COURTESY OF B’NAI MOSHE
OUR COMMUNITY
Rabbi Elliot Pachter and Cantor Earl Berris at an outdoor service.
Born for the Bimah Cantor Earl Berris retires from B’nai Moshe after 23 years. BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
H
e was, in the words of an admirer, “born to be on the bimah,” but Cantor Earl Berris is enjoying his retirement after 23 years at Congregation B’nai Moshe in West Bloomfield. The cantor attended Mumford High before his family moved to Farmington Hills. They were members of Adat Shalom Synagogue. After graduating from North
Farmington High, Berris earned two degrees at Wayne State University, a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s in counseling and development. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Cantor’s Institute, earning another bachelor’s degree in sacred music. His first cantorial position was at a synagogue in
Long Island. He served for short periods as assistant cantor at Adat Shalom and Congregation Beth Achim (which merged with Adat Shalom in 1998). Then he and his wife, Ilana, who is Israeli, spent several years in Israel, where he was certified as a mohel. After returning from Israel, Berris became cantor at Kehilath Israel Synagogue
in Overland Park, Kansas, where he spent 12 years. He would have happily stayed — but the position opened up at B’nai Moshe in West Bloomfield, and he knew it was a golden opportunity to come home. A PERFECT FIT “A native Detroiter, raised at Adat Shalom and a great tenor … What more could we want?” said Larry Gunsberg of Northville, a former B’nai Moshe board member who chaired the search committee at the time. “Oh, someone who could take over a men’s choir who’d been singing together for years continued on page 24 MARCH 10 • 2022
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