Shabbat Shalom ~ Parashat Chukat-Balak 2026

Shalom WJC Family,

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the 79^th annual convention of the Cantors Assembly, my professional organization. As you might expect, it’s a great annual occasion to see old friends and colleagues, refresh and recharge, and network and learn about new developments in my profession. Over the years it has developed a reputation for being a joyous and fun gathering, with some of the vendors and professionals who attend a lot of these kinds of things consistently telling us that we’re the most fun to be at.

Gathering 200 cantors in one place also leads to musical possibilities that would be impossible under virtually any other circumstance. One highlight for me was the concert on Monday night, called “Psalm Enchanted Evening: An Evening of Music Building Bridges Between Faiths” held at the storied 3000-seat St. Paul’s Cathedral. It featured 5 choirs from different Pittsburgh area institutions, as well as an ensemble of about 30 cantors who had only 24 hours to rehearse a challenging program. Frankly, I harbored some doubts about the ambition of the program and the limited rehearsal time but was pleasantly surprised to see how well it came together. You can see a video of the concert here.

Many of the speakers at the event, including the sitting mayor of Pittsburgh, remarked on how this kind of event could only happen in Pittsburgh, where there is a broad, deep and long-standing civic and interfaith community, which was highlighted and strengthened in the aftermath of the massacre at Tree of Life in 2018. It was inspiring to see so many people from diverse backgrounds coming together with genuine goodwill and desire to be good neighbors.

I was also especially proud that our own members Jeff and Linda Solomon sponsored this event. Jeff and Linda are proud Pittsburghers and supporters of the Cantors Assembly for many years. I was proud to have the bragging rights among my colleagues that they were our members.

This week we’ll gather for Kabbalat Shabbat at 6:30, Shabbat morning at 9:15am and for mincha, ma’ariv and havdalah at 8:15pm. I hope to see you there!

Shabbat Shalom,

Cantor Goldberg