Helpful Links for Congregations

Below is an excerpt from the 1996 URJ

"RESOLUTION PRESERVING THE INTEGRITY OF THE CANTORATE"

No longer is the cantor simply the sweet singer of Israel. The College-Institute prepares today’s cantors to be members of the clergy who serve as leaders of worship, educators, administrators, counselors, creative programmers, and role models to our congregants to all ages – especially to our children. The unique constellation of rabbis, professional educators and administrators, and today’s cantors working together, provides our synagogues with an indispensable, dynamic team to guide and nurture the spiritual life of our congregants in an unprecedented manner.

Unfortunately, many URJ affiliated congregations have unilaterally bestowed the title of cantor on soloists who lack proper credentials. It is interesting to note that the rabbinate faced this very same problem nearly a century ago when it was a fairly common practice for smaller congregations to arbitrarily designate a Judaically knowledgeable lay person as its "rabbi". Just as we have come to expect only our seminary to confer the title of rabbi on those few individuals who have arduously prepared to assume the mantle of Jewish leadership, so too should we expect no less or accept no other course for the creation of cantors.

The Placement Department of the ACC is pleased to invite you to open the links below. We are confident that you will find them to contain much helpful information in connection with your cantorial search. Details about the categories of cantorial service are furnished, and some of your questions are, we hope, anticipated. Further the documents are full of basic, no-nonsense facts about the hiring of a cantor and the welcoming of a cantor into a congregation.

* If any questions arise, please don’t hesitate to call Director of Placement, Cantor Barbara Ostfeld at 716-568-1125. Her email address is bjostfeld@accantors.org.

* Cantor Gail Hirschenfang (ghirschenfang@accantors.org) is the ACC’s resident expert on matters pertaining to salary and to contractual issues. She can be reached at 845-559-3818.