Where to start! OK, picture this… I’m at one of the final remaining Borsht Belt hotels in the Catskills, The Homowack. It’s the late 1990’s and I’m there for a school retreat with fellow Academy for Jewish Religion students, faculty and administration.
Somehow word spreads among the other guests in the hotel that Sol Zim is in the building; There was a sighting. Mayhem ensues. Sol and I who were just standing in the lobby gabbing, are suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of gushing women fans. Oh my! It took all the clever ploys he and I had in us to rescue him from this flurry of aggressive, yet coyly blushing senior Jewish ladies…
I studied with the “Superstar of Jewish Music,” Sol Zim, from about 1997 to 2003. Yes, he was demanding and mostly unfiltered, yet he was a very personable and caring teacher. As a newer student, I was not eligible to coach privately with him early on, but I fought for the opportunity very hard and actually succeeded to be one of his first students.
I was able to convince the Dean of Cantorial studies how important it was to me that I study with him. You see, he and his brother, Paul Zim, the two having formed the popular touring act, The Zim Brothers, were hired to perform a concert at my childhood synagogue in the early 1960’s. I was the only Cantorial student that had childhood memories of his early work and the Dean appreciated the emotional connection that I had conveyed and my thirst for this opportunity.
I established a wonderful relationship with Sol just as many of my fellow students. His classes were great and his coaching demanding, as it should be. He still teaches at my seminary, The Academy for Jewish Religion, NY.
Cantor Sol Zim comes from a long line of Cantors; I believe it was 6 generations of Hazzanim. And, just as his ancestors did before him, he was sent off at the beginning of his 6th year of his childhood and then every year after that, to a new host Cantor, to live in the Cantor’s house, living with the Cantor’s family, to learn Cantorial music; Total immersion from the youngest age. He served as a boy soprano in each Cantor’s choir; a very precious role… until his voice changed.
I asked him how he felt about being sent to live in one strange home after another, and he said he really enjoyed studying and being around fellow singers, even as a young child and didn’t mind it at all. He was groomed for this vocation from birth. That is how he became an absolute singing machine and the Cantorial wonder that he is.
During one of the projects that he guided me on, he handed me a book of music that was his grandfather’s. I only needed a few songs from it for the project but he wanted me to keep it. I just couldn’t. I insisted that he take it back… it had his grandfather’s name, their original family name, scribbled on the inside cover. If I remember correctly, the progression of the Zim name through the generations went from something like Zimmelwitz, to Zimmel to Zim, ending at the present three letter version. (Nowhere to go from here but to just Z!)
My more complete story of Sol Zim will need a few weeks of Cantor’s Picks. I will have to settle for the tidbits that I was able to share today. Please enjoy this adorable film clip from the Israel Festival, 1984. Sol in his inimitable style is shown singing and dancing to his lively, Shalom Aleichem (Peace Be Upon You.) Shalom Aleichem can be found in our Mishkan Tefillah prayerbook on page 142, in the Friday Night Service.
