Jean Gornish Explained

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]

External links

Notes and References

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