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Longtime Cantor Isaac Wall Dies at 103
OB ITUARY
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
SI LE
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EN OP
UPPE R DU BLI N
NO W
to New York when he was
9 — he often was dubbed a
wunderkind, daughter Ahavia
Scheindlin said.

In New York, Wall studied
the Talmud, liturgy and voice
and, by 13, was davening as a
cantor for the High Holidays
in Hartford, Connecticut,
including a performance for
the governor. Ever noted that
Wall’s bar mitzvah invitation
referred to him as Hazzan
Isaac Wall.

S EL
OD M
NG !
CANTOR ISAAC WALL,
whose 90-year career included
serving for 47 years as Har
Zion Temple’s cantor and
nearly 30 years in the same role
at Congregation Rodef Shalom
in Atlantic City, died Jan. 11.

He was 103.

“He was the king, he really
was, of his craft. What man
today can say, ‘For 75 years
I led congregations and was
the superstar?,’” Rodef Shalom
Rabbi Shalom Ever said. “He
was the crown jewel of our
synagogue.” Wall was born in Poland on
Dec. 23, 1917, and moved with
his family to Denver in 1919.

He received Jewish religious
training under the guidance
of his father and had already
displayed his hazzanut talent
by the time the family moved
Cantor Isaac Wall
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4 FEBRUARY 11, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Wall served as a cantor for
several New York synagogues
over the next few years,
then took a job in Houston,
traveling around Texas to
conduct services for the armed
forces during World War II.

He arrived at Conservative
Har Zion in 1944 — after
synagogue congregants heard
him sing during a visit to the
Jersey shore — and further
made a name for himself.

“He was a lot of the reason
I came to the congregation,”
said Cantor Eliot Vogel, his
successor at Har Zion.

Wall had a deep respect
for his profession, which was
reflected in his modesty, Vogel
said. “It wasn’t about the bimah
as a stage. It was all about the
prayer,” he said. “Many people
would say he’s a hazzan’s
hazzan, a true pulpit artist.”
“He had a beautiful baritone
Photo by Rebbetzin Sera Ever
voice and never overdid it,” said
son Joshua Wall, adding that
many people have told him that
when they listen to a cantor
now, they always compare that
hazzan to his father. “He was
part of everyone’s family lives
and their important moments.”
Over the years, Wall
prepared thousands of boys for
their bar mitzvahs, Scheindlin
said. Those boys never forgot
the cantor.

“I met them wherever I went
in the world,” she said.

Wall retired and moved
to Ventnor, New Jersey, in
1991, becoming the full-time
volunteer cantor at Orthodox
Congregation Rodef Shalom
shortly thereafter.

Wall’s cantorial gifts mixed
with an overriding sense of
service, even in his later days,
Ever said, noting that he braved
snow and bad weather despite
being urged to stay home.

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