JANUARY 19 • 2023 | 47

alone when going through things like infer-
tility, miscarriage or marital stagnancy, and
it’s helpful to see those experiences actual-
ized on the stage,
” she adds. “
Apparently, we
are the first theater in the country to stage
Baby post-COVID, and it’s not done often,
so it’s important to see it while you can.
”

JEWISH ROOTS IN GRAND RAPIDS
After living in Detroit and Ann Arbor,
Kalmowitz’s family moved to Grand Rapids
when she was 4 years old. By the time she
was 7, Kalmowitz was acting in community
theater productions and TV and radio com-
mercials. She sang advertising jingles and
was in the Temple Emanuel Grand Rapids
Junior Choir.
“The rabbi’s wife was the first person to
say that ‘this is a very special voice,
’” said
Kalmowitz, who is approaching her 19th
year at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills.
With her special voice, Kalmowitz, at age
7, became the lead singer with her father
on double bass and his friend, Dave Mayer
from Detroit, on jazz piano in a band that
Mayer named “Rachel and the Rascals.
”
Rachel and the Rascals performed every
year at the Grand Rapids Festival of the

Arts until she was 12. During that time,
Kalmowitz continued to be an active part in
the Grand Rapids theater scene.
“That was such a fun and cool experi-
ence — those early years when I was part of
a community of incredibly talented people
who worked together to make a piece of art.
I loved that process,
” Kalmowitz says.

BECOMING A CANTOR
There wasn’t a cantor at Temple Emanuel in
Grand Rapids when Kalmowitz was grow-
ing up.
“I didn’t know they existed,
” she said.
“During freshman year of college, I was
feeling very surrounded by Christianity, and
I felt I needed a Jewish outlet.
”
She went to Sam Adler, who was the
chair of the composition department at
Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New
York, to ask for guidance. It was beshert.
Adler recommended her for the cantorial
soloist position at Temple B’rith Kodesh
in Rochester where she ultimately worked
during her sophomore, junior and senior
years.
After college, she had various jobs across
the country, and Kalmowitz would contact

the local temples to be a cantorial soloist
sub. She even subbed at Temple Beth El
when she was getting her master’s degree at
the University of Michigan.
Rabbi Daniel Syme brought her to
Temple Beth El in 2004 where she started as
a cantorial soloist.
In 2016, Kalmowitz received her
Cantorial Certification from Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
“It was a lot of work. It was four years of
a very intensive process,
” says Kalmowitz,
who completed the cantorial program in the
same cohort as now-Cantor Neil Michaels
of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. “I
became a cantor while I was working full
time at Temple Beth El, and I had a young
child. I was attending classes in person and
virtually, and we spent a whole summer
together in Jerusalem.
”
Just like that busy time for Kalmowitz,
she’s finding a way to make it work as she’s
about to open in Baby.
“I am incredibly grateful that my col-
leagues, particularly Rabbis Miller and
Brudney, have been so supportive of my
desire to do the show.
”

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CELEBRATING THE 2023 HONOREES

JIM
AUGUST
BARBARA
COHEN
DENNIS
FRANK
ROSLYN
GARBER
DR. RICHARD
KRUGEL
PHYLLIS
LEWKOWICZ
JANET
PONT
ELLIE
SLOVIS

Jewish Senior Life’s Eight Over Eighty recognizes eight distinguished leaders in our community, all over the age of 80,

who have demonstrated a lifetime of dedication to the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam - Repairing the World.

SAVE THE DATE
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