Music to Our Ears: The KMS Kumzitz
Saturday night, August 11 was the beginning of something new and wonderful for our community: a very spiritual way to celebrate Rosh Chodesh. For some time now, my son, Shlomo Mehlman, has been telling me that kumzitzes have become all the rage in New York and that he has attended wonderful kumzitzes on any given day of the week. He told me that they get close to 100 people participating in many of these events. Many people bring their own instruments and help lead. Last week, two of my sons were coming for Shabbat. Shlomo gave me a call and said “I can lead a Kumzitz for two hours, so why don’t you invite people over after Shabbat.” I responded by suggested to him that we try to have one at KMS. The next day I went down to the office and asked how I could arrange this. They suggested I talk to Sara Elikan. And so I did. She was as excited about it as I was, and she immediately set the ball in motion.
We sent out flyers, laid plans, purchased food, and set up chairs for an estimated 50 participants. Though we were hoping we would get that many, we weren’t betting on it. Imagine how surprised and happy we were when we ended up with more than 65 attendees! That’s not all. We got volunteer musicians, as well. Members on keyboard, drum, and harmonica all joined Shlomo on guitar, in leading a beautiful and spirited kumzitz. Shlomo prepared sheets for everyone with about 50 popular songs and supplied the music for the participating musicians. People sang their hearts out and asked that we do it again soon. Shlomo agreed that we should do this regularly. He hopes to make kumzitzes as popular here as they are in New York.
There are wonderful photos of the Kumzitz at: https://www.kmsynagogue.org/