The Jewish Ledger: Danbury cantor celebrates 10th anniversary

Danbury cantor celebrates 10th anniversary

DEC 10, 2004 - DANBURY -- Penny Kessler was a wife and mother of three when she decided in the late 1980s that she wanted to become a cantor.

"I was teaching music in religious school and I had what I can only describe as a spiritual awakening," Kessler explained. "I made the decision that I wanted to do something with my music, which was always important to me, and do something with Judaism, which had become more important, and becoming a cantor seemed like the way to put it all together."

Kessler did become a cantor in 1993, and in 1995 became cantor at the United Jewish Center in Danbury.

Last month, Kessler was honored at UJC for her ten years of service. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton spoke and presented Kessler with a proclamation from Governor Jodi Rell marking the day as "Cantor Penny Kessler Day." Friends from the present and past came to celebrate Kessler's tenth anniversary, including members of the choir of her former congregation.

"She is blessed with a beautiful voice that she shares with us through prayer, and her spirituality transcends to the rest of us," said Susan Frank, a co-chair of the anniversary event. "She is a special lady who is someone I believe we all are very fortunate to have."

Subhead: The right job at the right time A native of New York, where she was raised in a Conservative Jewish family, Kessler is a graduate of Brooklyn College where she received a bachelor's degree in music and minored in education. Kessler and her husband, Stanley, a dentist, settled in Danbury in the 1970s where they raised three children, Alaina, now 21, and a junior at Brandeis, and twins Warren and Harrison, 17.

After her "spiritual awakening" and her decision to become a cantor, she entered the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College n Jewish Institute of Religion, and began an intense course of study that was made even more intense by the fact that she had three small children.

"It was wild, but they were incredibly supportive," she said. "My husband was magnificent and we had some live in help. Everybody was really terrific."

While getting her degree from HUC, Kessler became a student cantor for the Jewish Family Congregation in South Salem, N.Y. She then served as that congregation's cantor for two years after she became a full-fledged cantor.

She commuted the 30 minutes to New York every weekend to serve the Jewish Family Congregation, but when the position at the UJC opened up -- near her home in Danbury -- Kessler went for it.

After ten years at UJC, she says that the 400- family congregation is "warm, loving, welcoming, vibrant, and it has tremendous Jewish integrity."

"Her love for Judaism, not just Jewish music is so infectious. It inspires us all," added Nancy Brown, another UJC member and co-chair of the anniversary event along with Frank, Debbie Hertzberg, Bonnie Wunsch and Isabelle Kaplan. "She is a wonderful role model for children and Jewish women."