Join us for the grand finale of Temple Sinai’s yearlong 50^th anniversary celebration on Friday, December 5 at 7:30 pm. Rabbi Daniel H. Freelander, Senior Vice-President of the Union for Reform Judaism, will bring official greetings from the URJ and speak about the changes that have taken place in Reform Judaism over the past half-century.

Rabbi Freelander will participate in the music of the service with Cantor Jeff Klepper and Temple Sinai’s Shabbat B’simcha musicians. Known throughout the world as Kol B’seder, Dan and Jeff are celebrating their 36^th year as a singing duo. As college students, they composed and recorded some of the first contemporary Jewish song “hits” of the 1970s, including Lo Alecha Modeh Ani, Shalom Rav, and dozens of Hebrew and English songs that are still sung by the children and grandchildren of their original audience.

Rabbi Freelander, a Worcester native, was a leader in his Temple Emanuel youth group and NeFTY region. While pursuing a double major in music and religion at Trinity College he met Jeff Klepper, who had just arrived in Worcester to attend Clark University. They met at a conference for religious-school teachers, and soon found themselves on the faculty of a NeFTY Institute. By the end of their first day at camp they were harmonizing on popular Hebrew songs. Before long they had written one of their own, to the words of a morning prayer of thanks, Modeh Ani.

As their output increased so did their fame, thanks to a series of albums featuring new Jewish songs produced by NFTY in the 1970s and 80s. They chose the name Kol B’seder (a Hebrew pun meaning “everything’s ok”) while students at Hebrew Union College in New York. Started as a Jewish rock band, Kol B’seder entertained at wedding and Bar Mitzvah parties as well as synagogue concerts. Their music was featured at URJ Biennials, widely published, championed by rabbis (and some cantors) and came to be embraced throughout the Reform movement and beyond, especially for services, where their setting of Shalom Rav quickly became the standard melody for that prayer.

Kol B’seder has received accolades for their four CDs, and has performed in Israel, England and Russia. They were recently honored by the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), and the Zamir Chorale of Boston.