Farewell to Cantor Shapiro

This month, we bid a fond farewell to our spiritual leader, Cantor Kerith Shapiro, seen below making the blessings over grape juice and challah, and telling the children that she will never forget them on the last day of religious school.

And we take this opportunity to include here the message Cantor Shapiro wrote for her column in Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Looking back on the past eight years that I’ve been so lucky to serve as the Cantor and then Spiritual Leader of Adas Emuno, it all seems like a blur!  I really can’t believe that the time has gone by so quickly.  And as my last day at Adas Emuno draws closer, it seems like the time left with all of you is so short.
 I have had the opportunity to grow at Adas Emuno in so many ways and I want to thank all of you for that.  The lay leadership (your Board of Directors) will continue to work diligently as volunteers to guide the congregation and plan for the future.  I am ever grateful to these volunteers.  Our religious school director, Jennifer Katz Goldstein, has continued to shape our school and make it one of the best in Bergen County.  I want to thank Jennifer for always going above and beyond, and creating a thriving and wonderful learning environment for our children.  I want to thank the children for giving me the opportunity to be their teacher.  Seeing the world through their eyes allowed me the chance to feel young.  To our torah study group, “Turn it and turn it again for everything is found within it.”  May you continue to study the words of torah and may they always be sweet to you.  The junior choir has been a special group, and I’ll carry the sound of your sweet voices with me wherever I go.
 
Shalom chaverim,
Cantor Shapiro  

And we will most certainly remember you as well, Cantor, shalom and best of luck!