Singing Legend
prayers on the High Holidays.
One of the high points of
Immerman's life was a trip to Israel on
his 80th birthday, Marcus said. "He
was feted and treated like royalty by all
his South African friends and former
pupils there," he said.
"The highlight of that trip was
when he went into Heichal Shlomo
— the seat of the chief rabbinate of
Israel — on Shabbat morning. He
walked in, they cleared the decks and
gave him the maftir and haftorah.
"They literally carried him off the
bimah," Marcus said. "They had never
experienced anything like this before,
that a blind man can walk cold into
shul and perform so wonderfully."
On the occasion of his third bar
mitzvah, Immerman was called up for
an aliyah at a special Shabbat morning
service at Highlands House, the home
for Jewish elderly where he spent the
last few years of his life.
Solly Alpert, Cantor Immerman's
first bar mitzvah pupil when he
arrived in Cape Town, sang the maftir
and haftarah.
The uncanny thing about the time
of Immerman's death was his own say-
ing about choosing the right time to
die. On April 7, he reportedly asked
his nurse for "a drink of water before I
go," had a sip and then slipped away
quietly. ❑
South Africa's blind chazzan dies at age 96
MOIRA SCHNEIDER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Cape Town
t's "not nice" to die on one's birth-
day, Abe Immerman used to say.
It's better to wait a day or two.
Cantor Immerman, who
became a legend as South Africa's
"blind chazzan," took his own advice:
Three days after he turned 96 —
and two days after having his third bar
mitzvah — Immerman passed away.
Despite his lifelong disability,
Cantor Immerman knew the Bible
and prayers by heart and trained gen-
erations of South African boys for
their bar mitzvahs.
Cantor Immerman's exceptional
memory was first recognized by a rev-
erend who taught him when he was a
child growing up in Zastron, in the
Free State area of South Africa. He
subsequently was sent to the Worcester
School for the Blind, where teachers
felt he would do well as a basket
maker or a piano tuner because of his
ear for music.
But Cantor Immerman had ideas of
his own, despite his family's objections.
"I was determined to become a chaz-
zan," he recalled in later years.
In the early days, Cantor Immerman
earned a living by leading prayers in
the various villages where Jews had set-
tled in South Africa and working out
yahrzeit dates for their deceased family
members.
He eventually reached the rural
town of Oudtshoorn, where he stayed
for a number of years, giving bar mitz-
vah lessons and traveling to other rural
communities around South Africa to
lead holiday services.
After Cantor Immerman moved to
Cape Town 60 years ago, his first job
was at the Ponevez shul. "His fame
spread, and after that he got a job at
the Woodstock shul," said lifelong
friend Morrie Marcus.
Cantor Immerman later worked at
Cape Town's Herzlia Jewish Day School,
teaching bar mitzvah lessons and music,
while still traveling the country to lead
Student Tour Highlights Local Jewish History
new tour geared toward students will highlight
the role Jewish people played in the history of
Detroit and Michigan — and their continuing
contributions.
Called "Settlers to Citizens: The Jews of Detroit and
Michigan, 1761-2003," the tour was developed by the Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan under a grant from the Max
M. Fisher Jewish Community Foundation of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Originally aimed at fifth- and sixth- graders who just
completed the Michigan curriculum, the value and attrac-
tion of the tour for others has become evident.
Adat Shalom Synagogue, Yeshivat Akiva, Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit, the Reconstructionist
Congregation of Detroit, Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
Temple Beth El and Temple Israel are signed up this
spring.
The tour highlights the 1760s arrival of Chapman
Abraham, the first Jewish fur trader in British Detroit, to
the banks of the Detroit River.
The new Underground Railroad statue on the riverside in
Hart Plaza, with a counterpart in Windsor, Canada, offers a
chance to focus on Jewish contributions to the anti-slavery
movement and Jews who were volunteers with the Union
Army in the Civil War.
Other stops are at the Michigan Historical plaque at the
A
Temple Beth El at Woodward and Gladstone in Detroit, circa 1922
(courtesy the Rabbi Leo M Franklin Archives of Temple Beth El)
.
site of the first Jewish services in Michigan and locations
of synagogues, Jewish Centers and Hebrew schools.
A Jewish Historical Society of Michigan committee —
consisting of Judy Levin Cantor, Ellen Cole, Gerald Cook,
Adele Staller and Carol Weisfeld — developed the tour,
with the cooperation of teachers and educators from Hillel
Day School, Hebrew schools and synagogues.
For more information, contact the Jewish Historical
Society of Michigan at (248) 661-1000. ❑
271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
248.258.0212
Monday-Saturday 10-6
Thursday 10-9
Sunday 12-5
4/25
2003
5