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Born for the Bimah
OUR COMMUNITY
COURTESY OF B’NAI MOSHE
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Rabbi Elliot Pachter and Cantor Earl Berris at an outdoor service.
Born for the Bimah
BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
He 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
OUR COMMUNITY
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— STEVE FINE
ABOVE: Cantor Earl Berris served B’nai Moshe for 23 years recently retired.
and bring it into the future,” which Berris did by welcoming women into the group, creating a new blended sound for “the singing congregation,” he said. The choir was still going strong when he retired.
Replacing Cantor Louis Klein, B’nai Moshe’s beloved long-time cantor, was a challenge, but Berris already knew a lot of the congregants and immediately felt at home. He had a good working relationship with Klein. “Cantor Klein made it easy on me,” said Berris.
Berris, who has composed many original melodies that are sung in synagogues around the world, was careful not to make any major changes right away. He would sneak a few of his tunes into the service here and there, interspersing them with those the congregation was used to from Cantor Klein.
“After a while, everyone thought they were Cantor Klein’s songs,” he said. One congregant admired a melody, saying “I’ve been singing this for 40 years.”
Ilana Berris, a retired Hillel Day School teacher, chaired the synagogue’s education committee and taught in its religious school.
“It was a good partnership for the congregation,” he said.
For most of his years at B’nai Moshe, Berris, who turns 70 on March 19, worked with Rabbi Elliot Pachter, who is now the congregation’s rabbi emeritus and rabbinic adviser at Frankel Hebrew Academy.
“From the first time we met, Cantor Berris and I clicked personally and professionally,” Pachter said. “He and I, and our families, became friends. I was honored to officiate at his daughters’ bat mitzvah services, and Cantor Berris was my sons’ bar mitzvah teacher. When his older daughter married, I was the officiating rabbi, and one of my sons was a witness.
“We worked so well together, quickly learned and respected each other’s styles, and got to the point where we could almost read each other’s minds.”
Pachter is particularly proud of two projects he worked on with Berris. One was the 2001: Shabbat Odyssey series held on summer Friday nights, where the cantor introduced lively new tunes. “The ruach (spirit) was great that summer,” he said.
The second was a customized prayer book, Siddur Tefillah l’Moshe, created in 2008, that the congregation still uses every Shabbat. “Cantor Berris and I personally proofread each word and made sure it was exactly what we wanted,” he said. “For us it was a labor of love and pride.”
B’nai Moshe’s executive director, Steve Fine, says, “Nothing rattled him, and he was on top of everything that was going on. Once, when I had the honor of doing hagbah (lifting the torah), no one on the bimah, nor in the congregation, noticed that a chair had not been placed for me to sit down on … with the exception of Cantor Berris.”
Fine also admired Berris’ skills as a bar mitzvah tutor. “He was the most patient bar/ bat mitzvah teacher I have ever seen,” he said. “We shared an office wall so I could hear his lessons with his students.” If a student was having problems even a few weeks before the event, Berris never worried or showed anxiety, Fine said “Somehow and some way, the student always was ready on their bar/bat mitzvah day.”
The Berrises, who now live in Commerce Township, are sticking close to home during the COVID pandemic. They enjoy visiting their daughter, Doron Vergun, her husband, Daniel, and their two boys, who live in Farmington Hills, and they’ve been to Los Angeles to visit their other daughter, Leore, a writer.
Cantorial Concert Will Honor Berris on Retirement
Fifteen area cantors will come together at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 20, to honor Earl Berris’ 23 years as the cantor at Congregation B’nai Moshe.
Donor Wall contributors are invited to attend the Cantor Earl Berris Retirement Concert in person in the synagogue’s sanctuary. Others can view the concert on Zoom or YouTube.
The concert will include performances by Deborah Bletsein, Hilary Blair, Rachel Gottlieb Kalmowitz, Tiffany Green, Samuel Greenbaum, Daniel Gross, Steve Klaper, Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo, Neil Michaels, Zach Mondrow, Kelly Onickel, David Propis, Pamela Schiffer, Michael Smolsh and Penny Steyer. The cantors will be accompanied by Cliff Monear.
For more information, visit www.bnaimoshe.org.
