Cantor Steve Shor
President

Cantor Eliezer Kepecs
Vice President

Cantor Michael Trachtenberg
Treasurer

Cantor Gary Buchwald
Secretary

Trustees
Cantor Victor I. Beck
Cantor Mordechai Edry
Cantor Leslie Rimer
Cantor Yehuda Rossler
Cantor Todd Rosner
Cantor Edward Smith

Past Presidents
Cantor David Montefiore
Cantor Victor I. Beck
Cantor Nathaniel Benjamin
Cantor Samuel Gomberg
Cantor Nathan H. Muchnick
Cantor Chaskele Ritter
Cantor Henry Butensky
Cantor David Rosenzweig
Cantor Sidney Mandel
Cantor Samuel Pinsky
Cantor Murray Bazian
Cantor Nathan H. Muchnick
Cantor Benjamin Alpert
Cantor Nathan H. Muchnick
Cantor Samuel Vigoda
Cantor Herman Marchbein
Cantor Ephraim Rosenberg
Cantor Seymour Hirschman
Cantor Zalman Yavneh
Cantor Moshe Erstling
Cantor Yehoshua Weiser
Cantor Jacob Schwartz
Cantor Mordechai Yardeini
Cantor Samuel Weiser
Cantor Jacob Schwartz
Cantor Joseph Mirsky
Cantor Louis Lipitz
Cantor Benzion Kapov Kagan
Cantor Pinchus Jassinowsky
Cantor Berele Chagy
Cantor Jacob Rappaport
Cantor Jacob Schwartz
Cantor Mordecai Hillman
Cantor Nathan Abramson
Cantor Solomon Baum
Cantor Simon Schlager
Cantor Abraham Minkowsky

Honorary Presidents
Cantor Gershon Ephross
Cantor Moshe Ganchoff
Cantor Leib Glantz
Cantor Mordechai Hershman
Cantor Adolph Katchko
Cantor Sholom Katz
Cantor David Koussevitsky
Cantor Moshe Koussevitsky
Cantor Zavel Kwartin
Cantor Pierre Pinchik
Cantor Dovid Roitman
Cantor Joseph Rosenblatt
Cantor Sidney Schikoff
Cantor Joseph Shlisky
Cantor Leib Waldman
Cantor Zavel Zilberts

In 1891 an effort was made to organize an association of traditional cantors in North America. Finally, in 1897, the Jewish Ministers Cantor Association of America & Canada was formed. For the better part of the 20th Century, the JMCA has been a beacon that shown from Ellis Island to the Bronx to the lower East Side to the Flatlands and to the Belt Parkway from its home in New York City. The organization grew with a membership that survived the pogroms of Eastern Europe of the 1890s, the refugees of World War I and the remnants of Jewry that came to our shores of America after the decimation of the World War II Holocaust and the destruction of hundreds of synagogues where our cantors served our Jewish communities. Their very lives and families depended on the camaraderie and support of this organization when they came to this Goldene Medina – The Golden Land. The JMCA was, in many cases, their life, the only place where they could find a friendly ear or a welcome hand and in the good old days - parnoso – a shtele – work with its Yiddishisms and its comforting name: Der Chazzonim Farband - The Cantors Union - The JMCA. The JMCA grew, as did the early Hebrew Actors' Union, forerunner to Actors’ Equity, which had it's beginnings in the Yiddish Theatre of Second Avenue. And like the ILGWU (the International Ladies Garment Union and other AFL-CIO affiliates). Indeed, the JMCA grew with a burgeoning New York and a burgeoning America as it supplied Jewish communities all over the country and Canada with traditional Hazzanim – cantors. The JMCA has a glorious history and a membership that included some of the greatest talents of the past century. It is interesting to note that on December 9, 1947, the JMCA celebrated its 50th Anniversary Concert at the Metropolitan Opera House with such luminaries as Cantors: Berele Chagy, Moshe Ganchoff, Samuel Vigoda, Leib Glantz, Eliezer Zaslavsky, Moshe Koussevitsky and Benzion Kapov-Kagan.

The JMCA is dedicated to continuing their example of excellence, service and talent to the Jewish Community