2026 Chazzanut Special - An Illustrious Legacy Continued: Cantor Chanoch Blum

Cantor Chanoch Blum comes from a family with a history of chazzanut, though until he was eight years old, he didn’t even know it. But it was in his blood.

One day, when Blum was around seven years old, his father was walking down the street in Boro Park. A peddler collecting tzedakah asked him for a donation, and when his father gave him money, the peddler offered something in return. “Give me whatever you want,” his father replied. The peddler had a bag full of cassette tapes of chassidic music as well as some chazzanut. He handed him a tape of Yossele Rosenblatt. When his father came home, he gave the tape to Blum, who started listening to it endlessly. One of the tracks on that tape was “Ma Lecha Hayam” from Hallel.

During his childhood, Blum spent most holidays visiting his grandparents in Toronto. His grandparents loved music. Back when Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach lived in Toronto, he used to host concerts in their home; Blum’s uncle, Moshe Friedman, was close friends with him, and his mother even used to babysit Carlebach’s daughter, Neshama. Friedman composed the famous song “Ma Ahavti Sorasecha” from the album Kol Salonika ‎1, which is sung all over the world to this day.

One year, when Blum was eight, he went to visit his grandmother in Toronto for Sukkot. From the time he was a little boy, his family would always ask him to sing for them because they knew how much he loved it. This time, when his grandmother asked him to sing, he chose “Ma Lecha Hayam” by Yossele Rosenblatt – the song he had learned from the tape his father brought home.

As soon as he began to sing, his grandmother became deeply emotional and burst into tears. Young Blum didn’t understand what was happening. She then shared a memory with him: Her brother, Menachem Donath, who was murdered by the Nazis, had been a star soloist and child prodigy in the Great Synagogue of Pressburg. Right before the Holocaust, her brother had been practicing that exact tune – “Ma Lecha Hayam.” It was the last melody ringing in her ears before the war broke out, and she used to sing it to herself during those dark times. This song gave her strength. Now, decades later, her own grandson was singing that very same song.

She also revealed another piece of history: Her grandfather, Elazar Lowy, had been the official cantor in Pápa, Hungary. Before that moment, Blum had had no idea that he descended from a distinguished dynasty of cantors (a family line that also includes composer and maestro Yankele Rottner in Israel).

Once he realized that chazzanut was in his genes, he fully embraced it. He decided he wanted to bring back the authentic, classic sound, and today, listeners often comment that he reminds them of the great chazzanim of the past. His grandmother also loved opera. As he grew up, she would play records of the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso while washing the dishes, as well as of Cantor Zavel Kwartin. Listening to this music at home deeply influenced Blum’s personal style, and today he performs opera as well. He notes that Caruso himself used to attend Yossele Rosenblatt’s performances.

Music flowed from Blum’s father’s side as well. His paternal grandfather grew up in Williamsburg and sang as a child in the choir of Lewis (Leibele) Waldman. Very musical himself, his grandfather taught Blum music and many Yiddish songs. He loved Moishe Oisher and Shalom Secunda, and was constantly singing with his grandchildren. (Blum is one of eight boys – seven of whom sing, while one became a lawyer). Furthermore, his paternal great-grandmother was so passionate about music that she would go to the Yiddish theater, memorize the songs, and sing them to her children at home.

He is also a big fan of Cantor Gershon Sirota, who actually made the very first recorded Jewish music album, recorded in 1902 and released in 1903. Sirota created that historic recording together with Leo Low, the conductor and choirmaster from the Great Synagogue of Vilna. Remarkably, Blum’s grandmother once shared another family connection with him: Leo Low was her cousin.

About three or four years ago, after one of his concerts, a man walked up to Blum to thank him and express how deeply he appreciated the performance. When Blum asked for his name, the man replied: “Jeff Sirota.” As it turned out, he was the great-great-grandson of the legendary Cantor Gershon Sirota himself.

