Jordan's accordion draws tots to Shabbat

By Jenn Director Knudsen

article created on:

A door-to-door salesman successfully peddled his wares at the childhood home of Jordan Epstein. He didn't come to sell the family a set of 1950 encyclopedias or an illustrated Bible. Rather, an accordion and music lessons.

"I guess he convinced my parents it was a good idea," Epstein said of the itinerant businessman and his pitch. Only 5 years old at the time, Epstein took up?and took to?the accordion.

"In those days, the accordion was popular in Midwestern and East Coast cities," Epstein said of his 1950s' Chicago and other metropolitan areas on the Eastern seaboard. "And it was cheaper than buying a piano." (He said a new professional accordion today sells for as much as $10,000.)

Since then, Epstein, now 62 and a Portland resident since 1973, mastered piano, oboe and the recorder. But in one key circle, he's known almost exclusively for his facility with the accordion.

For nine years this month, Epstein has led the vast majority of Congregation Neveh Shalom's Tot Shabbat services on the first and third Saturday of every month. Now in its 10th year, Neveh's Tot Shabbat caters to families with children ages newborn to 5 years and welcomes non-members, too.

"At the beginning, there were families at Neveh Shalom who were eager for a worship service for young children," said Leah Rubin, who last year retired after more than 30 years as the director of the synagogue's preschool, The Foundation School, and was a regular Tot Shabbat attendee.

A decade ago, members of the Shoreshim Committee, a volunteer group whose mission is to plan for worship and educational programs for children up to 5 years of age, organized a shorter and more movement-oriented version of an adult Shabbat service for families with little wiggly ones.

Soon after Tot Shabbat got off the ground, Epstein remembers being asked to lead the service. He wanted music to play a big role.

So he approached Cantor Linda Shivers and Rubin with his vision. They helped him get music to tunes such as, "Ma Yafeh Hayom" and "Bim-bam." Epstein said Shivers also pointed Epstein to a lilting, yet slightly melancholy, wordless Hassidic melody, a niggun, which he's adapted for the silent prayer.

"It's probably supposed to go fast, but I chose to make it slow," Epstein said in an interview from his Southwest Portland home.

Retired after 26 years as a budget analyst and financial manager for the City of Portland and the father of three adult children, Epstein says he's considered extensive travel or taking Hebrew classes at Portland State University.

But he's yet to commit to those pursuits; he doesn't want to give up leading Tot Shabbat and perhaps fostering a positive connection between children and Jewish worship.

He's seen Tot Shabbat participation wax and wane over the years, with toddlers becoming b'nai mitzvah and new generations of Jewish families with their youngsters, both members and those unaffiliated, attending his service.

"And it's not like Portland has this huge Jewish community, but somehow people keep appearing," said Epstein, who joined Neveh in the early 1990s and is a member of its Percy Bernstein Orchestra.

Rubin may have summed up why this is so: "Because of his very pleasant demeanor and his devotion to Judaism, Jordan eventually became synonymous with Tot Shabbat."

As did his infectious smile, kippah riddled with musical notes, tallit and, of course, roughly 40-lb. accordion.

"Every year it weighs a little more. Like people, it just gets heavier," laughed Epstein, himself of narrow stature.

In fact, Epstein has engendered a pint-size following.

"Eli didn't know what an accordion was before watching Jordan play at Tot Shabbat," said Maxine Hart, a reporter for The Oregonian, of her 2-year-old.

Hart, who is not a Neveh member, said her tow-headed toddler totes his own toy accordion to services, where he imitates the lay leader, "sometimes standing beside him and bouncing up and down to the beat as he tries to play it."

Amy Katz, a Neveh Shalom member and director of congregational learning at Congregation Shir Tikvah, has brought her two children to Tot Shabbat at Neveh for two years. The youngest, Eli, 3, only wanted an accordion of his own for his recent birthday, "so he could bring it to Tot Shabbat and be like Jordan," Katz said. Both Eli and his big sister, Mira, call Epstein "Rabbi Jordan."

Katz added, "He has a sense of warmth that radiates through everything he does, and we can all feel how much he loves leading the service and all of the children."

"I love watching the kids," Epstein said. "I just enjoy seeing them happy?and when children are happy they express themselves in such an open and complete way. It's refreshing; it's very heartening to be in that place.

"Sometimes they cry, and that's OK, too," Epstein continued, chuckling, "There are some rules of behavior, but very few."