Change Agents of the Liberal Cantorate: In Celebration of the DFSSM’s 75th Anniversary: Cantor William Sharlin
William Sharlin
(1920-2012)
Cantor William Sharlin’s life and work have been extensively memorialized and celebrated in theses, dissertations, published biographies and scholarly articles. All the encomia are well-deserved, and his original musical compositions and innovative arrangements have been heard and appreciated in synagogues and concert halls around the world. He was a beloved cantor, a brilliant musician, a published scholar, and a philosopher with the soul of a Hasid.
He was born in Harlem to parents who had emigrated from Palestine. He was raised in a Hebrew and Yiddish speaking orthodox home and received a traditional yeshivah education. He had
innate musical gifts, often improvising at the piano and teaching himself the fundamentals of music.
When William was 15, he and his family returned to Jerusalem where he completed high school and studied piano at the Jerusalem Conservatory. There he began composing music - a talent and a labor of love that was to become a lifelong passion. In 1939, following the untimely death of his mother, the Sharlin family returned to the United States. William continued his music studies at the Manhattan School of Music, graduating in 1949 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. At Manhattan, he focused on composition as well as piano and voice.
He was already a well-schooled musician with impressive credentials in Hebrew and Judaica when he decided to continue his academic studies at the newly opened HUC-JIR School of Sacred Music and became a member of its first graduating class. He entered with advanced standing and completed the program in 3 years. During his time in New York, he served as one of the editors of the Katchko material.
Following graduation, HUC-JIR offered him a three-year fellowship to study in Cincinnati. There he began work on a PhD with Eric Werner who recognized Sharlin’s scholarly potential. At the same time, Sharlin took rabbinic courses and served as the College’s music director, training the student choir, leading services, and teaching an elective course on cantillation.
His time in Cincinnati was productive and a boon for the cantorate as he formed lasting relationships with many rabbinic students. One young rabbinic student, Hank Skirball, convinced William to spend the summer leading music at a newly opened NFTY camp in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. William went out and bought a guitar for $25, learned the basic chords, and paved the way for countless song leaders who mesmerized and inspired legions of NFTY campers, many of whom became leaders of the reform movement.
There were few, if any cantors, who, at the time, embraced the use of guitar as a tool for worship. In Sharlin’s prescient words:
…I use the guitar in a simple way, partly because that's all I can do with the guitar, but partly out of the concept that the guitar shouldn't overwhelm the vocal entity. All of this has to do with the question of ‘is the cantor performing a role to the congregation’ or ‘is the cantor's primary role to enter into a world of t’filah (themself) ?' Which automatically, in essence, has the function of bringing the congregation into the experience.
His presence on the Cincinnati campus proved to be transformational as he, a cantor, interacted with rabbis on the faculty and rabbinic students - dispelling preconceived notions of what a cantor was and wasn’t. He was a dynamic, and perhaps unwitting, but serendipitous, change agent who helped immeasurably to legitimize the role of the cantor as a full clergy partner. Through his talents, erudition, and intrinsic spirituality, he exemplified for the rabbinate and the laity the strengths and indisputable merit of the cantorate, and we can trace many of the status enhancing benefits we enjoy today to his efforts,
After three years, having completed most of the rabbinic courses and well on his way to a doctorate, he abandoned his PhD work and left the College for Los Angeles where he became cantor of the Leo Baeck Temple. He served the Leo Baeck Temple faithfully for nearly 60 years.
In 1957, William succeeded Max Helfman as chairman of the Department of Sacred Music at the West Coast branch of HUC, a position he held for decades, training generations of synagogue musicians and inspiring rabbis, cantors, and educators. To my knowledge, Sharlin is the only cantor to have been awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, by HUC-JIR.
I first met William in 1972 when he was commissioned to write the liturgical music for the inauguration ceremony of the new president of HUC-JIR. I was a senior and president of the Student Cantorial Organization and was invited to participate in this historic event. The college flew Lenny Thal (then president of the Rabbinic Student Organization), and me to Cincinnati for the week. We served as marshals for the ceremony. William and I were the only cantorial presence at the event. William’s original compositions and stirring arrangements were magnificent and the loving wisdom he so generously shared with me, and his patient coaching helped to shape my cantorate. He and I (see photo above) sang his exquisite setting of Eilu D’varim – composed as a Talmudic dialogue. His sweet and soulful baritone and innate sense of hazzanic kavanah still resonate strongly with me.
But the moment I shall never forget was in the vestry of the historic Plum Street Temple – built by and for Isaac Mayer Wise – immediately before the service began. The room was filled with rabbis, Christian clergy, academics, and laity - many of whom really never had any exposure to a cantor or the cantorate. William wanted everyone to participate in his spirited setting of Ashreinu (which he based on Max Helfman’s setting of the Sh’ma). William grabbed his guitar and stood on a chair and signaled for everyone’s attention. He taught this unlikely group to sing the melody and the canon. Lo and behold, this improbable assemblage learned the piece and, when it came time for it to be sung during the service, Plum Street’s iconic sanctuary was filled with the most glorious sounds of a diverse community united in worship. At that moment, William ushered in a modality of worship that was to become the paradigm we know today.
Sharlin understood the challenges of the 20th century liberal synagogue, some of which are still at play today. He observed:
As we move into the modern synagogue, with the pulpit occupied by two or more precentors, we face potential fragmentation - a diffused focus that extends beyond obvious external differences: visual presence, voice, personality, style, alternation of Hebrew and English, shifts between reading and singing. These realities in themselves can limit involvement, unless these disparate activities are transcended, merged in a single spiritual stream, a unity of experiences emanating from the pulpit. When the pulpit breaks into unrelated parts, it separates itself spiritually from the congregation, which then interferes directly with inward listening. Experiential listening requires a oneness of intent on the part of rabbi and cantor. This unified atmosphere diminishes self-consciousness; the different parts become a whole so that listening is no longer an activity but rather an integral part of a single, sacred entity. Spiritual unity in the pulpit can establish an environment for spiritual listening ‘so that one in spirit and one in fellowship they may be forever united before Thee.’
When you try to parse his manifold contributions to Jewish life and Jewish music, it is evident that he was a soulful and skilled shaliach tsibbur, an empathic pastor, a passionate teacher, and a brilliant composer who raised up generations of cantors and synagogue musicians. He was a complicated and multi-layered person who never hesitated to speak his mind. You might not have always agreed with him, but you always respected and learned from what he had to say.
Though he is gone, the melody of his life and his labors continue. As Carl Sherrod’s interpretation of Eilu D’varim reminds us:
These are the obligations that enhance our world,
Honoring compassionate friendship,
performing acts of compassion and justice,
recognizing the need for education during any point in life,
welcoming the stranger,
showing equality to all people no matter where they are on the journey called life,
mourning and celebrating a life passed on,
turning life into a prayer,
creating peace out of moments of chaos,
Rejoicing in Torah because it encompasses them all!
This is William Sharlin’s legacy, and we are truly blessed that he shared his precious and enduring gifts with us.