| Until the middle of the twentieth century, the Jewish cantorate was an all-male institution, maintained by a Talmudic dictum that for a woman to sing in a public space was a form of sexual immorality. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, women had become cantors in three out of the four major Jewish denominations, and had begun to outnumber men in the position. This dissertation examines the reasons for this shift as well as some of the historical processes that allowed it to happen. It also explores the nature of the new Jewish sacred space that, as Philip Bohlman has written, women liturgical singers have performed into existence. In doing so, it revisits both the nature of the Jewish cantorate and the broader concept of minhag, or Jewish custom.;Drawing upon feminist theory, Jewish history and philosophy, theories of voice, medical research, and constitutional law, this dissertation sheds new light both on the revolution in one specific occupation and on the changing nature of worship in the non-Orthodox Jewish denominations.;I show the ways in which American non-Orthodox Jews in particular have developed a new minhag in accordance with the broader values of American culture. The American minhag is congregationalist, individualistic, and participatory, concerned with social justice, pastoral care of congregants, and a commitment to tikkun olam, the repair of the world. I demonstrate the ways in which women cantors have been at the heart of this new development. Their voices have sung a new sacred space into being, and their position as ritual supervisors and innovators has been vital to determining the nature of that sacred space. I ground my work firmly in the extensive new liturgical repertoire that has been composed since the 1960s and 1970s to take advantage of and display the particular qualities both of the female singing voice and of a growing congregational desire for participatory prayer.;In addition to a wide-ranging analysis of a previously overlooked aspect of a particular vocal tradition, this dissertation contributes a demonstration of the extent to which gender can shape both the meaning and practice of sacred music. |
