A Reform rabbi and a Black Baptist gospel singer are set to perform at Mizpah on Sunday during the congregation’s yearly Music at Mizpah fundraiser.
Rabbi Micah Lapidus, composer-in-residence at The Temple in Atlanta, and Melvin Myles, soloist formerly with Ebenezer Baptist Church but currently with the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., together make up Lapidus & Myles. The duo was born out of a partnership between The Temple and Ebenezer Baptist Church, two prominent congregations in Atlanta, that dates back to the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and his counterpart at the synagogue, Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild.
Myles performed one of Lapidus’ compositions at an interfaith Shabbat service, and that launched a partnership now in its fifth year.
“We realized that we could have our own more intimate version of the fellowship between the two congregations,” Lapidus said in a phone interview. “Everywhere we go, we find that people are delighted to see two middle-aged guys, a Black guy and a Jewish guy, who found common ground through religion and spirituality and music and culture, and who have a message that is rooted in those beautiful traditions.”
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