The Jewish community is mourning the death of Cantor Paul Silbersher who passed away Sunday, April 26, at age 90. The Jewish Chronicle talked with two people who were especially close to him.
Ken Sigman and Larry Gelb have both known Cantor Silbersher since his days at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah (1979-2000), where he was cantor and music director, in addition to many other duties. He was almost 50 years old when he began there.
The road to his career as cantor and rabbi took a circuitous route. As a young man, he wanted to serve as a naval aviation cadet during the Korean War. He was accepted into the program, but the swearing-in ceremony was halted because the program was suddenly full. So he spent eight years in the Naval Reserve.
Upon completing his cantorial studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion School of Sacred Music (now The Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music), Cantor Silbersher decided to study for the rabbinate. He enrolled in the pre-rabbinic program at HUC in Cincinnati.
While completing his rabbinical studies, Cantor Silbersher served various congregations in Ohio, Connecticut and New York, each having no more than 300-350 families.
Then his rabbinical studies hit a few bumps in the road and he chose yet another path, earning a master’s degree in social work. He worked in several schools as a social worker.
Eventually his rabbinical ordination was done privately by two rabbis and Cantor Silbersher took over the helm of a small congregation, The Fellowship for Jewish Learning in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1979 he came to B’nai Jehudah. With up to 1,900 families, this was the largest congregation he had ever served.
He retired from B’nai Jehudah in 2000, but retirement didn’t stop him from continuing to work there part-time for the next three years. Then in 2003, he took over the helm of a newly formed synagogue, Congregation Kol Ami.
“He was at Kol Ami for [several] years and then a whole bunch of us left because of some actions by the president and the board,” Gelb said.
Cantor Silbersher retired from Kol Ami, and another rabbi was hired. Gelb said at the reception to welcome the new rabbi, he asked him if he did interfaith marriages and the new rabbi said no. That’s when Gelb and several others left Kol Ami and formed Temple Sinai.
“Kol Ami had been founded on the principle that intermarriage couples were welcome,” Gelb said. “At the time we had about 100 members and 15-18 intermarriage couples.”
Cantor Silbersher became Temple Sinai’s new rabbi. As a clergyman he performed many interfaith weddings over the years. He retired from Temple Sinai about four years ago when he was no longer able to keep up his duties.
Gelb said he spoke to the cantor the night before he turned 90. “The indication was that he wanted to live until he was 90, and he made it.”
“He was a loss to the congregation and to the entire city and that not only includes the Jews, but Christians because he used to give sermons at their churches on Sunday mornings. He was a very liberal guy,” Gelb added.
He said Cantor Silbersher once took the Kol Ami congregation to an Islamic service where they had dinner and a discussion for about an hour about their differences. “That was the kind of thing he did. He tried to have peace and comfort between the different religions and different nationalities.”
Sigman is another of the many friends Cantor Silbersher had over the years.
“For the last five months, maybe, it was like Sundays with Paul; I visited him every Sunday,” he said. “He’d been bedridden for quite a while; he had a tough four years, but his mind was very good. I really enjoyed being with him.
“He touched a lot of people. He stood up to his flaws; he talked about his life, and was humble talking about it.”
Sigman said Cantor Silbersher talked him into teaching him Hebrew in order to prepare for becoming a Bar Mitzvah. “He said ‘wouldn’t that be incredible.’ I told him if he was going to be my teacher, I should pay him. He said no, this will be a blessing to me.
“I have a long way to go but I’m motivated to continue with it. He was a good teacher, very patient. A good teacher motivates and makes you want to explore and learn.”
Cantor Silbersher’s followers went to synagogue to be in a small setting with him and be able to have discussions about the Torah, Sigman said. “They were interactive and he was good at asking questions and making you think.”
Sigman said Cantor Silbersher had a beautiful voice, even toward the end of his life. He would chant “Hatikvah” and it “still had that quality. He could have been a professional. He was an entertainer; he loved to chant. He had probably the highest quality a voice that any cantor could have.”
Cantor Silbersher often said to Sigman, “Keep coming, Ken, you’re helping me stay alive.”
“And I would go away thinking I’m getting more out of this than he is,” said Sigman.
By Marcia Montgomery
Associate Editor