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In previous years, Highland Park's Congregation Ahavas Achim held a lecture before the pre-Rosh Hashanah selichot prayers, but last September -- to kick off a year's worth of musical programs -- the synagogue opted for a kumzitz singing session.

Rabbi Steven Miodownik, leader of Ahavas Achim, recalled that attendance at the pre-selichot program tripled what it had been in the past, and the only complaint was that the kumzitz (a Jewish gathering to sit and sing) wasn't long enough. It was just one example of how the synagogue, with a $23,000 grant from the Legacy Heritage Foundation, has used this year's adult education programming "to stimulate the heart" in addition to the brain, as Miodownik put it.

"People need that," Miodownik said. "People need the comfort of a tune and of singing together in a group. [The pre-selichot kumzitz] demonstrated the need, the desire, for this kind of experience."

Ahavas Achim was one of 15 of 90 applicants nationwide -- and one of just two Orthodox congregations among the 18 who applied -- to receive the grant last summer for the purpose of enhancing the presence of music in its synagogue. In that spirit, this year at Ahavas Achim has been marked not by scholar-in-residence weekends, but by programs like the upcoming cantorial weekend with Chazzan Shim Craimer of Riverdale Jewish Center from Feb. 19-20.

Craimer will lead Ahavas Achim's Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service and an Oneg Shabbat at Miodownik's home, as well as the Mussaf service Saturday morning. It will be an "inspirational" weekend with the "same words, same tunes, but a phenomenal voice," Miodownik said, with Craimer teaching by example (not lecturing) through harnessing the tunes of davening to help congregants grow closer to God.

That's the ultimate purpose of Jewish prayer, Miodownik explained, but when congregants say and hear the same words on a regular basis, those words move them less. Ahavas Achim is trying to re-introduce community members to the prayers they have been saying their whole lives, Miodownik said.

"What happens in shul on a week-to-week basis tends to be very repetitive and there isn't much variation," Miodownik said.

A number of Ahavas Achim congregants have heard Craimer sing at weddings or at Yeshiva University (YU) leadership conference in Florida last summer, and said "you must get this chazzan for our shul," Miodownik said.

Ahavas Achim member Peter Avery, an arts educator, wrote the shul's grant proposal to the Legacy Heritage Foundation, and other contributors included Miodownik, Seth Berman, Srulee Herkman, Susan Hornstein, Avi Maza, Mitch Rottenstreich, and Bryna Weiner. Besides for the weekend with Craimer, future musical programs will include another cantorial weekend in March (focused on voice training) with Eric Freeman of YU's Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music, an Israeli music concert in April in honor of Israel's 62nd birthday, and a Sephardic music educational concert in June.

Last December, after a Hanukkah concert with the band Pey Dalid, YU professor Rabbi Jeremy Wieder came to Ahavas Achim for Shabbat to lead an explanatory Torah reading as a "baal korei-in-residence." Wieder also gave a training session for gabbaim (who assist with running services) on when they should and shouldn't correct someone who is reading the Torah. The session made gabbaim realize "how detailed and how serious Torah reading is," Miodownik said.

Ahavas Achim's musical programs are also meant to train and inspire lay leaders to take up "new aspects of musical leadership and responsibility," Miodownik said. Normally, Miodownik leads services twice a year -- for Maariv on Rosh Hashanah and Neilah at the end of Yom Kippur -- but said he's open to increasing his workload in that area. In January, Miodownik said he read the Torah on the week of his bar mitzvah portion.

"I'd love to do it more often and I'd love for more members to step up to the plate and get involved in that way," Miodownik said of leading services.

For those who wish to attend services at Ahavas Achim during the cantorial weekend with Craimer, the synagogue is located at 216 South First Ave. in Highland Park. Mincha service Friday night, Feb. 19 will begin at 5:25 p.m., and Shacharit on Shabbat morning, Feb. 20 starts at 8:45 a.m. The Friday night Oneg Shabbat, including zemirot songs, divrei Torah, and desserts, starts 8 p.m. at 248 Lawrence Ave., Highland Park.

Additionally, Ahavas Achim will host a buffet Shabbat afternoon lunch with Craimer, who will lead zemirot. Admission for lunch is $18/adult and $10/child 3-10. For reservations, call the synagogue at (732) 247-0532 by Tuesday, Feb. 16.