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...

What secular month is upon us? "Do you remember" how we surprised Rabbi Cosgrove for his 50th birthday? What happens when the PAS Tijuana Brass come out from behind the bimah after services? Answers to these questions are found in this fun video. Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom and a happy Labor Day...

Celebrating Rosh Chodesh Elul tonight, we know the High Holidays are a month away! Let us start at the finish line: there is a lively tradition of singing the final Kaddish in a happy mode (unlike the mourners’ Kaddish Yatom) in the belief that our repentance has been accepted and that a good yea...

Have you ever wondered why we end every Shabbat morning service with this prayer? The tradition dates back only to the 15th century, and the text itself only to the 11th. Unlike the psalms, this poem has a rhyme and regular meter. In fact, it shares a common meter with popular songs, which allows...

Will forgiving and graceful days yet come,
When you will walk in the field like an innocent traveler,
Your bare foot will touch the grass,
Or the spica's thorns will prick you, and the pricking will be sweet?

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom and a meaningful Tisha b’Av.

A Poem by Leah Goldberg (...

In these words, from Psalm 126, the psalmist comforts us with the idea that the labor of weeping leads to the harvest of joy, and it is the work of mourning that helps us move forward.

Drawing this song from our June concert of Debbie Friedman’s music, the largest in-person gathering at the syn...

This Shabbat, we bless the new month of Av, which gives us the opportunity to reflect on an old, pious custom: the keeping of Yom Kippur Katan (a “Minor” Yom Kippur, the day before the new month). When the new month begins on Shabbat, Yom Kippur Katan happens on Thursday.

The idea, promulgated a...