Sacred Music in a Challenging World

Sharon Azrieli's journey with Hebrew Union College was shaped, from the very beginning, by the tension between passion and circumstance. When she auditioned for the cantorial program, participation, as it does now, required a year of study in Israel. At the time, Sharon was navigating family obligations that made a move to Israel impossible.

But her calling was the cantorate and her passion was sacred music. She found another path, one that would ultimately lead her back to Hebrew Union College. She became a cantor, and of her first job, as a cantorial soloist at a congregation in Sag Harbor, New York, she says, "I just couldn't believe it. It was astounding to me. I felt like it was actually a sign from God." It was her first job, and it changed everything.

And she never stopped believing that what was offered by Hebrew Union College could be even better if it were more accessible. When her cousin, Rabbi Naamah Kelman '92, the first ordained female rabbi in Israel, and the former dean of the Taube Family Campus, encouraged her to look again at Hebrew Union College, Sharon saw an opportunity to give back in a meaningful way.

In 2021, the Azrieli Foundation made a $1.2 million gift to establish the Center for the Study of Sacred Music in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. The gift was recently renewed through October 2029. The motivation was deeply personal: the Foundation wanted to open doors for students who might find themselves in the same or similar difficult circumstances Sharon once had. "What we've done, I hope, is to help emerging cantors expand their studies, including through a year in Israel, when they might otherwise not have had the means to do so."

That wasn't the only motivation. There was a desire at the Foundation to lift up sacred music. Beyond the spiritual connection, there is an intellectual depth to the tradition - the ancient modes, the improvisatory demands of the liturgy, and the thousands of years of history embedded in a single melody. Sharon even wrote her doctoral thesis on the surprising similarities she discovered between those sacred modes and the operas of Giuseppe Verdi.

Ultimately, the Foundation's gift is a way to ensure that a new generation of cantors and Jewish leaders is exposed to the beauty and history of sacred music.

"Sharon understands from her own experience what it means to feel called to this work - and what it means to face barriers in pursuing it. The Foundation's generosity has made it possible for our students to study music in Israel and to focus on what matters most: learning, growing, and finding their own voice in one of the world's oldest musical traditions."
-Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., Gus W. Herrman President and Professor of Political Thought

The Foundation's gift is now coming to life in a very visible way. In October 2024, the Azrieli Foundation launched the Hatikvah Project, a national orchestra festival celebrating Jewish sacred music and bringing hope and healing to Israelis throughout the country. As part of that project, with Sharon's artistic vision and the guidance of Interim Head of Seminary Programs and Debbie Friedman School of Music Director Cantor Jill Abramson '02, who is also a member of the Hatikvah Project Steering Committee, the team conceived the idea of a closing concert featuring current students and recent graduates of Hebrew Union College's Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music.

The Project occurs over a week every year after the High Holy Days to commemorate the fallen in Israel. It has many purposes, including giving work to musicians in difficult times and introducing new audiences to sacred music. The next in the series is planned for October 21-28, and one of its concerts will give young cantors a stage, a congregation, and the irreplaceable experience of leading people in prayer. "There is an element of performing to being a cantor," Sharon notes. "You have to practice getting up in front of people. You have to practice leading a congregation and singing." For Sharon, this is what the Foundation's gift was always meant to do: not just preserve knowledge but create living opportunities for the next generation to practice their craft.

"For me, as a fellow cantor, someone who trained in this program and now has the privilege of leading it, this gift is deeply personal. I know Sharon not only as an extraordinarily generous person, but as a woman whose life demanded impossible choices and whose gifts never diminished because of them. The Azrieli Foundation's gift ensures that the ancient traditions of cantorial music are not only preserved but passed on to a new generation of cantors, beginning with their Year-In-Israel, who will carry them into communities around the world."
-Cantor Jill Abramson, Head of Seminary Programs (interim) and Director, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music

At the heart of Sharon's passion is the quietly urgent belief that the flexibility of Reform liturgy, for all its virtues, risks allowing ancient modes and centuries-old musical traditions to quietly slip away. "You can't really choose if you don't know what your choices are," she says plainly. Sacred music, she argues, is one of the great unifying threads of Jewish life. "Something as essential and timeless as the Kol Nidre melody… for me, that's one of the most visceral and important experiences every year," she says of the ancient declaration. "It's a passage of time, a marking of intention, and it wouldn't be the same if it wasn't accompanied by that ancient melody that just resonates in your bones."