Dr. Josh Schwarzbaum has lived in Teaneck for only one and a half years. Moving to the area with his wife, Eyenadis, and three children after the height of the covid pandemic and before October 7, Schwarzbaum witnessed the vibrant Jewish life of the community.
Schwarzbaum leads a busy professional life as an emergency room and addiction physician at St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx as well as one of the medical directors of Hatzalah of NYC and the medical director of Hatzolah of Central Jersey. In addition, as mental health and wellbeing are key interests, he has created the website, HealthyInside.net, through which he offers the many coaching books, ebooks, lectures and seminars he has created addressing issues of emotional wellness.
What would motivate an extremely busy physician to take on yet another enormous project? In answering this query, Schwarzbaum shared with The Jewish Link, “What I saw in Teaneck was a community consisting of people who were 99% similar. However, the small, nuanced differences between them kept them from being truly united. All of us are children of God, as such we must create space for each other and come together as a united force, not only in challenging times.”
A believer that music transcends boundaries, Schwarzbaum set out to bring all segments of the community together through musical events. Thus “Teaneck Together” was created. Before Rosh Hashanah of last year, he debuted his events with an intergenerational kumzitz held at Care One, where youngsters and patients shared in intergenerational songs of unity and the High Holidays. To usher in the New Year, he hosted Kumzitz 2024 at Jewish Center of Teaneck (JCOT), featuring Noah Solomon and C Lanzbom of Soul Farm fame. In March he hosted a community-wide concert featuring Simply Tsfat at JCOT to “Sing and Be Together.” A Musical Adar Experience featuring Rabbi Shalom from Shefa in conjunction with Ohr Saadya was held to usher in Purim. Prior to Pesach, Teaneck Together hosted “Insights on the Pesach Haggadah” with Rav Aviram Biton in partnership with the Sepahdic Minyan at JCOT. In April, “A Community Wide Kumzitz” sponsored by nine local shuls was held at the Arzei Darom tent. This past Tisha B’Av, Teaneck Together hosted a Unity Kumzitz featuring singers from BaRock in collaboration with 16 local congregations.
In ushering in the upcoming Yomim Noraim, Teaneck Together hosted its most recent event on Wednesday evening, September 25, at Bais Menachem. Generously co-sponsored by Beis Menachem, JCOT, Moishe House, Netivot Shalom and Ohr Saadya, a gathering of over 75 people representing 17 local shuls and people hailing from as far as Westchester and Lakewood assembled at the Chabad Center on Windsor Road for a High Holiday Masterclass featuring “A Journey Through Tefillah and Song.” Four masterful chazanim from Manhattan congregations
presented musical renditions of some of the most recognized segments of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy. These included Chazan Zevi Muller of the West Side Institutional Synagogue, Chazan Chaim Dovid Berson of Kehilat Jeshurun, Hazan Sacha Ouazana of the West Side Sephardic Synagogue and Chazan Jonathan Green of The Jewish Center.
When all four chazanim joined the participants in well-known renditions of searing tefillot including Avinu Malkeinu, Chamol al Maasecha, L’maancha Elokeinu and Haneshama Lach, the walls of the venue actually shook. In his preface to Machnisei Rachamim, Chazan Muller addressed the controversy over whether this tefillah asks the malachim to grant us mercy, a concept which has been troubling over the ages. Muller offered an explanation that puts this controversy to rest by noting that we are actually speaking directly to Hashem but in a respectful, third person address. Rav Asher Weiss has commented that the tefillah actually does indicate that we are approaching the angels to intercede on our behalf with Hashem as we are too embarrassed by our sins to actually to approach Hashem directly.
In introducing the Sephardic Piyut composed by Rabbi Avraham Hazan in the 13th Century which begins with Achot Ketana, Hazan Ouazana explained that this Piyut, which opens the Rosh Hashanah service in Sephardic congregations, starts and ends with the phrases which have become universally associated with the New Year supplication Tichle shana v’killeloteha, tachel shana u’birchoteha; May the last year end with its curses and the new year begin with its blessings.
Chazan Berson explored the concept of the melody mirroring the message of the verses. He explained that throughout the three segments of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy dealing with malchiot, kingship; zichronot, remembrances; and shofarot, sounds of the shofar, the melodies alternate between major keys, in uplifting tunes and minor keys for more somber lyrics. Chazan Green explored the powerful Hayom Te’amtzenu, tracing its origins to phrases in Sefer Yeshayahu and Tehillim. He suggested that the tunes selected for this closing tefillah depend upon the musical mesorah of each congregation and the matching of the meaning with the tune. He alluded to the four popular versions of the tefillah, those of Carlebach, Malovsky, the Abudraham and the most famous Modzhitzer version, which he proceeded to perform together with the chazanim and the kahal in an uplifting and united conclusion to the program.
Until the next program, Dr. Josh Schwarzbaum invites those interested in becoming involved in this endeavor to promote true unity within the Bergen County Jewish community to contact him at [email protected].
