Spirituality

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

Colleagues, congregants host concert
for Cantor Larry Vieder.

antor Larry Vieder trea-
sures -his family, reveres his
synagogue and feels privi-
leged in his profession.
"I don't look for honors," the can-
tor says in response to being the
focus of "Shir Joy A Gala Cantorial
Concert," on Wednesday, May 24,
at Adat Shalom Synagogue. Co-
sponsors of the event are the 500-
member Cantors Assembly, and
Adat Shalom, where Cantor Vieder
has served for the last 40 years.
The decision to pay tribute to
Cantor Vieder actually was an easy
one, according Cantor Chaim
Najman of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek. Cantor Najman, president of
the New York-based international
Cantors Assembly, calls Cantor
Vieder "a wonderful colleague and a
friend, who is a beloved favorite of
the entire organization." He
describes Cantor Vieder as "an
important religious figure in Detroit
and an important member of the
executive council of the Cantors
Assembly."
Born in Czechoslovakia into a
family dedicated to Jewish learning,
Cantor Vieder studied at several
yeshivot. He says he was always
involved with the synagogue and
music. His father was a ba'al tefilla
(leader of religious services) and his
uncles were cantors, so he grew up as
a member of the choir, always sur-
rounded by prayer and song.
Studying cantorial music, Cantor
Vieder recalls being called upon at a
very young age to participate in
Shabbat services. "I was a little boy
singing on the High Holidays; the
one who was always told I should
sing," he says.
At age 18, he left his home to
work as a clothing shipper in
Budapest. In his absence, his parents
and six siblings perished, killed by
the Nazis and disease.
Taken to the Jazbareen labor
camp in Poland in 1944, he had to
dig ditches at the front lines for the
army. Later, he joined the
Czechoslovakian Legion in Russia.
In 1946, he married his wife Gitta
after returning to Czechoslovakia,
where their first son, Thomas, was
born. An organizer for the Hagana
(Jewish resistance group) in
Czechoslovakia, he took his family to
Israel and served in the army.
After three years, they received

the papers that would take them
to Canada.
"My first job was in July 1952,"
Cantor Vieder recalls. "Beth Shalom
in Eglington was looking for a tenor.
The cantor there told me 'if you
don't study voice, it's like cutting
down a tree from the bottom.'"
In 1954, the Vieders received per-
mission to immigrate to the United
States. They chose Detroit, where
they had friends. "My wife's uncles
lived in New York, but I didn't want
them to think we wanted some-
thing. We had started over so many
times already, we would start over
again," he says.
Through the years, Cantor Vieder
has served various Detroit-area con-
gregations, including B'nai Moshe,
B'nai David and Ahavas Achim.
When Adat Shalom was seeking
an assistant cantor in 1960, Cantor
Vieder auditioned with the clergy,
Cantor. Nicholas Fenakel and Rabbi
Jacob Segal.
Cantor Vieder remembers waiting
in the hallway of the synagogue with
executive director George Spoon, to
find out if he was hired. Spoon
advised him, "'If they want you, you
should take the job, it's a great job.'"
More than 30 years later, Cantor
Vieder recalls sharing similar words
with the current Adat Shalom can-
tor, Howard Glantz, when he was
considering jQining the congrega-
tion's clergy in 1991.
"I told him to move to Detroit. It
has good schools. It will be good for
him and there is plenty for a mohel
(ritual circumciser) to do here. It's a
nice congregation, very particular, a
special congregation with wonderful
people."
The sentiment remains today as
he says, "I can't tell enough good
about them." From an associate can-
tor and Torah reader, Cantor Vieder
was named cantor of the synagogue
in 1974.
He attended the Michigan
Conservatory of Music in Detroit,
under the direction of Lloyd
Murphy, and also studied with Avery
Crew and Caroline Grimes.
The cantor and his wife take pride
in their family, which includes son
Thomas living in Washington, D.C.,
with his wife Deborah, two sons and
a daughter. Son Mark and his wife
Debbie, chairwoman of the Adat
Shalom Youth Commission, have
three sons. Son Sanford, chairman of
Adat Shalom Nursery School, also
has three sons with his wife Carol.

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5/19
2000

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