Volunteer of the Month: Cantor Ellen Stettner

Why do you volunteer for the ACC? How do you make time for it in your busy schedule?
 
I feel passionately about our colleagues supporting one another. I am passionate about our organization because the ACC is a lifeline for all of us. I began volunteering for the ACC the week after investiture in 1981, and have worked for the ACC in one capacity or another almost non-stop since then. In 1981-1982, which was that very first year following graduation and investiture, I worked two days a week in the ACC office when Ray Smolover, the Executive VP, asked Judi Rowland and me to work for the ACC in the tiny office at the old UAHC building at 65th Street and 5th Ave. What a different organization it was back in those days. Busy people always find time to do more. I think this is true in all fields. Busy people are the ones who create more time and do more. It’s just my nature to be active and busy, so I stay busy. However, managing the Chai donations, my current ACC responsibility, is not terribly time consuming, although I wish it would take up more time because that would imply that more people were making Chai donations!

What projects are you currently involved in with the ACC? What past involvements have given you exceptional memories?
 
Currently I’m in charge of the Chai donation program. I was on the board for many years and even served as treasurer and vice-president. I was on the Ethics committee and helped rewrite the current ethics document. I also served on a Bet Din for the Ethics Committee. I recently had the pleasure of being one of the Vatikim interviewers and enjoyed some wonderful time with Irving Shulkes for that project. I served as the ACC liason to the URJ and served on the search committee when the URJ was hiring a new Regional Director for the Greater New York Region.

One of the highlights that left me with exceptional memories was the ACC Board trip to Curacao to sing in honor of that congregation's 350 anniversary. Another highlight was the erev Shabbat service that I led at the URJ Biennial in Dallas. To lead and be joined in worship with a congregation of 5,000 enthusiastic voices was indescribably inspirational. I’ve always been involved in our organization. We cantors are like blood to one another. No one “gets it” like another cantor. We each have our own families and non-cantorial friends, but no one else is as totally aligned with one another as one cantor to another. This is the reason for my sense of dedication to the ACC.
 
How do you try to inspire Jewish young people?
 
I try to inspire young people by first and foremost helping them to feel proud of themselves. If they feel proud of themselves in a Jewish context, they are going to end up loving Judaism. I’m very sincere and joyful and I believe that my joy is contagious. I inspire them through my own joy and enthusiasm and passion for Judaism.
 
What do you like to do completely unrelated to your cantorate?
 
I play tennis regularly and I snow ski, but a lot less often than I play tennis. Moving to Florida has enabled me to make tennis a part of my regular routine twelve months a year! Not so easy to ski as a Floridian, although South Florida does have the largest ski club in the country. I’m a diehard NY Knicks fan. I watch every game even though it’s often been painful these last several years. But I'm proud to be such a loyal fan - and someday when the Knicks are a great team again, and fans start flocking back to them, I'll be the fan that stayed loyal throughout the losing years.

I play tennis on a competitive league. It’s so important to incorporate physical activities into my life and it's a tremendous outlet. It's also socially rewarding. Most of the new friends that I've made since moving to Florida are from my tennis world - including my new husband, Ron! We are newlyweds and just got married a year ago. I have two great kids – my son, Jesse, a graduate of the University of Colorado works for a large media corporation in New York. My daughter, Rosie, just graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in June and is currently on a three-month road trip, exploring the USA. After the trip, she will return to Olympia to work for AmeriCorps. I also have the world's greatest dog, Rocky, who I adopted after meeting him at The Jewish Festival. After you paid your admission to get into the festival, you had to walk past the dogs for adoption to get to the entrance. It was love at first sight for Rocky and me!
 
I am now the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Shira in Boca Raton, after working as a Cantor for 24 years. I hope more cantors will become spiritual leaders. This position calls upon different sets of skills and creative juices and we cantors can do it and do it well! We bring something very special to that role. There are many unique and interesting challenges as the Spiritual Leader, different than serving as cantor working with a rabbi. I hope that the ACC can open up more Spiritual Leader positions and I would like to see more of our colleagues accept these positions. I'm challenged in many new and different ways now even though I assumed this role after serving as a cantor for 24 years. It's truly like a new career. We cantors are more than capable of being spiritual leaders.

I am very proud that when I accepted the position at Temple Beth Shira, there were only 30 member families, and now, after four years, we have 140 member families. We were also one of the first synagogues to be admitted to the URJ as a congregation whose Spiritual Leader is a cantor. This is all very exciting for me personally, but I believe that it is also very exciting for the ACC.
 
Thank you so much for this honor of ACC Volunteer of the Month!