Catskills’ Forgotten Cantors Get Their Spotlight at Borscht Belt Museum

Long before the Borscht Belt hotels were famous for comedians and entertainers, another kind of star drew crowds: the cantor.

A panel titled “When Showbiz Went to Shul: Star Catskills Cantors” will shine a spotlight on these musical leaders of synagogues and resorts, at the Borscht Belt Museum, 90 Canal Street in Ellenville, on Sunday, March 29, at 2 p.m. Henry Sapoznik, a panelist of the event, describes what a cantor is and their role in a Synagogue:

“A cantor, the Hebrew name for them is Shaliach Tzibbur, which means, messenger of the people.”, says Sapoznik, “What the rabbi does in terms of spoken and recited text, the cantor does with music, and they both fulfill the function of transmitting the content. The cantor with music adds the level of musical emotion which underscores the text.”

Danny Fingeroth, another panelist and son of a cantor, noted a traditional tension between rabbis and cantors.

“…traditionally there is sort of a rivalry between rabbis and cantors, although many cantors are ordained rabbis, as my father was. But I think the rabbi always thinks that his sermon is the most important part of the service, and the.cantor generally thinks that his singing is the most important part of the service.”

Fingeroth also describes why there was such fierce competition between hotels and resorts to book talented cantors for their venue:

“…I think the hotels catered to audiences actually from the city. There was an overlap in the venn diagrams of liturgical music and show business, which is sort of what distinguished the Catskills hotels. If somebody wanted a serious, meaningful, profound service, they could stay home And if that was an important thing to them, to go to services and to go to seders, and they really felt part of a community, they’d stay home. What they came to the Catskills for, of course, was a vacation and lots of food and fresh air. But on the holidays, what they came for was to see these superstar cantors who were celebrities in a very narrow area. So like the way the hotels competed for the advertising, who had the top comedians and who had the top singers on the, you know, on the High Holidays and on Passover, they competed for who had the top cantors.”

Sapoznik and Fingeroth bring a personal connection to the panel: both are sons of cantors who performed at Borscht Belt hotels and resorts in the mid-20th century. Sapoznik recalled:

“My father and I sang in choirs from when I was six. So the hotels that we sang at were not as lush as places like the Nevele. We sang at. At the Normandy, The Gratis, The Majestic, and the status of, and I think it may have been the constituency, the people who would have recognized my father’s name were other immigrants. They weren’t necessarily unlike [Fingeroth’s] father who was here and had established a high visibility before the war. The post-war market reflected a smaller number of people. So my father didn’t have a lot of… he followed, for example, he followed larger cantors. So the cantor, like Moshe Koussevitzky, who was one of the, the major stars, who didn’t sing opera, but gave a kind of an imprimatur to my father, who then followed up.”

More information at: https://www.borschtbeltmuseum.org/museum-events

Image Credit: Borscht Belt Museum