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MAY 10, 2024 | IYAR 2, 5784 | VOLUME 76, NUMBER 18
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CBI cantor leaves legacy of PJ Library’s ‘Book Mitzvah’ connection and musical community celebrates 13 years of reading Jewish S books, connecting Jewish families SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
L
eah Amiot and her daughter, Elle, stood looking over the chocolate sauce, hot fudge, sprinkles and other yummy toppings, carefully deciding what to put on the ice cream they’d just been handed at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus on Sunday, April 14. They ate their free scoops as they gazed around the large room, filled with games and activities and nearly 300 people who had come to celebrate PJ Library’s “Book Mitzvah,” an event commemorating the organization’s 13 years in Greater Phoenix. Amiot has been reading PJ Library books to Elle since she was a baby. Elle’s grandmother sent the first book and it was immediately clear to Amiot that “the books are a great way to introduce Judaism, even to babies.” Elle is now 7 and still loves them. “They’re real fun,” Elle told Jewish News while polishing off her ice cream. Elle’s preferred theme in her favorite books is families coming together, her mom said. Amiot had never heard of PJ Library books before Elle came along, but now she loves them because they make her feel connected to her family, other Jewish parents and the Jewish community as a whole. “Even if we’re not doing other things, we’re reading the same books,” she said.
usan Guzman was not yet a member of Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) when she first heard, and fell in love with, Cantor Seth Ettinger’s voice. She wasn’t a member of any congregation at the time, though she had joined and left several during her 43 years in the Valley. However, that didn’t keep her from attending Jewish events, specifically musical events, and it was at a concert of local cantors that she heard Ettinger sing, “his voice so beautiful and so far above others,” she told Jewish News. A singer herself, Guzman was delighted when Ettinger allowed her to sing with his High Holiday choir at CBI, though she didn’t belong. She joined the synagogue a year later, drawn by his voice, his showmanship and his inclusiveness. Now, Seth Ettinger, pictured at center, enjoyed working with his fellow cantors as Ettinger prepares to leave the Scottsdale Cantor on musical events. COURTESY OF CANTOR SETH ETTINGER congregation for his new post at Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, she is one of many in the local Jewish community sorry to see him go. One of Ettinger’s first goals when he arrived at CBI in 2018 was to make the congregation “the go-to place” for Jewish community events, whether general gatherings, rabbinic learning events, such as during Shavuot, and commemorations, such as Yom HaShoah. CBI hosted many Jewish communal events during his tenure. “I wanted it to be like Abraham and Sarah’s tent, and it is,” Ettinger told Jewish News. Ettinger’s broad embrace of the community was another of his qualities that appealed to Guzman. She sings with Cordially Yours, a senior choir run by the Center for Senior Enrichment and Creative Aging, a program of Jewish Family & Children’s Service. When its director left three years ago, Guzman suggested SEE CANTOR, PAGE 3
A unique Mediterranean experience awaits Jewish brothers Mitch and Steven Rosenthal own Arboleda restaurant at the Scottsdale Quarter. See page 21. PHOTO COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS
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