NJ Cantor Takes Star Turn In ‘The Plot Against America’

When Matt Axelrod mingled with congregants one weekend last fall during kiddush, a few commented on the fact that he had shaved his beard. He merely nodded and smiled back.

What Axelrod, who is the cantor at Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) in Scotch Plains, N.J., couldn’t reveal at the time was that he had been asked to get rid of the beard to appear as a cantor in HBO’s six-part series, “The Plot Against America.” The show, based on Philip Roth’s novel of the same name, imagines what would have happened if aviator Charles Lindbergh, whose speeches and letters included anti-Semitic and white supremacist leanings, had been elected president in 1940. It focuses on a working-class Jewish family in Newark who watches in dismay as Lindbergh turns the nation toward fascism.

In August, Axelrod received an email from a casting company “out of the blue” asking if he wanted to audition for the role, he said. A few days later, he sang “L’cha dodi” at a New York City casting office where others, who appeared to him to be professional actors, were also trying out. After singing “for 20 seconds,” he said, the casting people thanked him for coming. Later that week, he learned he landed the role.

Airing since March 16, the production, which stars John Turturro and Winona Ryder, was created by David Simon, who is Jewish and well known for his realistic portraits of society’s ills in shows such as “The Wire,” and his collaborator Ed Burns.

Axelrod appears in the final episode, airing Monday, April 20, and his scenes were filmed at Temple Beth-El in Jersey City. He arrived at 5 p.m. and was given his costume — a black robe, a tallit and a mitre, the traditional headwear worn by some cantors during that period — which he had been fitted for earlier, and shown to a small room in a trailer to change. Afterward he said a production assistant came by and told him, “John wants to see you.”

“John,” it turned out, was Turturro, who portrays Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, an opportunistic Conservative rabbi who aligns himself with Lindbergh. The Emmy Award-winning actor wanted Axelrod to teach him “L’cha dodi” to prepare for the scene.

“I sat with John for 20 minutes and basically gave him a bar mitzvah lesson,” Axelrod said. “He was very serious about learning it. He wanted to make sure his pronunciation was right.”

Axelrod can’t reveal details about the plot of the scene he appears in, which took place at the synagogue during a Friday night service. However, in the scene he stands on the bima with Turturro and sings “L’cha dodi,” which means “Come my beloved” and serves to welcome the arrival of Shabbat.

“I sang it over and over again. There were maybe 20 takes,” he recalled. “I would just sing each time until someone yelled, ‘Cut!’”

The cantor was paid a standard actors’ day rate for the gig.

Axelrod and his family will be glued to the television when his episode is broadcast, and he hopes that viewers will appreciate the resonance of the story with the current moment.

“I hope it really hits home that history has a way of repeating itself, and we always have to be on guard,” he said. “We always have to be aware of the past.”

New Jersey Jewish News