four, he has been lead- But when he went home and ing High Holiday services at Young mimicked the soldiers' gooses- Israel of West Bloomfield. tep and cries of "Sieg Heil," his father Mr. Greenbaum was 8 when Can- slapped him for the first and only tor Schkolnik heard him sing and in- time in his life and knocked him vited him to join Congregation across the room. Mishkan Israel on Blaine and Lin- David Greenbaum of Southfield be- wood in Detroit. "Then I sang in Can- came a cantor's assistant a few years tor Reuven Boyarsky's choir until I later after his family immi- was 12, when my voice started grated to Detroit from his Young Israel to change. After that, I couldn't leaders native Germany in 1937. His prayer sing anymore, but Cantor Bo- David and father was a ba'al tefillah, a yarsky told me, 'Someday you'll Joseph prayer leader, as were his late Greenbaum. be a great cantor." brother, Mr. Greenbaum's two Asked if he could make a liv- sons and his nephews. ing as a singer, Mr. Greenbaum Following Jewish custom, David laughs. "I'd starve to death," he says. Greenbaum did not become a ba'al Dr. Joseph Greenbaum says his fa- tefillah until he was married. But he ther could 'lust wake up in the morn- has been leading Shabbat and High ing" and be ready to sing on the High c) Holiday prayers for the 40 years Holidays. And Mr. Greenbaum con- since. tends, "I spend a lot of hours on the Mr. Greenbaum, a certified public treadmill" in preparation. accountant, leads services with his The Greenbaums join hundreds of son Michael and other singing assis- other Detroiters who go to the inik- tants at Young Israel of Southfield. Tah for ritual immersion before Rosh Son Joseph, a Southfield dentist and Hashanah and again before Yom Kip- also a member of Young Israel of DYNASTY page 70 A CO 0, CC U-1 CO LU 0- LU C.f)