It is often noted in popular culture that many faiths have a version of “v’ahavta l’rei-acha kamocha” at their foundation – “You shall love your fellow as yourself,” or as Rabbi Cosgrove once expanded, “You shall love your neighbor as they would wish to be loved.” These lyrics ask a follow-up que...

Park Avenue Synagogue celebrates an expansive tapestry of Jewish music, and one thread running through it is the sophisticated Ashkenazi cantorial style. While the original idiom relies on the power of a single, unaccompanied voice for expression, this new arrangement deploys choral sound creativ...

When tragedies occur in the world, we say it is “heartbreaking;” we feel something in our very center. Those feelings find expression in music and prayer, as in this song by the young Israeli singer-songwriter Hanan Ben Ari, which we presented at Kol Nidrei services this year in a new English-lan...

When we created this special version of a hit song, we didn’t realize it would be performed at the Grammy awards the next day, let alone from Album of the Year! Observing Tu BiShvat, a holiday in honor of the trees, we decided the Eitz Chayim, “Tree of Life,” text would go best with this energeti...

Every Shabbat is marked by music, but on Shabbat Shira we read the story of splitting the Red Sea and the special song that accompanied this event. In this tune, V’Shamru, we affirm and renew our tradition of sanctifying the Shabbat with singing. Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom and a “Shabbat of Son...

Songs that were sung to us as children, and those that we in turn sing to little ones, are written on our hearts. This Yiddish lullaby, “Raisins and Almonds,” was written in 1880 for the Yiddish-language theater in Eastern Europe, and was revisited by Cantor Schwartz at our concert of Yiddish mus...

As International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, imagine the world in 1914, a generation before the Shoah: The state of affairs that had persisted in Europe and the Mediterranean since the Congress of Vienna is about to be violently undone, and all of Europe, including European Jewry, is ab...

“In every generation, one must look on oneself as though one had personally come out of Egypt.” Mishnah Pesachim 10:5

This week, we begin the Book of Exodus the same weekend we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is a unique opportunity to remind ourselves of our personal and spiritual respo...

In this week’s parashah, we read of some of the most famous parental blessings ever given. Here, Cantor Schwartz blesses two of his own children, and sings a newly-commissioned setting of Y’simcha. Whether you are a parent, child, or other member of the community, we know you can appreciate this ...

When people of faith build bridges across communities, the most wonderful things can happen, like when Cantor Schwartz and Reverend Ian Johnson take the stage together and exhort the audience to shine their light to the world. In return, the audience responds with joy, knowing that the state of h...

Through the whimsical imagination of childhood, think what it must be like to be a latke, one of the foods made with oil that attend the Festival of Lights. At our Debbie Friedman tribute concert this past summer, Cantor Schwartz and his daughters, “the two most precious latkes in the room,” sang...

Ya Ribon is a prayer that connects the universal to the particular, from the immeasurable scale of the ruler of rulers to the local sacredness of Jerusalem. It is included in the siddur for home use – as Rabbi Cosgrove says in this video, “It's traditional on a Friday night and Shabbat day that y...

Speech, the choice of which words we speak, and perhaps even those we do not, is a tremendous power and responsibility, one we do not always recognize and appreciate. If we think of the times we have given or received a word of encouragement or blessing and compare them with those occasions when ...

Can you think of a time when a voice affected you deeply and powerfully? It may not have been singing – imagine the voice of an authority figure speaking your name, the voice of a loved one calling out. We recognize in the voice the identity and intentions of those we know, and their state of bei...

As the eyes of the world are on Israel because of its national election, join us on a virtual aliyah to Jerusalem with Cantor Schwartz, as he prepared to collaborate with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra this past year. The piece they performed together, Mechaye Hametim (“Resurrection of the Dead...

As our climate is changing, the story from Parashah Noach of a world-altering flood does not have to be merely imagined. On the other hand, we know that our world cannot survive without rain — in Israel, this is the time of year to start praying for rain, as it is needed to sustain life in a dese...

In honor of Shabbat B’reishit, beginning the Torah cycle anew, we offer this setting of Eitz Chayim commissioned by PAS. Inspired by the 19th century tradition of Jewish music in the Ashkenazi sound world, PAS Music Director David Enlow wrote this piece in 2013. One hears the ‘Tree of Life” sprin...

“I praise You for having answered me; You have become my deliverance.” When we embark on the joyful Hallel during Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, we move through many kinds of joy. There is joy from overcoming trials, and joy at the simplest blessing, just being alive to see “the day the Lord has mad...

In this prayer, featured here in a setting newly commissioned by PAS, we hope our pleas of the Days of Awe were not just heard but will be answered. Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom and Happy Sukkot!

Music: Elliot Weiss
Music Director: David Enlow
AV: Oscar Acevedo, Erik Van Batavia, Russell Miller
...

Cantor Meir Finkelstein’s best-known melody at PAS is L’dor Vador, which we sing during our Shabbat musaf service. However, on Kol Nidrei, the largest setting of the eponymous prayer that we offer is also a Finkelstein tune. We hope you find this piece beautiful and moving and may you and your lo...

To help us wish you a good and sweet new year, we want to share this new setting of B’Sefer Chayim we commissioned from our friend Beth Styles. The prayer asks that we be “inscribed for life, blessing, sustenance, and peace in the Book of Life.” There can be no better summary of our hopes for the...

When Cantor Schwartz sings with his children on the High Holidays, it is a special moment for them and a joy for us to share.

We’d like to invite you to join us online for High Holiday services at Park Avenue Synagogue. While in-person seating is limited, we are committed to broadcasting service...

This week, as we welcomed "Shabbat the Queen," Rabbi Cosgrove spoke about the effect of the monarch’s passing on all who grew up with her as head of state, including the Rabbi’s own parents. Her devotion to duty, wartime service, personal faith, and long service to her peoples have been a source ...

We are getting ready for the High Holidays together, in ways we all recognize and also in ways that are special to each of us. This prayer, the chazzan’s personal prayer of approach, is always a high moment above many.

This setting, originally chanted by Cantor Moishe Oysher in the mid-20th cent...