Heritage Shabbat honoring Ellen Tilman

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Heritage Shabbat was established as a Shabbat to celebrate our legacy of music, learning, and scholarship as a synagogue. Our Heritage Shabbat will be on Friday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m. During this Shabbat, we bring forth music that has moved us as a people, when we present our “Rabbi Einhorn Tikkun Olam Award” to someone in our synagogue who has given countless hours to our community and our world.

This year we honor Ellen Tilman at Heritage Shabbat. She joined the KI family in 1981 as a first grade teacher in our Religious School. In her 25 years in this position, she taught many families who are still active in KI. In 2007, Ellen became the Director of Library Services for the Meyers Library. During her tenure, the library received Advanced Accreditation from the Association of Jewish Libraries and became computerized.

Ellen created a full program of adult book discussions, an annual Jewish Film Festival, author visits, and programs on individual Jewish authors. She scheduled joint programs with KI constituent groups: winter films with Adult Education; author events with the Women of KI; joint sponsorship of the Arts Alive/Words Alive Gallery with the Temple Judea Museum; and genealogy programs with the Archives Committee. In addition to all the special programs, Ellen hand selected every new acquisition for the library and supervised the cataloging of each book. She enjoyed making reading suggestions to everyone in the community from the preschool to Senior Adults. She brought her love of Jewish learning and Jewish books to the Meyers Library and the students of the KI preschool and JQuest program.

Ellen is married to our wonderful Hazzan, David Tilman, Director of Shir KI. They have three children, Avrum, Alana, and Rabbi Howard, along with his wife, Naomi, and their grandchildren, Micah Toby and Sophie Daniela.

This years’ service will celebrate the 200th Birthday of Louis Lewandowski. Lewandowski’s music is deeply interwoven in our regular Shabbat and High Holiday worship. The beauty of his music is almost eternal.

Louis Lewandowski was born in Poland in 1821. After his mother’s death when he was only 12, the young Lewandowski was sent to Berlin to pursue serious musical education. Early on, he decided to devote himself almost exclusively to composing music for the Berlin Jewish community. He wrote settings for the entire Ashkenazic liturgy for the complete calendar year.

He became the very first Jewish choral conductor and music director of the Berlin Jewish community. His music was therefore sung throughout Berlin and ultimately throughout Germany.

To this day, Lewandowski’s Cantorial and choral compositions are sung in synagogues throughout the world. At KI, we sing Lewandowski’s music all year long. Especially during the High Holy Days, our congregants hear and sing a number of his compositions.

Shir KI, our wonderful volunteer adult choir, will present several Lewandowski pieces during Heritage Shabbat. We will sing the famous Ma Tovu that begins the morning service of both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We invite everyone to join us in the Lewandowski L’cha Dodi. We will sing the conclusion of Psalm 92, the Sabbath Psalm. The Lewandowski setting of Tzadik Katamar at the conclusion of this Psalm is sung all over the world!

We conclude our Lewandowski Birthday Tribute by singing Hallelujah Psalm 150, his most famous composition that is an integral part of our High Holiday services.

Come celebrate our legacy and our music, and give thanks for Ellen Tilman who dedicated 38 years for the KI greater community and for the Jewish people.