Cantor Penny Kessler

Cantor Penny Kessler is the cantor of the United Jewish Center in Danbury, CT.

Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments
Ten Minutes of Torah

A Cantor Goes to the Movies

Cantor Penny Kessler

When I was a kid, there was nothing better than hanging out on the couch on Saturday afternoons watching movies. I loved gladiator films, British horror flicks, westerns, and movies about faraway places. I had a massive kid crush on the god-like actors, and I desperately hoped to grow up to look like Joan Collins.
Ten Minutes of Torah

Lessons in Challah

Cantor Penny Kessler

It's rare that everyone in my family is together for Shabbat. I wanted to make this one special so, on Black Friday, my daughter and I made our first challah. On Facebook, I had seen beautiful Thanksgiving turkey challot (plural of challah) and a video of an

The Music of Yizkor

Cantor Penny Kessler

Eighteen years ago, when I first led Yizkor on Yom Kippur at my current synagogue, I admit to having been startled by an exodus from the pews. Our congregation recites Yizkor immediately after the Torah service, before the scrolls are returned to the ark and

Ten Minutes of Torah