Are you unemployed ? Is it slow in your shop? Is your business failing? Have you given up your business and do you wish to seek another way of earning a livelihood ? If so, it doesn't make any difference what you are--an operator, a presser, a cobler, a common laborer, a push-cart peddler, or what not--you can immediately secure employment if God has only given you a little musical talent.

Each year, around this time, or even a bit earlier, the season for cantors opens. Lodges and societies which have a place of worship [Translator's note: Most lodges, societies and vereins convert their meeting halls into places of worship during the High Holidays], begin to advertise for cantors and leaders of services, for the forthcoming High Holidays. On the other hand, the cantors are beginning to seek positions and are engaging choristers early in order to teach them the old tunes and the Hebrew, which many have no occasion to use during the year.

2

In Elul (the twelfth month in the Jewish calendar, corresponding to parts of August and September; it was twenty-nine days) , each lodge or society which converts its hall into a synagogue for the High Holidays, begins to negotiate for the engagement of a cantor. Some even begin much earlier, i. e., shortly after Pentecost (between the middle of May and the middle of June). Special meetings are held to discuss the engagement of a cantor; these meetings often end in bitter dissension. First of all, it is hard to decide whether to engage a cantor or a leader of services. This causes heated arguments. No sooner is an agreement reached as to the selection than another dispute arises over the amount of money that should be spent on a cantor or leader of services. After the price is finally determined, wrangling begins again, when the cantor is given a trial. If one likes the singing of a certain cantor, another will claim that he has a voice like that of an ostrich. This leads to serious quarrels which last for many weeks. This, however, does not affect the cantors. If they do not make a hit with one group, they find favor with another.

3

The majority of lodges turn the High Holidays into a business. They engage a cantor and then compel each member to buy a ticket. Many tickets are also sold to nonmembers because it has been advertised that a famous cantor will perform the services. On Rosh Hashono (New Year's Day) the synagogue, hall or shop, which serves as a place of worship, is packed with people, as if it were a Twelfth Street streetcar duing a busy hour. And whether or not this"famous" cantor has anything to offer, does not make any difference as long as the promoters make a few dollars.

What do lodges do that are anxious to grow and increase their treasury? They import a cantor and then advertise, in newspapers and handbills, that this cantor will perform the services. Our fellow Jews, who love to listen to a good cantor, grab tickets as though they were hot cakes. And both the cantor and those who import him, have nothing to lose.

The cantors have good common sense and demand high salaries. The least that a leader of services will receive for performing the services without a choir, 4is fifty or sixty dollars. Some who perform the services with a choir, receive one hundred, two hundred or even three hundred dollars. An imported cantor will receive as high as one or two thousand dollars.

As far as the imported cantors are concerned, there is no question as to their ability. Some of these imported cantors are very talented and are also world-renowned. Among the lesser cantors, there are some who know as much about liturgic melodies as an Irish policeman knows about a Hebrew prayer.

There are a lot of amateurs among Jews who seek the office of a reader in a synagogue. A number of Jews who share all the year round, and never put on a prayer shawl or phylacteries [Translator's note: religious Jews pray in their phylacteries and prayer shawls each morning], suddenly let their beards grow [around the High Holidays], and start going regularly to a synagogue in order to secure the position of a cantor. They advertise in newspapers that a famous cantor, with or without a choir, desires a position. And there are plenty of customers.

5

Not only are cantors and leaders of services in the market for positions, but so also are choristers. Young men who have singing ability, are in great demand. Many operators, basters, pullers, and errand boys quit their jobs and become choir singers.

The cantor who performs the services, with the assistance of a choir, trains the choir singers himself. In Jewish districts, at the present time, cantors and their choirs can be heard from the housetops and basements every evening.

Last year a cantor from Maxwell Street was embarrassed because of a newspaper advertisement. No one knows whether the cantor made the mistake or the typesetter, but the advertisement read as follows:

"Wanted a Bass [Translator's note: The word bass, in Hebrew means daughter, 6and the word, bass, in Yiddish, means basso. The cantor advertised for a basso, but in the advertisement the Hebrew word bass, meaning daughter, appeared], from a respectable home, strictly orthodox, inquire of Cantor B., Maxwell Street." Those who read this advertisement received the impression that the cantor was seeking a bride. And who doesn't want to have a fine son-in-law? Soon the cantor was flooded with letters from prominent Jews who offered him the hand of their daughters. These letters accidentally fell into the hands of the cantor's wife, and you need not ask what took place between the cantor and his wife. The fact is, however, that the cantor "business" is not so bad. Those who complain about America, or have any grievance against Columbus, really commit a sin because, after all, an easy dollar can be made in America.