TORONTO — Barbara Ostfeld, left, says that becoming the first female cantor in North America was an accident of timing.
Now the placement director of the American Conference of Cantors based in Buffalo, N.Y., Ostfeld said in a telephone interview that when she sent in her application to the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in the early 1970s, she didn’t know she was the first woman to apply, or to be accepted.
“The primary battle had already been fought. [Rabbi] Sally Priesand, the first woman to be accepted into the rabbinical school, was already in the second year of her studies. The time had come for a woman [cantor] to train.”
Ostfeld will be here on Nov. 19 to take part in a concert at Leah Posluns Theatre titled Kol Isha: A Cantorial Celebration of Women’s Voices, hosted by Kolel, the Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning.
Other singers include Tara Abrams, cantorial soloist, Temple Har Zion; Dawn Bernstein, cantorial soloist, Temple Kol Ami; Aviva Chernick, cantorial soloist, Shaarei-Beth El Congregation; Phyllis Angel Greenberg, rosh hazzanut, Congregation Darchei Noam; Lindi Rivers, cantorial soloist, Holy Blossom Temple; and Anna Trubashnik, cantor, Temple Emanu-El.
Ostfeld, 55, who is married with two daughters, ages 25 and 22, has served at Temple Beth Am in Buffalo, N.Y., and Temple Beth El, in Great Neck, N.Y.
She said that she decided to become a cantor when she was a child. “I had no female role models, but I loved my cantor [Martin Rosen] from Oak Park Temple in Chicago. He had a big, glorious voice and was terrific with kids. He knows he was a big factor in my decision.”
Female cantors are predominant in the Reform movement now, she said, and “if you flashed a picture of me in front of people’s eyes, I think they would see a cantor, not a female cantor.”
Ostfeld said, however, that every woman in religious life has struggles that plague her in her particular environment.
“There is still a small minority that persists in wondering if the buck can really stop at the desk of a woman, if a life-cycle event performed by a woman is really kosher, and if congregants would feel more comfortable with a man,” she said.
“These people are few, though, and many of us no longer face these issues.”
Ostfeld said she didn’t consider becoming a rabbi, because “I am moved by liturgy and Jewish ritual. I see the ultimate fulfilment in the cantorate.
“Cantors exude a lot of spiritual energy. They have to be very focused on the text and be able draw in the congregants and encourage them to participate. We have to be attuned to their mood, and to the mood of the prayers, and all the while we can’t lose the realization that everything is directed heavenward.”
Cantors feel like they’re juggling, she said. “All the balls have to stay in the air, but we have to hold on to one more tightly at any given moment. We’re not performing, though. There is no sense of audience except for the Divine, and the Divine is not involved in the high notes. ‘She’ is invoked by sincerity, and is not concerned with fancy vocals.
“Texts are meant to be chanted, and without melodies the services would be flat. Cantors have to convey the Jewish message through music.”
The upcoming concert, which will feature solo and ensemble work, both liturgical and popular, is an important one, Ostfeld said, because it is a first. “It would not have been possible a generation ago.”
Tickets are available through the Kolel office at 416-636-1880, ext. 255.