Good Night
And Sweet Jewish Dream
A new CD, featuring the talents of local cantors,
is perfect for bedtime journeys.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor
Et
e could not write music and
never learned how to play
an instrument, yet Abraham
Goldfaden composed such
enduring Jewish lullabies that almost
100 years after his death, they still make
the heart sing.
His song, "Shlof Mayn Fegele" (Sleep,
My Little Bird), sounds as charming
today — on a new and very modern CD
— as it must have when Goldfaden
(1840-1908) wrote it so many years ago.
Or, if you're looking for a more con-
temporary Jewish sound, perhaps some-
thing by Debbie Friedman, you'll find it
on this CD, too.
The locally produced Shhhema and
Sweet Dreamzzz ... enriching Jewish bed-
time journeys is a new CD featuring 20
Jewish nighttime songs. It was created
through the Jewish Family Education
Project of Metropolitan Detroit, which is over-
seen by Jewish Experiences For Families
(JEFF), a department of the Bloomfield
Township-based Agency for Jewish Education.
Harlene Winnick Appelman, director of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
Alliance for Jewish Education, first suggested
designing a series of programs based on the
Shema, the daily prayer of Jewish identifica-
tion.
Next came — of course — meetings.
A committee, comprised of family educators
from area congregations and agencies, created
five Shema programs, the first of which was
held in November at the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit's annual Jewish
Book Fair. Subsequent programs were offered
at local congregations and agency offices
throughout the remainder of the year.
The Shhhema CD was made possible with a
grant from the Mandell L. and Madeleine
Berman Millennium Fund for Jewish Family
Lisa Soble Siegmann sings her children to
bed and sweet dreams.
V
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eriik
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ated through the
ergish Fonlity Education Project of Metro
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Education. Included on the recording are the
voices of local cantors and cantorial soloists
who are part of the Jewish Family Education
Project: Earl Berris, Congregation B'nai
Moshe; Lori Corrsin, Temple Israel; Sam
Greenbaum, Congregation Beth
Shalom; Chaim Najman, Congregation
Shaarey Zedek; Penny Steyer, Temple
Shir Shalom; and Lisa Soble Siegmann;
Congregation Shir Tikvah.
Siegmann, who also serves as director
of JEFF, was a natural for the project.
She began performing as a singer at age
5, and has released several tapes of
Jewish music.
"I love music," she says. "It has
always been a very important part of
my life, and I hope that [with this
CD], we turn on a lot of people to
Jewish music, heart and soul, and let
them see how amazing it is and spark a
love for Judaism."
Siegmann is a mother of two chil-
dren: Adi, 20 months, and Maya, 7
weeks. Her children listen to the CD
every night, she says, and Maya was
there for every recording session —
Siegmann was pregnant during the
making of the CD.
Friends joked that she was giving
birth twice, she says, because creating a CD
takes a great deal of work.
First came the meetings. The cantors and
cantorial soloists got together and decided who
would sing what and when they would record
and how it would all work. Everyone spent a
lot of time on the phone, too, and on the
computer. "These are very, very busy people,"
Siegmann explains. "So e-mail was a great way
to get hold of everyone."
Then came time for the rehearsing and the
recording, done at a studio in Huntington
Woods. The cantors and cantorial soloists
brought their vocal talents; the musical accom-
paniment was all performed and recorded and
mixed by Tim Downey, James Stonehouse and
Scott Majors.
"In fact, James came up with the majority of
the musical tracks for the songs," Siegmann
says. "He was really amazing.
But something was still missing.
The CD was to include traditional Yiddish
"
Yki
8/ 9
2002
55