News Highlights Singing to survive, surviving to sing

“Please don’t sing.” These words run counter to every cantorial and spiritual goal I have. And since March 2020, they’ve been too often on my lips. At funerals, earliest and most cruelly; at rallies and marches; at weddings; this past spring, at some Shabbat services. This summer, they no longer seemed necessary. We were vaccinated, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and the storm was passing. But people plan and Delta laughs. Here we are again, facing a fall in which we have to ask: Can we sing safely together indoors?

A New Year essay by Cantor Vera Broekhuysen ’16, spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El of Haverhill, was featured in the September 1, 2021 Jewish Journal.