A spokesman for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the association of Reform rabbis, said today that the appointment of Rabbi Stuart Gertman and his wife, Cantor Jean Sager, by the Fairmount Temple in Cleveland was the first husband-and-wife rabbinical and cantorial team to work in one synagogue.
The appointment is effective July 1. when Gertman, who has been director of the New York Federation of Reform Synagogues since 1976, will assume primary responsibility as associate rabbi, for the education program of the Temple, of which the senior rabbi is Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld. Cantor Sager, who is presently cantor and music director of Temple Beth Am in Merrick, N.Y., will become canter and music director of Fairmount Temple.
Gertman was ordained in New York at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (JUC-JIR) and became associate rabbi and director of education at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y. before taking his present post. Sager received a Master’s degree in Music Literature from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1975, and studied at the Juilliard School of Music and the Sorbonne. She was invested as cantor at the HUC-JIR School of Sacred Music in 1978. She has made appearances with the Bronx Opera Company and the New York Lyric Opera.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
