Congregational Cantor Lois Kittner

Lois Kittner brings a wealth of singing and service-leading experience to us at RTBI. She explains that “even when congregants don’t read or understand Hebrew, the tune of the prayers is part of their DNA — they’re connected to it. But it’s important to bring a fresh, new, or meaningful approach to the liturgy. If you understand why a line is in a prayer, then you can get that meaning across. Once you understand the intent of the language, you must sing it in such a way as to share it with the congregation.”

One of five children raised to be good Jews, but not particularly religious ones, Lois learned the alef-bet from books her older brother brought her – he attended Yeshiva high school and college. Lois reminisces, “I always was intrigued by Judaism and loved the singing in temple. My brothers would walk me to shul on Shabbat morning, because they would attend Junior congregation in preparation for each of their bar mitzvahs.”

Lois graduated from Hofstra University with a major in French and a minor in drama and went on to Penn State for a master’s degree in French Literature. As a young adult in New York City, she put her gorgeous voice to good use and became a cabaret singer. In her late 30s, Lois built successful one-woman cabaret shows and sang to standing ovations at New York’s Town Hall. During this time her father became critically ill and passed away. After his death, Lois began to concentrate on singing in the synagogue.

Lois had taught herself how to “leyn” or chant Torah and chant haftarah with an interactive computer program. She remarked, “I set a goal for myself to learn a new haftarah every few months, until I could chant a haftarah cold if it was necessary. That took almost ten years. I also set a goal to learn how to leyn Torah, and to keep preparing another section of Torah immediately after the most recently acquired one.” Lois chanted her birthday haftarah (“Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion”) for her bat mitzvah on Shabbat Chanukah with her six-month-old son Gregory on her hip.

Eventually Lois and her husband, Nathan Kittner, began attending a Conservative synagogue that was not egalitarian at the time. However, the synagogue welcomed them warmly, and as more equality for women increased, Lois became one of the chairs of the ritual committee and a b’nai mitzvah tutor at the temple’s Hebrew School. Her sons, Gregory and Matthew, became bar mitzvah there, and were trained by Lois to chant haftarah and to leyn Torah.

One day in 2004, Lois drove down Maywood Avenue and saw the blue sign that points the way to RTBI. “I had no idea what Reconstructionism was, or that I was about to find my spiritual home,” she recalls. “It was totally different, but for me it was a natural progression.” The more she learned, she said, “the more I started to question my commitment to Conservative liturgy. I needed to investigate what else was out there.” She took over RTBI’s cantorial duties as congregational cantor in 2008, and enrolled in the Academy for Jewish Religion in the fall of 2010 to study for the cantorate with a dual degree in Jewish studies.

In addition to serving as cantor, Lois is a regular service leader and a Torah leyner at RTBI, and also teaches in the Children’s Learning Center. She is committed to training Torah leyners of all ages and has established the RTBI “Team Torah.” She works privately with anyone who is studying towards bar or bat mitzvah, and also teaches courses as part of our Adult Ed program.

Lois is a member of the international Women Cantor’s Network. Although her days as a nightclub performer are long past, she still brings a certain cabaret oomph to her haftarah. “I love singing at RTBI — it’s my life’s passion.”

You can contact Lois by sending her an email at torahladylk@yahoo.com.