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]
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]