last word
Cantor Bernard
‘Buzzy’ Walters
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
C antor Bernard “Buzzy”
Walters was given his nick-
name at birth — named for
his grandmother Bella — but his brim-
ful career path has shown that the
nickname is an apt one.

Walters, turning 80 next month,
is the cantor of the egalitarian ser-
vices at the Congregations of Shaare
Shamayim. Before beginning the job
in June 2020, he worked High Holiday
services at Congregation Anshe Emeth
in Hudson, New York, for 14 years
during his so-called “retirement.” He
was cantor for Tiferet Bet Israel in Blue
Bell for 12 years before that.

A Pittsburgh native, Walters, since
beginning cantorial duties at age
16, has served at synagogues across
the state, including at Rodef Sholom
Synagogue in Johnstown and at syna-
gogues in Washington and Coatesville.

He was a cantor at Beth Tikvah-B’nai
Jeshurun in Glenside for 27 years, too.

Wherever Walters went, he brought his
infectious love for music.

“Music brings the congregants to
the religion through their heartstrings
because music speaks to the heart,”
Walters said.

As if teaching Hebrew school and b’nai
mitzvah classes and leading services
wasn’t enough, for 40 years, Walters
was an Advanced Placement English
teacher at Plymouth Whitemarsh High
School in the Colonial School District.

He would ask his students and the
music teachers there to join him for his
annual cantorial concert at the syna-
gogues at which he taught. He started
the “Colonial Cantorial Quartet,” play-
ing the tuba alongside a clarinetist,
flutist and French horn player.

At one time, when the religious
school at BTBJ was waning, Walters
found other ways to keep himself busy:
“In addition to being there and in pub-
28 JULY 21, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
lic school, I also taught in Beth El of
Levittown for four years, ’81-’84, and at
Temple Sinai from ’85 to ’90.”
Nimble in his career choices and
eager to dig deep into his work, Walters
didn’t have trouble adjusting to the
changing technologies of the day.

“Since the 21st century, I said, ‘I
want to be a 21st-century person,’”
Walters said. “I wanted to communi-
cate with my students, with my friends,
with my congregants, with everybody.

And you can’t communicate without
technology.” During the pandemic, when Walters
wasn’t preparing to lead High Holiday
services, he’d Zoom in to Sunrise of
Abington Senior Living Community
while he was living in Florida. He’d
have the nurse he’d call bring their
phone from room to room, and each
resident would request a song for
Walters to play.

Walters has a YouTube channel with
88 video uploads of him singing differ-
ent tunes. It includes him singing five
different melodies of “Adon Olam.”
Family is at the core of Walter’s love
of and career in music.

“My father was a professional musi-
cian. He was with the Pittsburgh
Symphony — before I was even born —
as a violinist, and his sister was a pia-
nist,” he said. “It was a musical family.”
When Walters was 5, he got his first
piano, which was hoisted through a
bedroom window in the family’s home.

Seven years later, he upgraded to a
Steinway grand piano, the same piano
he plays to this day.

After joining his synagogue
Congregation Poale Zedeck’s choir at
9 and leading the High Holiday ser-
vices as cantor at the Aliquippa JCC at
16, Walters graduated high school to
attend the University of Pittsburgh and
then Columbia University for a year.

Not wanting to return to Pittsburgh,
Walters moved in with his brother,
who was a student at the University of
Pennsylvania, while Walters completed
his master’s at Temple University. He
met his wife that same year, and the
two were married a year later.

Walters’ brother is also a cantor,
though he made a living as a law-
yer and a judge. Though he lives in
Maryland, and much of their extended
family lives in Chicago and Virginia,
the two create a Zoom meeting almost
every day to play tunes together for
their cousins.

“Even when I’m going to Florida on
vacation, I still bring a keyboard with
me in the car,” Walters said.

In August, the congregation will cel-
ebrate the cantor’s birthday at Saturday
Shabbat services. He’ll still lead ser-
vices, of course, as well as leyn that
week’s Haftorah.

“I’m very, very happy to be at Shaare
Shamayim,” he said. “Especially as I
approach the 80th birthday, I’m still
handling it and doing so happily.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Bernard Walters
CAN’T STOP PLAYING MUSIC