By Makenzie Greenblatt , other
Congregation Beth Israel in Walla Walla got a youthful take on the High Holidays this year. Whitman College junior Jacqueline Kamm and sophomore Davey Friedman combined their Judaic knowledge to lead Rosh Hashanah services for the small community.
The synagogue has no permanent rabbi, so it’s up the congregation to put together services and social activities.
“You see Jews that really have to do it themselves,” Friedman said. “If they want to have something meaningful then they have to be completely involved and they have to inspire others to be involved.”
In 1940, the Jewish families in Walla Walla decided to officially incorporate into a congregation so they could sponsor a rabbi fleeing Berlin. Rabbi Franklin Cohn became the first and only resident rabbit for CBI. Two years later, he moved to California and the congregation has been leading itself ever since.
As far as board president Noah Leavitt is aware, this is the first time two students have been responsible for the High Holidays services.
“When the board was trying to make some decisions about how we wanted to kick off this new year, we knew that there were young people who had a nice feel about them who would be great leaders,” Leavitt said. They were looking for someone to put together a homegrown, relevant series of services.
Friedman and Kamm have been very involved in Judaism both in their time at college and back home in Seattle.
Friedman has been tutoring Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for North Seattle’s Congregation Beth Shalom since he became one himself. He contacted Leavitt when he arrived at Whitman to find out if he could continue at CBI. He has since tutored the first two Bat Mitzvahs Walla Walla has had in more than 30 years. He had some experience leading services, but was looking for an excuse to learn the High Holidays prayers when Leavitt asked him if he was interested in leading.
When he returned to Whitman last August, he found out Kamm would be sharing the responsibility.
“I said, ‘Well, great!’ because I still had a lot to learn and it’s a really long process,” he recalled.
Participating in large services is no new task for Kamm, who has been singing during Shabbat and the High Holidays with the cantor at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle for a few years. She is also active in Whitman’s Hillel-Shalom. This year, she is its liaison to CBI, attending board meetings to help connect Jewish students with the community.
As a freshman and sophomore, Kamm helped chant for the Yom Kippur services. She has also led classes to teach others the relevant prayers.
Down-playing her contribution, Kamm said, “Davey is more knowledgeable about the text, and about Hebrew in general, so they asked us to work together.”
How do two college students go about learning some of the most important services of the year?
“It’s kind of a daunting task at first,” Kamm said. “When we sat down with our prayer books and walked through it, it got a lot easier. Whatever [Davey] didn’t know, I knew. And whatever I didn’t know, he did.”
Friedman took lessons for two months over the summer. He credits his accomplishment to Joyce Shane, his Bar Mitzvah tutor and mentor. He reconnected with her to learn the Rosh Hashanah services.
Kamm said that she and Friedman wanted to create a service that was special for the High Holidays, but still relatable for the congregation. Ruth Wardwell, a congregant for four years and the director of communications at Whitman, felt the pair succeeded in this goal.
“They just led us through a beautiful service,” Wardwell said. “The two of them are so skilled and so passionate about what they do. They brought their own styles and learning to it, yet they also wanted to serve the congregation. You could tell that they were proud and honored to be doing it.”
Adds Leavitt: “It was spectacular. The evening service was standing room only.” For CBI, that means about 90 people.
Both students went back to their families for Yom Kippur. Kamm sang during Erev Yom Kippur at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle and then at its Bellevue location for the morning service.
Friedman and Kamm intend to maintain their connection to Judaism.
Though singing is her passion, Kamm doesn’t see a cantorial future because of the new trend for “guitar playing, chill Shabbat.” But she hopes to continue sharing her voice in synagogue for as long as she can.
Friedman plans to stay similarly connected.
“I still want to be involved socially and academically as a Jew,” he said. Rabbinical school is a distant possibility, but the academic side of Torah, as well as Jewish politics, fascinates him. He plans to spend a year studying in Israel, and to continue his tutoring.