Volunteer of the Month: Cantor Stuart Binder

Stuart Binder is the cantor at Congregation Beth Chaim in Princeton Junction, NJ and is now in his 21st year at the congregation. The interviewer was surprised to learn that she has a Des Moines connection with Cantor Binder. He lived in Des Moines for his senior year of high School and did his undergraduate studies at Iowa State where he majored in education with a minor in music. He was a song-leader at Temple B’nai Jeshurun and served as student cantor for the Ames Jewish Congregation in Ames, IA in the 1980s.

Tell us about the volunteer work that you are doing in the ACC.

I have been serving on the Committee for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD) for the past year, and have facilitated several of the ACC’s continuing education conference calls and webinars, including the upcoming homiletics workshop on May 17 with Rabbi Steven Leder. I co-led the conference call on Temple Politics (with Rabbi Eric Wisnia) and the Sibelius workshop (with Cantor Shira Nafshi). Also, I’ve been an active volunteer, supporter, and promoter of Jewish camping. I studied song-leading at camp Kutz in its heyday (when I was a teen) and now I’m involved with camp Harlam, which is the URJ camp in my region. My congregation sends about 35 students to Harlam each year.

I’ve served for many years on the faculty at Camp Harlam. The camp faculty is made up of rabbis, cantors and educators, and our primary role is to implement the camp curriculum each summer. We each bring our own talents to the table, and there are lots of opportunities for creativity. We know from the Jewish Population Study that Jewish camping has a huge impact on almost every measure of adult Jewish expression and identity. And I can see how important it is to my kids and the kids in my congregation. Working at camp is also a great opportunity to learn some of the new music our kids are exposed to at camp each summer. I use a variety of musical styles in my congregation, and for our family services, I try to have some continuity between camp music and synagogue music.

Tell us one thing about yourself that we might not know that you would want us to learn about you.

I’m a recording engineer. I do recordings for other people, everything from grand opera to camp Harlam’s 50th anniversary CD, “The Songs of Summer”, which is available through Camp Harlam. I’ve always been interested in sound and recording. I’ve done several recordings for my congregation’s religious school over the years for the religious school, where each grade does a song. I learned to be a sound engineer mostly through experience and self-study. I’ve been making recordings since high school, but I didn’t get into it seriously until after cantorial school. More recently, I took a course in audio mastering. My choir director is the conductor for the Bohéme Opera, NJ. When I came to the Princeton area, the opera company needed someone to do archival recordings for them. Recording a live opera production presents some unique challenges, but I’ve been honing my technique for almost 20 years. I’ll be recording Tosca for them in a few days.

Describe the most important part of being a cantor.

I think to the most important piece is inspiring the next generation of Jews. I don’t think most parents and families are passing on an understanding of the importance of Judaism and the Jewish community to their children. Somehow, it’s become our job. How to do that is the $100,000 question. I feel it’s the most important thing I do here: trying to inspire kids; trying to reach them and get them excited about being Jewish and about being a part of the community. I’ll try anything.