Jean Gornish

Jean Gornish (1916–1981), known as "Sheindele di Chazante", was a chazante, a female performer of Jewish cantorial and liturgical music. She is often called the first female chazan.[1]

Life

Gornish was born in 1916 in Philadelphia. As a child, she was run over by a garbage truck, but survived unhurt.[2] Despite offers of work as a nightclub singer after her high school graduation, by 1936 she had committed herself exclusively to cantorial music. She took the stage name "Sheindele di Chazante".[3]

Gorlish's manager, Ben Gottleib, arranged for her to perform regularly on the radio on Sundays after the news broadcast. She was unable to perform in orthodox synagogues, which prohibited female performers.[2]

By the early 1940s, Sheindele's had signed an exclusive contract with the Planters Peanut Company, which allowed her to organize a touring schedule and radio programs in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, performing in theaters such as the 3,000-seat Orchestra Hall in Chicago and the Milwaukee Auditorium.[3]

Sheindele performed in traditional cantorial garb - a satin robe and a skullcap, either black or High Holiday white.[3]

References

  1. ^ Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. Research Library; Monique Bourque; R. Joseph Anderson (1 January 1992). A guide to manuscript and microfilm collections of the Research Library of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. The Institute. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-937437-11-7.
  2. ^ a b Allen Meyers (10 September 1998). The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia. Arcadia Publishing. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-4396-1854-7.
  3. ^ a b c Ari Y. Kelman (27 May 2009). Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in the United States. Univ of California Press. pp. 123–214. ISBN 978-0-520-25573-9.