Background
Jean Gornish was born in 1916. Her father was a chazan in Philadelphia.
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Jean Gornish
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She is often called the first woman chazan, although she never served in that capacity in a permanent position in a synagogue, and Julie Rosewald precedes her. As a young woman, she had a brief career as a nightclub singer in the northeast, where she playing Lam"s Tavern in Springfield, Pennsylvania. She took the stage name “Sheindele di Chazante” and began to appear on stage, radio, and records, performing both sacred and popular Jewish music
She appeared on the radio on station WPEN. She approached her performances with the utmost attention to tradition and detail.
Although it was her dream to sing for a congregation, she was respectful of religious tradition, aware that her mere presence on stage pushed up against the limits of Jewish law - even the Reform movement did not train female cantors until the early 1970s. However, Sheindele did take on some ritual responsibilities, conducting the High Holiday choir at Manhattan’s Hotel Astor, leading Passover seders at a number of resorts, and even leading High Holiday services in Philadelphia on more than one occasion.
A reviewer for the Chicago Daily News noted:
Sheindele never married and never had any children. She lived with a female companion for many years while continuing to perform both live as well as on the radio.
Although illness slowed her down during her later years, Sheindele enjoyed a long-running career, strains of which can be heard on the only recording she ever made, the late 1950s LP "Sheindele Sings the Songs of Her People".
Her papers are held in the Philadelphia Jewish Archive Center.
