Women To Watch: Trend Tracker® With Cantor Rachelle Nelson
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- In this edition of Trend Tracker® Tara Gilani's "Women To Watch," Gilani caught up with Cantor Rachelle Nelson at a special Shabbat service at Temple Beth Am in Miami.
On Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, the Temptations and Stevie Wonder shared space with the Torah at Temple Beth Am.
"It's really my calling," said Nelson. "I grew up in a wonderfully cultural Jewish home. My family were all great artists and musicians. Music was surrounding my life. The synagogue was always surrounding my life."
Rachelle studied music at the University of Miami.
"During my years there, I heard that women could now become cantors and rabbis in the reform movement so by the time I graduated the University of Miami in music and theory composition, I made up my mind. I was going to apply to cantorial school. I was in the first 10 years of women becoming cantors. And then I came back to Miami where I was the first female in Dade and Broward county."
Nelson clearly loves her "job."
"The joy of my work is unbelievable. First of all, I get to be with people in the most exciting moments of their life like marriage and the birth of a baby, all those miracles. I also get to be with them in the most painful and difficult moments whether it be divorce, whether it be death," said Nelson. "I get to do it all. Since I'm a people person, this is really where I belong. Even if it's just a word I said or a hug or a prayer that I uttered maybe just maybe I'm making somebody else's just a little bit easier and well if I can do that, well then, my purpose has been served."
Watch Trend Tracker® Tara Gilani's Interview With Cantor Rachelle Nelson
Nelson has been rocking Temple Beth Am for 24 years.
"I've been very blessed at Temple Beth Am where they have allowed me to be more of a spiritual leader than just a cantor," said Nelson.
Gilani asked Nelson about who inspires her.
"Well, I certainly am inspired by God. I mean I truly believe there is a God who watches over me," responded Nelson.
When asked to think about her happiest moments in her Garden of Eden, Nelson responded "I have a huge garden growing right now full of kale and squash and tomatoes and broccoli. I love to be in the garden because to me, the Earth was lent to us and I love to preserve it by planting and outing back into the earth what we take out."
Gilani said she's gorgeous and it must be the kale.
"I hate the stuff," said Gilani.
"Try to like it," Nelson said, "It's good for you!"
Cantor Rachelle Nelson, from the heart, answered the Trend Tracker®'s round of questions: She is, "grateful." She wishes, "that everybody could look at another human being and just see them as another human being and one of God's children." She will, "succeed." She won't, " be unkind." She promises, "to be the best human being I can be." She wants, "the world to be a kinder place.
For more on Cantor Rachelle Nelson, like her on Facebook.
