Shortly after moving back to Winnipeg with my young family in the early 1990s, I was invited to join my sister and a couple of her friends for an informal alternative Rosh Hashanah service they were organizing at our Winnipeg Beach cottage.
Almost 20 years later, that informal get-together has evolved into the annual Camp Massad Rosh Hashanah service, a family-friendly, interactive alternative service that attracts almost 200 people each year.
The Rosh Hashanah service initially moved to Camp Massad about 16 years ago largely because it outgrew our family cottage and because Massad happened to be located nearby. The fact that most of us who were involved with the service were also Massad alumni was also a major factor.
Since taking over sponsorship of the service, Massad has proudly promoted it as an informal, participatory, family-orientated alternative to traditional synagogue services. Like Massad itself, a Hebrew immersion Zionist camp that has flourished about 60 kilometres north of Winnipeg for almost 60 years, the Rosh Hashanah service emphasizes the building of community and the joyful celebration of Judaism.
The service, which took place on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, features a laid-back blend of traditional prayers, Torah insights, contemporary readings, humour, song and shtick. It has been led all these years by the same three volunteers, my sister, Leah Braemer, a Hebrew bilingual elementary school teacher, Miriam Baron and Shelley Werner, who provide musical direction and accompaniment. The Massad Alumni Choir, which performs at about a dozen rites of passage and community events throughout the year, is also integral to the service.
The success of the service relies heavily on audience participation. Children are called up to read many of the prayers and responsive readings, and are encouraged to march down the aisles behind the Torah and gather around the shofar blower – a local school principal and Massad alumnus – calling out tekiah and shvarim. All of the congregants are invited to join the choir in singing a variety of liturgical melodies, contemporary Hebrew songs and a few now-classic songs written expressly for the service by Baron and Werner.
In lieu of a Torah reading, a small band of mostly Camp Massad alumni perform a shtick that traditionally revolves around the major Rosh Hashanah themes of repentance, renewal and review. This year’s shtick, hosted by Katie Kugel and Pauline Keegel, parodied many of the big news stories of the year, including interviews with environmentalist “Al Gornish,” literary critic “Booker Prize” and a clip from the blockbuster movie “Avinutar.”
Each year Braemer adds new readings and reflections to the service to keep it fresh and engaging, and to gear it specifically to the ages of those who will be attending. While most of the congregants return year after year, each new season also brings with it a few new faces. Many of the newcomers have heard through word-of-mouth about the relaxed atmosphere and sense of fun and community that prevails.
“The warm, informal atmosphere at the service is inviting and makes people feel comfortable,” Braemer reflected. “The music and singing invite participation from all members and ages, and there’s a strong sense of belonging to a community.”
This sense of community was especially evident during two particularly poignant moments at this year’s service. The first occurred when a young family brought their infant daughter up to the bimah for her baby naming. The second occurred when about a dozen Camp Massad staff and campers who happened to be at the service stood up to sing a tribute song for Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas, that had been written during a camp program earlier in the summer.
Following the service, apples, honey and challah are distributed and those in attendance are invited to make the short trek across the road to Lake Winnipeg for Tashlich. Standing on the shores of this great lake and bearing witness to the blasts of the shofar is indeed a profound experience, although, I must admit that this year, I skipped the ritual in order to help set up the dining hall for the kiddush.
Even this, the informal way in which the dining hall is set up, the simple luncheon food and the reliance on volunteers for most of the event’s organization, set up and clean up, is reflective of what both Camp Massad and its alternative Rosh Hashanah service stand for. What matters at Massad, and at the service, is that everyone feels part of a family and part of a community, and that they can freely and fully celebrate their Jewish culture, religion and identity. The atmosphere at Massad is always warm, welcoming and inviting, and so, too, is the atmosphere at its annual Rosh Hashanah service.
This, of course, explains the increasing popularity of the service, which now attracts so many people that, as Baron says, Massad eventually will have to start offering an alternative service to its alternative service.
