The Denver Jewish news., 1924-01-03
Mu Father Was A
Chazan
BY DANIEL SPPEAR

ing presence. liau He cHSSeH IL SlIS-
ers career he might have won con
spicuous place on the concert plat
form But he was God-fearing man,
who felt that call to lead his people in
He lived beautiful, pious life and
carried himself with all the dignity of
one constantly aware of his sacred cali
ing There are still old-timers who re-
mind me from time to time of his re-
markably beautiful and intelligent rem
dition of the sabbath and holiday pray
erS. For he was fine Hebrew scholar.
knowing not only the exact definition
of every word he uttered during the
service. but every fine nuance of the
text.
recall my joy when he finally
yielded TO my pleas and abandoned
chaZanovir. becoming plain business
man instead. l felt that by this de-
cision he had finally shattered the
chains that We're lettering his soul,
that were holding him in the clutches
of poverty He had been rather highly
paid. as salaries of functionaries of the
synagogue went in those days, but dur
ing the very first year of his freedom
he earned at least four times as much
as the $500 that had been his annual
compensation as -'sheliach tzibur.'
But to me, and to him still greater
boon was that at last he was liberated
from the whims, the tyrannies of the
ignoramuses and reactionaries who all
but crushed his soul while they held
come because father had been de-
nounccd as an "epikoroth' for daring
10 assert. in n casual conversation. that
the earth revoIved around the sun.
Sacriicgc, Did it not stand that
the sun rose and set. And if the sun
rose and set how could anyone dare
say that the sun stood still. There was
no heresy trial. But father was told
that if he valued his job he had bet
ter hold his tongue.
What a drab life ours had been dur
ing the years of my childhood and
early manhood. Poverty stalked
through the house and over our heads
hung a frailiy suspended sword. Every
meeting of the trustees threw my father
into u nervous state. The annual meet
ing of the congregation-at which
renewal Of his contract. never for more
than n year, was matle-was a period
of agony Eight hundred dollars was II
lot of money in those days, even if it
wasn't paid regularly. and the recur-
horrors of fathers life. Several times
the dread was realized. and once we
had TO break up our home in New York
and move away to n small interior
town, where. after Il degrading compe-
tition with other "chuZOnim' rs miser-
able. as anguishcd as himself he had
been awarded a years contract.
During the latter part of fathers
life was being rapidly changed by the
flood of immigration. Synagogucs
sprair up like mushrooms. But they
demanded II new type of ''chaZan.
boy-ofiicc attraction who would draw
an amusement seeking crowd TO the
services. The sale of admissions to
II sabbath service father regarded as
sacrilegc Never. in all his life. did
he give n "chanuka- concert device
invented by some of his more business
like colleagues to eke out their wretch
cd compensation. He did not sing any
arias. his choir never parodied the
seytcttc from Lucia, he performed no
tricks with his vocal chord, he couldn't
sing falSetto He interpreted the pray
ers he chanted. moving the congreSa-
tion to tears. He refused to be "A box
cilicc attraction. of the newcomers,
the only men he associated with were
PM Minkowsliy. Israel Knpfer and Is
rael Michaclovsky, pious men and
scholars, who hallowed the three great
East side synagogucs of that day with
their presence ut the praying desk.
These men, too. were unhappy be-
cause they had discovered that they
had been brought here merely as AT
| fractions" and that the congregations
were conmcrcializing their erudition,
their beautiful chantinsS If the serv-
l-ices. and that their tenure would last
only 50 long as they continued TO at
, tract" They were broken-hearted men.
| They had permitted themselves 10 he
| torn away from those finn old jewish
communities in Europe where tncy had
been honorcd and revercd where they
might have lived out their days and
| their widows pcnsioned. They had
/ given mp TINT serenity ana iGiu tent
! themselves. mwittinSly. to commcrcial