Cantor Stephen Freedman is 71. He’s served as a clergy member for more than 40 years. He just finished a role as cantor at Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-El, which joined up with Old York Road neighbor Adath Jeshurun on July 1.
Freedman could retire to just spend time with his wife Randi, their rescue cat Emi and their blended family of eight kids and seven grandkids.
But he doesn’t want to. Instead, he’s going to another synagogue with mostly older members: Congregation Or Shalom in Berwyn.
Cantor Freedman will become the shul’s sole clergy member on July 15.
Or Shalom currently has 60-65 families, according to Freedman. In March 2023, it had 75 families, per a Jewish Exponent Synagogue Spotlight story. Back in 2011, the shul had nearly 200 members.
That same year, Or Shalom opened a new educational wing for the 100 kids in its religious school. Alan Daroff, a synagogue founder, called the opening of the wing the peak of Or Shalom’s congregational life.
But Freedman attended the synagogue’s annual meeting in June. He said 40 of the roughly 100 individual members were present.
“You don’t get 40% attendance at that annual meeting. I’ve never seen it. Anywhere,” he said.
Andrew Levin, a past president and member since 2002, said the religious aspect of synagogue life still matters to Or Shalom members.
“I can’t remember the last time we haven’t made minyan for Shabbat services,” he added. “It’s only 12 people or something like that. But we consistently make minyan.”
Freedman also led services and did sermons at Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-El. For a synagogue that can’t hire a rabbi and a cantor, he can serve as both. It helps that the members like him.
“He can lead services, but he also has the cantorial skills to bring a little music to the services,” Levin said. “His interpersonal skills really jive well with Or Shalom. We have a tight-knit and strong community.”
Freedman started at Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-El five years ago as a High Holiday cantor. But the synagogue’s rabbi, Charles Sherman, asked him to come on part-time to offer a familiar clergy team to members.
The cantor acknowledged that crowds for services were small. But just like at Or Shalom, they were dedicated.
“I felt that they deserved to have everything that they should expect of a synagogue and its clergy even in its final months,” he said.
Freedman said he was sad when Melrose closed, but he knew it was coming. The whole community knew.
But as he reflected after the closure, he realized that he still liked getting up every day to do his job. He also realized that he had grown during his time at Melrose.
After COVID hit, the synagogue started organizing a Friday afternoon service online. Freedman was responsible for leading it. That meant he got to write and deliver sermons weekly for the first time in his career.
“I don’t consider myself to be a quote-unquote scholar. But I think I have important and meaningful insights that I’m able to offer a congregation,” he said. “I liked the fact that, when I write a sermon, it’s kind of folky. I don’t use a lot of fancy words. I don’t quote multiple rabbinic sources. I keep things more accessible to the average person.”
“I want people to come away from a message that I offer with a piece of knowledge that they didn’t have before, but also with some sort of a challenge,” he continued. “I often relate what’s in the Torah portion to something that’s going in our world today, or I’ll highlight a behavior that’s expounded on in a Torah portion. If it’s a positive trait, I challenge people to be more like that. If it’s a negative trait, I try to get people to be aware that they are that way and to try to improve themselves.”