Cantor
Emeritus Severin Weingort z”l

On Tuesday, December 12, 2019, our beloved teacher, mentor and friend, Cantor Emeritus Severin Weingort z”l, passed away. Cantor Weingort z”l recorded his story, which can be viewed online. The documentary film was first released in November 2013 as part of Holocaust Education Week.

Cantor Severin Weingort’s z”l career in singing sprang from a love for music from a very early age. Born in Poland, he immigrated to Toronto in 1948, and commenced studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music and Opera School.

For fifteen years, he performed with the Canadian Opera Company, and sang in numerous musical productions, such as Elijah and Avodat Hakodesh with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra. Over the years, he has performed on television and in radio recitals and plays.

A love for Jewish music led Cantor Weingort z”l to study Chazanut, and he studied traditional Chazanut and Torah chanting with noted Cantor Berele Charloff for five years. He served as cantor for auxiliary and High Holy Days services at Holy Blossom Temple, and in 1966, he became the cantor of Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto.

He brought to Temple Services the music of many Jewish composers, and introduced the participation of his post bar/bat Mitzvah students in the chanting of Torah and Megillot at services on a regular basis.

Cantor Weingort z”l became certified as a Cantor by the Hebrew College in 1972. He served on the Board of the American Conference of Cantors for many years, and in 1996 became Cantor Emeritus of Temple Sinai.