Aging Cantor Blasts ‘Synagogue Elites’ Who Seek To Replace Him

“Concerns over my mental acuity and physical stamina are being used to mask political machinations.”

Far Rockaway, July 11 – An octogenarian leader of services at a local synagogue reacted with anger to efforts among some prominent community members to remove him from his position following an episode during which he chanted the wrong words, changed tunes in the middle of a passage, walked in the wrong direction when carrying to Torah scroll to the reading table, and mumbled incoherent sounds where the liturgy calls for a responsive reading with the congregation, among other lapses.

Isaac Borowitz, 82, vowed in a rambling message today to continue serving as Cantor at Congregation Kneseth Israel, commonly known as The White Shul, despite widespread calls for him to step down in the wake of the service that many attendees called “an embarrassment” and “an unmitigated disaster.” The veteran figure at the synagogue, who has held a cantorial position there for nearly fifty years, criticized the “elites” among the membership who wish to replace him for their own selfish reasons and not for the good of the synagogue.

“This is a crucial time for the community and I will not abandon my post,” he insisted in his Facebook post. “Concerns over my mental acuity and physical stamina are being used to mask political machinations of a less noble nature. I will not bow to them.”

Borowitz’s cringe-inducing leadership of services the past Saturday morning brought to the fore numerous observations from the last eight years by attendees that the man’s mastery of the repertoire was slipping, that his awareness of the progress of the prayers was choppy, and that his diction had declined – observations that until this past Saturday prompted attempts to silence those who made them and accusations the the effect that anyone who implied Borowitz’s age or metal condition wishes to see irresponsible elements take over the synagogue service. Some even called talk of his alleged lapses “fake” and “cheap.”

Now, however, the increased attendance of a New Moon service coupled with two bar mitzva celebrations, three engagement announcements, a wedding, and one congregant’s one hundredth birthday exposed the community at large to Borowitz’s manifest mental and physical decline, and those who once suppressed talk of it now felt compelled to express outrage or a sense of betrayal at having been “duped,” rather than acknowledge their complicity in the coverup.

Borowitz’s contract ends in December 2025, and he has vowed to serve out his term. Synagogue bylaws allow for the Ritual Committee or Executive Committee to vote to terminate the contract early. The cantor has had allies on both boards, but since Saturday, several of those voice have wavered.

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