If it’s a Tuesday evening in October, Sara Schultz is sitting in the chapel or sanctuary of Temple Beth Zion, singing with other Temple Choir members including her sister Tizzy Schechter. They are rehearsing for the next TBZ Choir program, a Stained Glass Concert- From Broken Glass to Enduring Light- A Kristallnacht Commemoration Concert. The concert takes place Tuesday, November 10 in the Temple Beth Zion sanctuary at 7 pm.

“After singing in a klezmer band for 10 years, subbing when a cantor was needed at TBZ, and teaching music in the Religious School, I got involved with TBZ’s choir to combine my love of Jewish music and singing,” said Sara, a third-generation member of Temple Beth Zion, mother of three, Grammy of eight and wife of Steve Schultz.

In addition, she is an environmental activist with the Sierra Club Niagara Group, the Interfaith Climate Justice Community and Reform Action Center (RAC) NY, as well as TBZ Board member and Social Action Committee member. In 2010, after completing the Shliach Kihilah program at Hebrew Union College (HUC), Sara participated in the Jewish Meditation Teacher Training program with the Jewish Institute of Spirituality. She also finished Chaplaincy training in the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Sisters Hospital which all led to her work at Weinberg Campus and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center leading services and using music as a healing art.

Sara loves to sing, and laughs as she explains how she made her “debut” at 7-years-old at the Bay Beach (Ontario) Community Center. “I’d participate in musicals with the JCC when I was a kid, then went on to study voice in high school and majored in voice at Carnagie Mellon,” she explained. Realizing a life in voice alone wasn’t for her, Sara went on to receive a Masters’ Degree in Music Therapy from NYU and worked in the mental health field before starting a family.

“The charisma of our Cantor Susie Lewis-Friedman brought me to the current TBZ choir and I love it. I feel a part of something very spiritual.  We are a community that takes care of each other. We lift each other up. I’m excited we will be joining with the voices of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple and several Chicago synagogues as well as with Westminster Presbyterian Church and Trinity Episcopal Church, both our neighbors in Buffalo at this Kristallnacht concert,” she said.

“For me, this music evokes the suffering of Jews throughout history with tremendous sadness, but also great pride that we, as a people keep rising with resilience to the injustice we’ve experienced.” She continued, “It is important to remember and to mark this day with beauty. I hope people reading this message will join us.”

The November 10 concert is an evening of music, remembrance, and reflection honoring the victims of Kristallnacht and the power of the human spirit. On the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” this extraordinary concert honors the lives forever changed by hatred while affirming the enduring resilience of the Jewish people and the shared responsibility to remember. It is presented by Temple Beth Zion’s Stained Glass Series in partnership with HERO (Holocaust Education Resource Organization) and Buffalo Jewish Federation, and will take place at 7 pm at Temple Beth Zion, 805 Delaware Avenue in front of the glorious Ben Shahn stained-glass window in the Sanctuary. 

Visit www.tbz.org/events to register for this event.