A Conversation with Pioneering Female Cantor Susan Mandel

Presented by the Jewish Music Forum, a Project of the American Society for Jewish Music

• Cantor Susan Mandell, Temple Emanu-El of Edison, NJ, 1964–1978
• Cantor Kalix Jacobson, Temple Emanuel of South Hills, Pittsburgh, PA
• Gordon Dale, Dr. Jack Gottlieb Scholar in Jewish Music Studies, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, NY

A graduate of Douglass College, Susan Mandell was the cantor of Congregation Emanu-El of Edison, New Jersey, for fourteen years in a time before women were formally ordained. As a pioneering woman in the field of Jewish liturgical music, Mandell’s life tells us much about the entry of women into religious leadership roles in the 20th century, a history that is little known. In conversation with Cantor Kalix Jacobson, who discovered Mandell’s story while doing research for a master’s thesis, Mandell will share her experience as one of the only female cantors of the 1960s and 1970s. Ethnomusicologist Gordon Dale will offer historical context for her experience.

Cosponsors: The Bildner Center; Douglass Residential College; Department of Music, Mason Gross School of the Arts; Temple Emanu-El of Edison