LIFE IN ISRAEL
SPEND A
WEEKEND
IN FLORIDA
FOR FIVE BUCKS
WITHOUT EVER LEAVING DETROIT
•
•
'
•
, •‘‘.. ,..4,4•:m
•
The Florida Real Estate Showcases.. brings thousands of square miles
of Florida property to Detroit! Shop for retirement homes, vacation villas
and investment properties all under one roof! Nationally known
developers will be waiting for you!
111=_
—w WI OR11DA
EMAIL LUAU
SHOWItAirs"
THE SOUTHFIELD HILTON
17017 W. Nine Mile Road, Southfield, Ml
MARCH 11-12, 1989
SAT: 10 A.M.-7 P.M. • SUN: 11 A.M.-5 P.M.
Admission: $5.00 • For more info. call 1-800-262-3147
ALL PROCEEDS FROM TICKET SALES
TQ DIRECTLY BENEFIT THE CASS CHURCH
N. HOMELESS DROP-1N CENTER
,i‘‘
rfoOvw
AT
CLIA SQL
Crosswinds Mall
4353 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield
851-1260
38
FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 1989
Cash: having Judaism as a high profile in her life.
Oak Park's Cash Sings Out
As Israel's 1st Female Cantor
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
, S andy Cash has become
Israel's first female
Reform cantor and in
the process has inadvertently
struck a note for equality in
the Jewish state.
"I never have been a cantor
for ideological purposes, but
as it happens, my having
been hired is like striking a
blow for religious freedom in
Israel," said the 26-year-old
Oak Park native who made
history when she was hired
last August by the Reform
Har-El Synagogue in
Jerusalem, becoming what is
believed to be Israel's first
female cantor.
"People should be able to be
Reform Jews if they want to
be," said Cash, who was
reared in a musically
oriented, Conservative
Jewish household and who
originally planned to be, a
Conservative rabbi in Israel.
Cash said that, technically,
she is a cantorial soloist,
because she is self-taught and
hasn't studied in either the
Reform or Conservative can-
torial programs, which do
have women students.
Nevertheless, she said,
"Most people in Israel have
never heard that women can
be- cantors," she said. "They
think that only Orthodox
men can be cantors. It's very
difficult" to explain other-
wise, she said. Furthermore,
"Most Israelis think Reform
and Conservative Judaism
are the same thing."
Since Orthodox Judaism is
the only branch officially
recognized in Israel, Cash is
"happy to see the effect my
position is having on the lit-
tle girls in the congregation.
I have become an important
role model for them.
"In the religious life in
Israel, children have very lit-
tle opportunity to see women
in religious leadership," she
said.
Her role as cantor sparked
a public relations effort by the
Reform movement because
"there is a lot of negative feel-
ing in Israel about Reform
Judaism. The Reform are not
proselytizing Israelis, but just
want to show that Orthodox
Judaism has a lot of power.
There is no government sup-
port for Reform or Conser-
vative Judaism, but there is
for everything from anti-
Zionism political parties to
the Orthodox."
She told how the Reform
movement threatened legal
action last year when she and
a Reform cantorial student
were refused entry to a
Jerusalem-sponsored can-
torial contest. "It was a clear
case of sex discrimination and
a good opportunity to press a
case for the need for religious
pluralism," Cash said. The
upshot was an "Egalitarian
Hazzanut" at Israel's Hebrew
Union College, while a more
traditional concert was held
under Orthodox supervision
in the larger Jerusalem Con-
cert Hall, she said.
After she was hired by the
synagogue, she said, one
television interviewer "made
a point of handling the inter-
view very non-
argumentatively" but a radio
show host attacked her with
questions about how her can-
torial position was against
Halachah.
Cash said she has "always
been involved in Jewish
things and Jewish activities"
and that being a cantor —
which is a part-time job at her
synagogue — and living in
Israel while also performing
theatrically "is the kind of
lifestyle that has helped me
fulfill my need to have my
Judaism as a high profile in
my life." Her duties include
helping lead Shabbat and
holiday services.
She was in the chorus of the
tremendously successful
Israeli production of Les
Miserables for six months and
"I wouldn't have waltzed in-
to Les Miserables after only
one year of singing
somewhere in the United
States."
Interestingly, it was Israeli
David Fisher, star of the show
and an internationally
known cantor, who helped
Cash with melodies to use in
Selichot services just after
Cash was hired as Har-El
cantor.
An Israel resident since
1986, she had enrolled in Tel
Aviv University's Drama
School, choosing to study
theatre rather than for the
rabbinate.
"I gave myself a time-frame
of five years in which to earn
my degree and get on stage,"
Cash said. She worked hard,
studying Hebrew at the most
difficult ulpan level and lear-
ning Israeli diction for use in
stage productions.
She joined the New Israeli
Opera Chorus, performing in
La Traviata and Carmen, and
meeting a tenor named Gidon
Tidhar, who was also cantor
at Har-El, but who would
evenutally opt for classical
opera full-time.
"Israel is such a small coun-
try, after the first year I had
made all the connections I