By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

The High Holy Days are a marathon for those who lead the musical components of the longest worship services of the year.

At Dayton’s two Reform congregations, that spiritual and physical endurance test is now in the hands of members.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sunset on Wednesday, Sept. 4 and marks Mary Wyke’s second year in her volunteer role as Temple Beth Or’s music leader.

Courtney Cummings took up her paid position as Temple Israel’s High Holy Days music director following the July departure of its executive director and prayer leader, Alan Halpern, who now works in New York.

She’ll also serve as cantorial soloist for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs at Temple Israel this year.

“They (Temple Israel) are still in the process of deciding what’s going to work best for them moving forward,” Cummings says. “Alan played a very unique role being the executive director and the shaliach tzibbur (cantorial soloist).”

Temple Israel observes the first and second days of Rosh Hashanah; Temple Beth Or observes only the first day, a common practice among Reform congregations. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the culmination of the High Holy Days. The holiest time on the Jewish calendar, this day of fasting and prayer begins at sunset on Friday, Sept. 13 and concludes the next evening.

Wyke leads the music program at Temple Beth Or all year, which includes directing the choir, some solo vocal work, and coordinating musical projects between the choir and the congregation’s band, Rock of Ages, led once a month by musician Marc Rossio of Columbus.

Wyke returned to Dayton from Denver seven years ago. She’s been a member of Beth Or for five years.

“When I came back here, I got in touch with my birth father, who was Jewish,” she says. “And I was raised partially Jewish when he was still in the home. So I decided to take the Intro. to Judaism class and I was introduced to Rabbi Chessin and I said, ‘Oh yes, I want to learn under this woman.’ She’s fabulous.”

At Beth Or, she met the late Cantor Joyce Dumtschin, then the choir’s director.

“I wouldn’t have even joined the choir if it hadn’t been for her,” Wyke says. “She was a wonderful inspiration for me. She didn’t care that I didn’t necessarily have a Hebrew understanding but she just wanted me in the choir because I played professionally in Denver.”

While in Denver, Wyke was also assistant director for a choir at a juvenile resident treatment center.

“I loved it, working with teenagers,” she says. “It was a blessing to have a music program there which really, I think, helped the girls a lot.”

When Dumtschin was no longer leading the choir, Chessin pulled Wyke aside and asked her to take it on.

“I said, ‘I’m terrified,’ and she said, ‘What are you talking about? You can do this.’ And she was right.”

Wyke, who works at a local book store, says Beth Or’s assistant rabbi and educator, David Burstein, “co-led” the choir practices for the High Holy Days last year.

“Without his guidance I would not feel as confident in taking off the training wheels, so to speak,” Wyke says.

“Last High Holidays we had probably five or six members in the choir,” she adds. “This year we have 14 members in the choir. It’s been wonderful the people who have come forward: some were returning members, a lot of new members.”

In January, Wyke went through the Union for Reform Judaism’s Songleader Boot Camp in Chicago.

“I am fueled and excited and inspired when I am up there leading the choir and they’re excited,” Wyke says. “It’s a great energy that gets moving through music. And I hope that when people are in the congregation, that they feel that, and that it energizes and inspires them also, because I think it’s such an important part of the worship service.”

A fun challenge
For Courtney Cummings, these High Holy Days are her first as cantorial soloist at Temple Israel.

Cummings grew up in the congregation. She now lives in West Chester and is the cultural programming manager at the Mayerson JCC in Cincinnati.

With an undergraduate degree in music from Kenyon College and a master’s degree in vocal performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music, Cummings has lent her soprano voice to the professional High Holy Days quartet at Temple Israel for five years.

“It’s definitely been a challenge but it’s a fun one,” Cummings says, “and it’s great to be able to continue to work with the people I’ve worked with for the last few years in the quartet portion, but then also to be able to take on more of a leadership role and really be involved more with the congregation from that prayer-leading aspect.”

Cummings says she won’t present drastic changes to the music, “because I know there are many pieces in the service that people have come to love.”

But since the roster has changed from a quartet with a baritone soloist to an alto-tenor-bass trio with a soprano soloist, they’ve adjusted some of the arrangements for the new sound.

“It’s nice to be able to come back at a different point in my life and help give back a little bit to my congregation and see what has progressed so far,” Cummings says.

She adds that her rehearsal travels from West Chester give her an extra opportunity to visit her parents.

“I hope people will enjoy the change in some of the additions that I’ve made to the service and hope that I’m able to deliver the same spirit of leading the prayers that Alan did,” Cummings says, “but also to be able to provide a bit of a fresh face, a fresh voice to the congregation.”