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Guest Speaker: Cantor Nancy Kassel
Temple Beth Tikvah Cantor and daughter of former past President Milton Kassel

shared her amazing voice and journey

     
Cantor Nancy Kassel has a special connection to our rotary club - her dad Milton Kassel was a much revered Rotarian and AWER President during RY 1991-1992. She was our guest speaker on November 17, 2023, and spoke about her Dad with great joy and a few of our more seasoned members had a few memories about her Dad to share as well.

 

A masterful musician, and most accomplished vocalist, Cantor Kassel serves as the musical and liturgical leader at Temple Beth Tikvah. She studied for these honorable roles in Jerusalem and for 3 years New York City. She’s performed in cantorial concerts throughout the U.S. and, internationally, in Rome, Italy, Prague and Poland, where she worked to raise $1M for Polish people.

In one of her humanitarian trips to Poland, Cantor Kassel and her entourage carried “mountains” of goods and supplies for the Poles. She credited Delta Air Lines for waiving fees for the huge amount of excess baggage. Some of other money raised was to support vulnerable populations, and to build the Krakow Community Center which supported all people regardless of religion or circumstance. Fortunately, now Krakow has no people living on the street, dramatically different than in the U.S.

She also reported that she had just returned from Poland on November 11th where she was offering concerts and also visiting the infamous WWII concentration and death camps. Despite having heard countless stories of atrocities in these camps, she was not prepared for the horror of these places and learning more of what was done to Jews and others. Cantor Kassel described the total experience of her work in Poland as life changing for her. She also told us that people want peace, which she witnessed at the recent DC march of 300,000 people demonstrating for the release of all hostages in Gaza. Sadly, she spoke of the reality for Jews in the U.S. who are threatened and literally being attacked.

Cantor Kassel quoted the legendary Jewish Prophet, Rabbi Hillel, born 110 BCE and dying approximately 10 CE. “If I am only for myself, what am I; if not now when?” Also, she delivered to us Rabbi Tarfon’s saying, “You are under no obligation to complete the work, neither are you at liberty to desist in it.” Following up, Cantor Nancy emphasized that we are all under obligations we must fulfill. She concluded her remarks with a song on which she led us by accompanying us on her guitar, teaching us to sing together: “Olam ... Chesed ... Yibaneh ... we will build a world of loving kindness” after mesmerizing us by singing the following prayer:
"May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to You, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.". 



Posted by Neil Shorthouse
November 16, 2023

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