Steve Reich and Beryl Korot are, in effect, the father and mother of Beginners Services all over the world.
In December 1975, we launched the first Beginners Service at Lincoln Square Synagogue. The participants consisted of myself, Steve, Beryl, and another person – an accountant by the name, coincidentally enough, of Stephen Reich.
At that time Lincoln Square had become the “in place” to be. While the Beginners Service was held in the huge cavernous ballroom on the lower level, upstairs in the main sanctuary the best show in town was taking place with the charismatic Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, then known as Steven, (sometimes called “Stevie Wonder”) and the fabulous Cantor Sherwood Goffin.
Who in his or her right mind would want to come to a service that was known as a Beginners Service? The name itself was a deterrent. The truth is, very few people were interested, and for six months it remained the four of us, except for one strange character who would come in every other week on roller skates, tennis racket in hand, and ask: “How do you know that there is a God?”
After the first six months a few more people started coming and eventually it built up to about 20-30 people each week.
In March 1981 The New York Times got word of the Beginners Service and sent a reporter who wrote a flattering story that appeared on a Saturday on the front page of the second section of the paper. The rest is history. People began attending in droves. In order for the Beginners Service to impact properly on its participants, I decided to limit the number of attendees by moving the service to a room that had a maximum capacity of 50. It was often standing-room only. Those who arrived late waited in the halls to enter, and I had to forcibly “graduate” people after they’d heard my jokes five times.
Today there are between two and three hundred Shabbat Beginners Services conducted on a regular or semi-regular basis throughout the U.S. and Canada. The number swells significantly on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Beginners Services can also be found around the world. In fact, many Beginners Services are offered on the High Holidays throughout the state of Israel by the Israeli rabbinic organization Tzohar. All this is due to Steve Reich and Beryl Korot.
Many of Steve’s compositions since his arrival at Lincoln Square Synagogue have had a Jewish connection or theme. “Different Trains” compares cross-continental trains in the U.S. to the trains of the Holocaust. “The Cave,” a video opera he composed in collaboration with his wife (a prominent video artist) is about the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. “Tehillim” and “You Are (Variations)” include texts from Rav Nachman of Breslov, Psalms and Pirkei Avot. The newly commissioned “Daniel,” composed in memory of the murdered Wall Street Journalreporter Daniel Pearl, is based on verses from the Book of Daniel.
I had the privilege of officiating at the marriage of Steve and Beryl and being at their son Ezra’s brit. These days, Steve almost always wears a baseball cap, even while performing. When he lived in SoHo he prayed at the Boyoner shtiebl. He now belongs to a small up-and-coming Orthodox synagogue in Westchester.
It is so wonderful to see Steve being acknowledged for his music. But both he and Beryl also deserve to be recognized for their special contributions to Jewish life. I would bet that there are tens of thousands of Jews whose lives have been enriched because of Steve and Beryl’s request for a Beginners Service.
Steve may or may not be America’s greatest living composer, but he certainly is the greatest living composer who has had the greatest direct impact on Jewish life. He has not only altered the direction of musical history, but also the direction of the lives of many Jews who, were it not for his and Beryl’s momentous contribution, would otherwise never have had any part in Jewish life.
I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly (if belatedly) wish Steve Reich a happy 70th birthday. Steve, it’s a privilege to know you.