Coin unity

•

Congregation
Beth Ahm
celebrates its
rebirth on a
grand scale.

Coh-.2%egation Beth At

mok%

knew the idiom. They were wonderful musicians
who had command of the Hebrew and the Yiddish
— of a thousand years of Jewish culture in Europe.
Cantor Montefiore can claim a rich musical
heritage. His father, Zvi Yehuda-Hersch Leib, was
chief chazzan (cantor) of the United Kingdom in
1940, before moving with his family to Boro Park,
N.Y. As a boy in Boro Park, Cantor Montefiore
was a soloist in the choir of renowned Cantor
Moishe Kosivitky at the Beth El synagogue. Prior
to coming to Beth Ahm, Cantor Montefiore spent
three years as chief cantor of the Libertad syna-
gogue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Sept. 10 concert featured Cantor Montefiore
and 11 members of the Zamir Chorale, whose direc-
tor is Benjamin Cohen. The 40-member chorale has
taken up residence at Beth Ahm, practicing there
Tuesday nights. Cohen describes his group's reper-
toire as "Eastern European music, music from the
Holocaust and music from the whole spectrum of
the Jewish tradition."
Cantor Montefiore envisions collaborating with
Zamir for up to two concerts a year at the syna-
gogue. "I hope this will be the beginning of a long
association," he said.
After receiving a standing ovation at the concert,
Cantor Montefiore, Cohen and pianist Regina
Papiyants came up with a three-song encore.
"This is the first time I saw a Jewish audience
ask a cantor to sing more," remarked one audience
member.

"

Counter-clockwise:
New Beth Ahm Rabbi Charles Popky.

Beth Ahm President Ronn Nadis displays a T-shirt bearing the congregation's new logo.

Cantor David Montefiore and members of the Zamir Chorale of Metropolitan Detroit
perform at the Beth Ahm dedication concert.

DAVID SACHS

Staff Writer

A

midst a glorious crescendo of Jewish song
spanning the last two centuries, the former
Congregation Beth Abraham Hillel Moses
entered the new century on a high note.
Reborn as Congregation Beth Ahm, the West
Bloomfield synagogue showcased its new name, new
logo, new rabbi, new cantor and an energetic new
musical spirit over the weekend of Sept. 8-10.
Beth Ahm spiritual leader Rabbi Charles S. Popky
has replaced Rabbi Aaron Bergman, who left in July
to head religious studies at the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit. David Montefiore has
assumed the cantorial duties, the result of a two-year
search.
The new clergy were formally installed at morning

9/22

2000

46

services on Saturday, Sept. 9, promising that their
tenure would bring a new era to the congregation.
The next day, the new name and logo were dedi-
cated at a rousing concert featuring Cantor
Montefiore and the Zamir Chorale of Metropolitan
Detroit.

Musical Heritage

Cantor Montefiore said that his goal as a cantor and
concert performer is to recreate the musical tam
(taste) that the Nazis sought to eradicate. He'll do
that, he said, by reviving forgotten liturgical melodies
and trying out new ones.
"We were set back tai ∎ '.:arally maybe a couple of
hundred years because the greatest minds in the arts
and music died in the Holocaust," he said. "We lost
a lot of links to the people who knew the style, who

