Jewish Choral Participation Survey Yields Interesting Results

‘Idol’ Worship

October 07, 2010 – Deborah Hirsch, Staff Writer

If not for a friend in a secular choir who referred him to a
Jewish choral gig, Robert Ross might still be singing Christian
requiems instead of Jewish psalms.

He’d always identified as Jewish, but hardly had any
experience with the religion while growing up, much less the
music.

“There were vestiges of Jewish life in our household, but it
really didn’t go much beyond that,” said Ross, 55. “My parents were
Reform to the point of secular.”

Singing Jewish music, however, piqued his interest “in how
Judaism works and what it was about,” he said.

“I would study the music, the text, look in the prayerbooks and
see what was in there,” he said. “Through the music itself, I
learned about the context. The more exposure I had to this stuff,
the more I realized I really need to do something about this.”

So, in his 40s, he began studying Judaism in earnest. In 2007,
on his 47th birthday, he became a Bar Mitzvah. Today, he directs
several Jewish choirs, sings professionally with Congregation Adath
Jeshurun in Elkins Park and chairs the music department at the
Community College of Philadelphia.