Even when Blum didn’t fully realize it, chazzanut was always coursing through his veins. Ever since his bar mitzvah, he has been leading prayers as a baal tefillah. At around the age of 15 or 16, he began taking formal vocal and cantorial lessons. He trained under Cantor Pinchas Kohn of Manhattan Beach and Cantor Lefkowitz (who had succeeded the legendary Cantor Joshua Lind). By the age of 17, he had landed his first official position as the main chazzan at Congregation Etz Chaim of Flatbush, with his brothers joining him on stage as his choir.

Over the years, he traveled widely to lead special Shabbatot in various synagogues. After his tenure at Congregation Etz Chaim, he took a short break to get married. While he continued to officiate for Shabbatot here and there, he wasn’t fully immersed in it full-time.

One memorable Shabbat in 2024 was spent at the Palm Beach Synagogue. During the services, when Will Scharf was appointed to his role of White House staff secretary by President Trump, Blum burst into a spirited “Siman Tov U’Mazal Tov,” leading the congregation in singing and congratulating him on the new appointment.

A few years later, he secured a position as chief cantor at the Jewish Family Experience in Cleveland – a large congregation of over 500 members. Today, he serves as the chief cantor of Anshei Emuna Congregation in Delray Beach, Florida. Alongside his pulpit duties, he performs in concerts, sings at chuppahs, and finds deep fulfillment in singing for patients in hospitals – where sometimes, he jokes, the patient’s family enjoys the singing even more than the patient!

He shared a moving story from a recent chuppah of a young bride who had lost her father. Years prior, when her father was ill, Blum used to come and sing for him. One of the songs he frequently sang at his bedside was “Shir LaMa’alot” – the very same song he was asked to perform under her chuppah. After the wedding, one of the late father’s grandchildren approached Blum and shared that the grandmother still regularly watches recordings of him singing that melody to her late husband.

I asked Blum what he thinks makes his chazzanut unique.

He sings with his choir, which consists of four of his brothers. His brother Pinchas is the maestro, and tries to arrange the choir like those of the Golden Age. Today, Blum says, the more modern choirs add more music. What used to last three minutes now lasts seven. Instead of the choir blending with the cantor, it becomes separate, like two performances – the cantor will sing for 20 seconds, and then there will be about 30 seconds of the choir. When there are so many more choir portions, you lose the feeling of the song, Blum said. In the Golden Age, however, they wrote the choir portions to be one with the chazzan, not a separate show.

His brother Pinchas tries to use the older approach when he writes the music for him and his siblings. He studied the old choirs, such as those of Meyer Machtenberg and Leo Low, for example, and he tries to do the same.

Before they had a chance to hear him, many people who saw Blum in shul with his chazzan’s hat and outfit would say: “This is not my thing. Chazzanut is not my thing.” But after davening, they came over and said, “I could sit the whole day and listen to this.” These were not only older people, but also young people, Blum recalled.

Young boys who listen to rap came to him and said they loved his chazzanut. When it’s done the Golden Age way – when you draw out the feeling and don’t lose the momentum – even young kids like it.

Who are Blum’s favorite cantors? Yossele Rosenblatt and Gershon Sirota, but he also likes Zavel Kwartin, Mordechai Hershman, and Caruso (Caruso is not a cantor, of course, but an Italian operatic tenor). He noted that, interestingly, Rosenblatt learned some vocal tips and tricks from Caruso. But Caruso also learned from Rosenblatt, as well as from Sirota. Caruso even once came to visit and listen to Rosenblatt he was a chazzan in Germany.

Blum’s favorite cantorial piece is “K’vodo Maleh Olam” by Gershon Sirota.

To prepare for the High Holidays, Blum and the choir (his brothers) put in hours and hours of preparation. They are always learning new pieces and perfecting everything. They start in the summer, already in the month of Av, without waiting for Elul. Last year, he spent a very long time preparing “U’netanneh Tokef,” but during the tefillah itself, he felt he needed to do his own thing and just composed the tune on the spot. After davening, a person who sings on Broadway came over and complimented him, saying how beautiful it was.

After all, chazzanut is a live performance, and sometimes, the chazzan just needs to do what feels right in the moment.

Cantor Blum will be doing Selichos this year at Congregation Anshei Sfard of Boro Park on Motzaei Shabbat, September 5.