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About Us
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- HISTORY
From its founding in
1947 by ten dedicated Hazzanim, the Cantors Assembly has grown into
the world's largest organization of Hazzanim with almost 500
members world-wide. We set and maintain the highest standards of
professional competence and ethics. As the official placement
agency for Hazzanim in the Conservative Movement, we serve both
congregation and hazzan fairly and diligently with equal concern
for the needs of both.
We recently celebrated our 50th anniversary and have published a
new CD-ROM with our first 50 years of scholarly journals and
proceedings from our conventions.
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OUR
PURPOSE
The primary purpose of
the Cantors Assembly has always been, and continues to be, to
answer the many needs confronting the practioners of this sacred
calling. We commission new creativity and publish new and out of
print liturgical music for hazzan, choir or congregational use. Our
catalog of over 70 volumes of liturgical and educational works is
available on-line or by contacting our office. For over 50 years,
the Cantors Assembly has aimed continually to meet the challenges
which the evolving Jewish life patterns have brought to American
synagogue life. In the process it has broadened its goals and
perspectives to include not only the needs of the professionals,
but the changing nature and needs of the contemporary
worshipper.
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MUSICAL
INNOVATIONS
In spite of many
innovations in the role of the Hazzan over the last half century,
the Cantors Assembly member sees himself or herself in a most
important role: as the prime protector and transmitter of the
authentic musical treasury of the Jewish people. We lead services
in the centuries hallowed traditional modes and melodies, as an
integral part of the observance and celebration of the rites of
passage - from birth through death. In addition, the cantor has
been the balladeer, the folk singer of the Jewish people, in many
tongues - Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Aramaic or English - and has
thus almost single handedly maintained the musical leitmotif of the
Jewish people. Long before, and almost certainly, long after, the
appearance of other forms and performers of Jewish music (the
Yiddish musical theater, the hassidic singers, the Jewish choral
ensembles and even new Hebrew "rock" singers), the Hazzan will be
chanting. We encourage the creation of new settings of our services
within appropriate frameworks of good taste and the use of
traditional prayer modes. Our on-line store can point you to many
publications we have produced in the past few years. The cantor
will remain the genuine Jewish folk artist in the purest sense of
the word.
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SHABBAT
YACHAD
SHABBAT YACHAD
REVITALIZES LITURGICAL TRADITION Premiering during Saturday morning
services of February 10th, 2001 Shabbat Shira (the annual
Jewish Sabbath of Song), dozens of Conservative synagogues
throughout the United States and Canada will come alive to the
sound of cantors and choirs singing sacred music composed
especially for this Shabbat and for a new era of synagogue music.
Shabbat Yachad, "Sabbath Together," conceived by Cantor Solomon
Mendelson, program chair for the Cantors Assembly, joins
congregations across the country in unified song, beginning on
Shabbat Shira and continuing for the following few weeks in
congregations across the country. "It's a way to bring
congregations together for a common purpose," says Cantor
Mendelson, "through a demonstration of our religious heritage being
perpetuated." Originally intended for youth choirs, Shabbat Yachad
will also feature adult choirs in select synagogues. Jewish
liturgical composers from all over the globe were asked to set
various Sabbath morning prayer texts to music. In most synagogues,
a children's choir will lead the congregation, an incentive that
propelled many of the congregations to re-budget for choirs. Many
seized the chance to include the new millennium's first generation
of Jewish children in meaningful worship. The results are
inspirational. Forty talented cantor-composers submitted innovative
works based on their familiarity with traditional practice and with
what works in contemporary services. Their efforts run the gamut of
mystical to majestic, from simple anthems to virtuoso cantorial
exhortations. "Shabbat Yachad helps meet the challenge of
maintaining Jewish continuity within a secular society by vesting
our younger generation with helping to run worship services with
pride," says Cantor Mendelson. "And whether youth or adult choirs
sing the prepared repertoire, with the newly composed music today's
generation will continue the unbroken tradition of Judaism's
powerfully spiritual liturgy." On February 10th, 2001 some
participating congregations may only have time to hear three or
four of the new musical compositions. But whether worshippers hear
two or twenty of the featured selections, they will surely be
inspired to join in truly fresh interpretations of prayers that
have remained unchanged for the better part of two
millennia.
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Cantors
Assembly FOUNDATION
 The Foundation
was formed to preserve, enhance and enlarge the ancient heritage
which is Jewish liturgical music. With the passing of the great
European Jewish communities of the past much of this task now
becomes the responsibility of the American Jewish community. Since
this heritage is the creation of the Jewish people, and serves the
Jewish people in its regular cycle of daily, Sabbath and festival
prayer, it is our goal to awaken American Jewry to its
responsibility. We know that concerned Jews will make their concern
explicit in the form of the contributions to our work. We do
provide a number of gift options through which donors can be
properly recognized and by which their gifts may be properly
utilized. If you agree that ours is a cause worth your interest and
support let us hear from you at the Cantors Assembly office. The
Cantors Assembly Foundation is a tax exempt organization under the
provisions of Sec. 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
code.
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FRIENDS
OF THE CANTORS ASSEMBLY
Friends of the Cantors
Assembly is a special fellowship of men and women who have
committed themselves to a continuing annual gift, ranging from $250
to $1,000, to be used to help preserve Hazzanut in order to enable
the Cantors Assembly to provide American Jewry with competent,
dedicated hazzanim who will sustain and enhance Jewish worship for
coming generations. If you would like to become a "Friend of the
Cantors Assembly" please drop a note together with your check in
the amount of $250, $500,or $1000 to: Friends of the Cantors
Assembly, Jewish Theological Seminary 3080 Broadway Suite 613 New
York, NY 10027. Your gift will be gratefully acknowledged. The
Friends of the Cantors Assembly is a tax-exempt organization under
the provisions of Sec.501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue
code.
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Cantors Assembly
