Change Agents of the Liberal Cantorate: In Celebration of the DFSSM’s 75th Anniversary: Walter A. Davidson

Walter A. Davidson

(1902-1989)

When I entered the School of Sacred Music in 1967, there was a required course for all first, fourth, and fifth-year students called Cantorial Orientation. The HUC-JIR course catalogue described it as “Aspects of the cantorial profession, the ministry of music, the dynamics of the cantor’s role. Materials and methods for special occasions.” It was a basic foray into the practical cantorate, taught by someone who not only had a firm grasp of the history of the cantorate, but by someone who had seen it all and played a major role in imagining, crafting, and shaping the rebirth of the modern cantorate. His name was Cantor Walter A. Davidson

He was diminutive in stature, a balding, elderly man, dignified, with a serious and dry demeanor, with traces of an eastern European accent. He was old enough to be our grandfather and, being brash, cynical products of the 60’s, we failed to appreciate that, despite his slight stature and somber bearing, we were in the presence of  a cantorial giant who had perhaps done more to elevate the status and perception of the cantorate than anyone since Sulzer.

In addition to teaching Cantorial Orientation, Cantor Davidson also chaired the weekly Practicum. At my first Practicum, during the faculty critique, he began his remarks with these inimitable words: “Very commendable, Mr. Stahl. Someday you will reach the pinochle of your career.” Despite his frequent, often comical malapropisms, Walter Davidson was an eloquent and indomitable force in shaping the modern cantorate.

Walter Abraham Davidson,  the son and grandson of cantors, was born in Prashka, Poland, and came to the United States when he was 18. During his first few years in this country, he found employment on a part-time basis at several orthodox congregations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. He later described the status of the cantorate upon his arrival in America :

The Eastern European tradition was that a cantor performed on the Sabbath, but here a cantor could not survive on a one or two‐day week. There were so many cantors, they would come to tryouts and stand in line. Your name would be called, you would sing a few bars and they would say, ‘Next.’ You'd go outside and they would be lined up down the hall. It was chaotic, humiliating. Cantors had no professional standards.

Even at a young age, Walter Davidson realized that the future of the cantorate in this country depended upon holding cantors to higher standards and creating a professional organization that could advocate for the continued welfare and security of its members. There had been a few attempts to organize cantors in the 19th century. The most successful was The Society of American Cantors, founded in Baltimore in 1894 by Cantor Alois Kaiser (1840 – 1908). Its objective was “the elevation of the cantor's profession, the furtherance of cohesion among its members, and the improvement of musical services in the synagogue.” Its membership was open to all cantors, but Kaiser, himself a student and disciple of Sulzer, intended that the organization would appeal to cantors serving liberal congregations, and he hoped to create courses to improve cantors’ knowledge and synagogue skills. Despite its lofty goals, the Society was short-lived.

In 1897, another attempt was made to organize cantors. The Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of America and Canada, commonly known as The Chazzonim Farband, was an endeavor to unionize cantors but, essentially, it was a fundamentally a fraternal and social organization. Its membership was comprised of some star cantors, as well as part-time cantors, shamashim and baalei tefillah. Its members were still very much entrenched in the old Eastern European tradition and with, very few exceptions, it had little appeal or no to cantors affiliated with reform synagogues.

By the time Walter Davidson arrived here in 1920, the Society of American Cantors was defunct, leaving the Farband as the cantors’ only option. Given his description of the sad state of the professional cantorate, he set about to change the landscape to improve the status, educational standards, and security of what he would call the “modern cantorate.”

In 1924, in partnership with several other cantors serving reform synagogues, he created the Board of American Hazan-Ministers (1924-1953) and served as its first and long-time president. In 1934, it was renamed The Modern Reform Cantors Association. The Modern Reform Cantors Association held monthly meetings and published a newsletter, The Hazan. While the Farband, was primarily a social organization, the Modern Reform Cantors Association, with Davidson at the helm, moved the focus away from fellowship and camaraderie, to elevating professional standards along with zealous advocacy for the recognition of cantors as clergy, and for the cantorate to be acknowledged as a full-time profession. 

For the first half of the 20th century, most reform congregations that employed cantors did so on a limited-service basis and the image of the cantor was generally not a flattering one. The general opinion was that cantors were not members of the clergy. They were considered to be “religious functionaries,” like mohalim, shochtim, and shamashim. Davidson was determined to change that perception through the work of the Board of American Hazan-Ministers (note the intentional use of the word “Ministers”), and through personal example. Cantors were expected to lead services and not much else. Davidson’s asserted: “I didn’t just want to be  a performer, I wanted to be an interpreter of the prayer, to enrich the Jewish musical experience, to be a religious leader.” No doubt he achieved this goal since he was a beloved congregational cantor, teaching, conducting life cycle events, doing pastoral work and representing the Jewish community as a spiritual leader, serving Temple Beth Emeth of Flatbush for an unprecedented 60 years until his retirement in 1988 at the remarkable age of 86.

The opening of the School of Sacred Music provided an opportunity and a pathway for realizing Davidson’s intentions and aspirations to ensure the legitimacy and the sustainability of the cantorate. Along with the first graduates of the SSM, Davidson lobbied for the creation of a new cantorial organization. The American Conference of Certified Cantors (later The American Conference of Cantors) was officially chartered in 1953. Walter Davidson served as its first president and, in 1955, was elected  Honorary President, a post he held until his passing in 1989. 

In many ways, he was the unheralded visionary who imagined the fully professional and respected cantorate that exists today. He was the founder and first chair of the ACC’s Joint Placement Commission which helped to regularize cantorial placement so that congregations and cantors could be matched in a dignified, equitable and effective manner. He urged the ACC to create an ethical code of conduct to hold its members to the highest standards. He advocated for ongoing professional development for cantors, and he helped establish an administrative structure that would move the ACC from a “mom and pop shop,” securing office space, an administrative staff, and building partnerships with HUC-JIR, the UAHC ,and the CCAR, giving it standing and status in the Jewish community.

Cantor Davidson would often tell us that when he started the Board of American Hazan-Ministers at the age of 22, the older generation of cantors would refer to him as “The Kid.” This seemed so incongruous to us. We couldn’t imagine this staid individual being a scrappy, feisty activist. But indeed, he was. He was never bombastic in his approach, and he never sought public accolades, but he also never hesitated to speak out when he believed cantors or the cantorate were not being treated or portrayed with dignity and with the respect the profession deserved. 

He knew then what we know today, but what was unheard of or ignored when he began his career. In his own words: 

…eternal vigilance is the price for Cantor security – for the security of the individual Cantor is as strong as the security of the group is sustained and strengthened. For this reason, every one of us must continue to be actively at work to preserve and constantly improve and strengthen our position; otherwise, our cause may go one step forward and two steps backward.

Any cantor who reaches the pinnacle of their career stands on Walter Davidson’s shoulders. Even though he lived long enough to see much of his work bear fruit, he would have been especially thrilled to see cantors being ordained, cantors receiving honorary doctorates (his was awarded posthumously), cantors serving in the chaplaincy, and the widely held understanding, by rabbis and laity, that cantors are indeed, clergy.  “The Kid” made a difference and we owe him an immeasurable debt of gratitude for structuring the framework for what we know as the modern cantorate.