Friday, March 28, 2025
In an evening filled with music, the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre honored Hazzan Bonnie Zakarin’s 10th anniversary with a concert that celebrated Israel.
Zakarin was joined by 20 of her cantor colleagues from across the country for an evening that celebrated her accomplishment.
She has a bachelor’s in Judaic studies from SUNY Binghamton, and went on to the Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, the premier cantorial school for the Conservative Jewish movement on the East Coast.
Zakarin also runs the synagogue’s Kinder Cantors program, in which children from the congregation learn liturgical and contemporary Jewish music. She also helps adults and children learn Torah and Haftorah — selection of readings from the book of prophets’ portions of their B’nei Mitzvah, or coming of age ceremony, and other special Shabbatot and holidays.
“I think the most wonderful thing about being at a congregation for 10 years is seeing the growth in when I started here till it is today,” Zakarin said. “The amount of people who are participating, reading Torah and singing with me on the bema — it’s just amazing to connect with families and see them growing with me over the years.”
Zakarin was thankful to have her colleagues there to mark her milestone with HERJC, and to have them grace the bema that she stands on every week.
“This was my real first-time pulpit coming out of cantorial school, and I got my feet wet and I got thrown into the deep end, and I’ve been able to swim while here,” she added. “Everyone’s just been so kind and warm, and I grew up in this synagogue as a teenager, so to be able to be here as an adult, leading the congregation, it just means so much to me.”
Zakarin’s love for music was evident in the passion with which she sang.
“I love being a cantor — I love bringing music to the Jewish community,” she said. “My goal in life on the bema is to welcome people in and embrace them in music.”
The evening featured an array of Jewish songs and prayers that embodied Israel and were sung by the visiting cantors and Zakarin. The opening and closing numbers included members of the HERJC choir singing on the bema, joining in with the group.
Hazzan Joanna Dulkin, president of the Cantors Assembly, and Hazzan Matt Axelrod, its executive director, spoke on behalf of the organization, a global association of cantors, for which Zakarin serves as director of communications.
“As our director of communications for the Cantors Assembly, she constantly operates at 200 percent efficiency, says yes with a smile and juggles a million different things,” Axelrod said.
According to Dulkin, the Cantors Assembly is privileged to have Zakarin on its leadership team.
“We are so grateful to you, Bonnie, and we wish you and all of HERJC yasher koach” — congratulations on a mitzvah — “on this incredible milestone on reaching 10 years,” Dulkin said.
Temple President Jason Melzer said that over the past 10 years, Zakarin has helped countless teens prepare for their bar or bat mitzvahs, and served as a leader of the congregation.
“Hazzan has comforted us, all of us in times of sorrow, and has been our biggest cheerleader in times of personal growth,” Melzer said. “She inspires us with her work for social justice. She makes us smile and our hearts melt when she effortlessly merges her job as Hazzan and as a mom.”
Zakarin’s positive spirit adds to the overall experience at HERJC, he added, and she always greets people with a smile and a listening ear.
