Woman Cantor

For centuries, Jews the world over have experienced the joys and sorrows of their faith through the voice of the cantor. For centuries, cantors have sung such sacred songs as the mournful El Molay Rachamim ("O, God, full of compassion . . . grant perfect rest unto the souls of our dear ones"), or the joyful Kiddush ("We praise Thee, O God, and thank Thee . . ."). Unlike the choirmaster or organist in a Christian church, the cantor (although not ordained) holds a semisacred office; the prayers he sings are an integral part of the service, and he must be trained in Jewish ritual.

Every year, the 210 families of Temple Avodah. a Reformed Jewish congregation in Oceanside, L.I., had managed to hire a professional cantor for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (in 1955 it falls on Sept. 16-18), even if they had to be content with their temple choir on other holy days. This year, because they could not afford both a cantor and a badly needed new organ.* they decided to buy the organ. But during choir practice recently, temple trustees were struck by a soloist who had not only a rich mezzo-soprano, but a sound knowledge of Hebrew language and ritual. Last week they decided that Mrs. Betty Robbins, an attractive, 31-year-old Massapequa housewife, should be their cantor for Rosh Hashanah. With that decision, they swept away 5,000 years of Jewish tradition.

As far as anyone knows, Mrs. Robbins, the wife of a New York City health inspector and the mother of four children, is the first woman cantor in Jewish his tory. An intensive search into Jewish law turned up nothing that could bar her appointment, but the whole weight of Jewish custom was against it. Although women are movingly praised in Jewish scripture, they have always occupied an inferior position in the Jewish religious structure as ";a nation unto themselves." Born in Cavalla, Greece, of Russian parents, Mrs. Robbins moved with her family to Danzig in 1928 when she was only five, soon became the only girl in the all-boy choir at the synagogue there. Although she took no formal music training, she loved to listen to the cantors sing, learned all the principal chants by heart.

In the winter of 1939 the German SS set fire to the Danzig synagogue during a service. Young Betty escaped, later fled with her parents to Australia, where she continued her Hebrew studies. There she also met her future husband, then a corporal in the U.S. Medical Corps.

"If a woman is capable of doing cantorial work," says Mrs. Robbins, "she shouldn't be barred just because she's a woman. You must be able to understand what and why you're singing. I sing what is in my heart. My only thought now is to sing as I have never sung before."

* Many Orthodox synagogues allow only the cantor's singing. But Conservative and Reformed synagogues often add choirs as well as organ music.

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