BIG AUDIENCE IN TEARS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 82, 16 March 1931, Page 3

BIG AUDIENCE IN TEARS

JEWS MOVED BY CANTOR’S RECITAL. Sixty Jewish cantors from, ail parts of England listened spellbound to a recital by Mordecai Hershiiiau, the king of cantors, at the Holborn Empire, London, recently. Mordecai Hershman is the highestpaid cantor (leader of the synagogue choir) in the world. At Philadelphia he. received £3500 for one recital. But he was just a trifle nervous about London. •‘Do you think they will receive me all right?’’ he asked a newspaper representative before he appeared. He need have had no qualms. The spell of his' astonishing voice had ins big audience rocking with emotion when ho wailed forth, in, as it seemed, inspired fashion, prayers from Maarix (evening prayer at a synagogue service). Tears were followed by chuckles of delight as he sang some Jewish folk-songs. To the non-Jewish ear the recital was most remarkable, for what might be termed the cantor’s vocal gymnastics, and for the drama and poignant passion he was able to convey without gesture or posturings. His voice would ring out like a clarion note. Then it would sigh like the softe wind: would lilt and tremble, and sob and chatter.