From Our Cantor

Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to ICCJ. I truly hope that I will be able to help make you feel at home here. ICCJ is a very special place a place where both the rabbi and I, as cantor, are actively and personally involved in the life of the community. We will celebrate with you, learn with you, and in my case, sing with you.

Elsewhere on this Website is a message from Koleinu The ICCJ Choir that I direct. I hope you will consider joining us. The choir is a great source of pride for me personally and for the congregation as a whole as we often represent the synagogue at musical events in the wider community.

Of course, one of my main activities at ICCJ is the training of our bar and bat mitzvah students. At ICCJ we pride ourselves on the fact that our children learn how to read and chant the trop, the cantillation marks, rather than just memorizing their portions.

Many of my former students come back year after year to read their haftorah portions on the anniversary of their bar/bat mitzvahs and many often choose to learn new portions. In addition, I encourage all of our children to lead as much of the shabbat service as they can. Many a parent has been wonderfully surprised by their child's abilities on the day of the bar/bat mitzvah.

I am also very happy to teach adults to learn to read Torah and/or haftorah trop, or to lead a service. Nobody is too old to learn and to have the satisfaction of succeeding in a new skill.

Our services are filled with communal singing and an atmosphere which is welcoming to all regardless of your religious background.

I hope you will make it a point to be in touch with me so we can get to know each other better. Welcome to the community.

Sincerely,
Haim Levy