Helene Raush and Cantor Leon Sher are Jews who love to sing.
So much so that they attend the North American Jewish Choral Festival each summer, meeting other enthusiasts from across the continent. Many of those musicians are part of unaffiliated, amateur choirs made up of local adults. The South Jersey residents saw a problem in their own community, however.
“There’s nothing like that in South Jersey,” Raush said. “There have been temporary choirs for a specific event, maybe a group of community people get together, but there’s not an ongoing community choir that’s been here. I’ve lived here for 50 years, and there’s never been anything like that in my memory. So, we thought it would be a good idea to start something.”
From that idea came Shirei Zimra, the choir for adult Jews in South Jersey, of which Raush serves as president and Sher serves as conductor. Serious conversations about starting the organization began in August, with the group becoming incorporated in November. Their first rehearsal was in the beginning of February, with 26 people attending.
“I was just amazed,” Raush said. “One of the board members said, ‘Isn’t this great? You had this idea, and now here it is, and all these people are here for it.’”
Shirei Zimra rehearses on Mondays, so it doesn’t interfere with any choirs based at synagogues. Importantly, Sher said that the choir is meant to bolster the musical community of South Jersey, not compete with synagogue choirs that already exist.
“We told [prospective members] upfront that we’d love to have people from your congregation, although we’re not looking to compete or steal anybody from their choirs. If somebody told me, ‘I want to be a member, and I’m going to leave my choir,’ I’d tell them not to. It’s important to be a part of your community,” Sher said.
Shirei Zimra is, more than anything, a place for like-minded Jews to come together and sing. It’s understanding of people’s previous time commitments. The most recent rehearsal saw 17 people come — not far off from the original 26, but illustrative of the fact that not everyone will be able to make every event.
“Adults are busy — almost as busy as teens,” Sher joked.
As for performance goals, Raush said that the group hopes to sing at community events for various organizations, Jewish and not, in the area.
While Shirei Zimra has some potential events that it wants to announce soon, members aren’t ready to tease anything yet.
“We have a couple of performance opportunities on the near and far horizon,” Sher said.
Raush said that the chance to engage with fellow community members in a novel way is one that she enjoys, and one that her colleagues enjoy as well.
“Somebody just the other day said he doesn’t belong to a synagogue anymore, and he misses singing, and he’s so glad that here’s another opportunity [for him to] sing. A lot of the people who came know me, but there’s people that are in the Jewish community here in South Jersey who I probably would never have crossed paths with if it wasn’t for this,” she said. “They go to a totally different synagogue; they don’t live right near me. So, I’m meeting people that I’ve never had any interaction with before.”
Shirei Zimra is young, but there is endless potential for the group. The community’s response and excitement around the choir show that. Raush said that their first rehearsal was special.
“I had a list of 21 people that told me that they were coming or thinking of coming, so I figured, ‘All right, not all 21 are going to come,’” Raush said. “All of them showed up, and more that I didn’t expect. I was just amazed.”