For Washington Hebrew Congregation’s first female cantor, Susan Bortnick, WHC is her home. The Northwest D.C. synagogue provided Bortnick with her first job out of school and is also where she met her husband; the two are raising their three daughters there.
Bortnick joined WHC as a cantor in 2001 and was appointed senior cantor in 2020. She and the senior rabbi, Susan Shankman, have worked together at WHC for 23 years, which Bortnick said is a “real blessing of this job and this congregation.”
Having grown up in a musical family, Bortnick played the violin and knew she wanted to be a cantor from the age of 14.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up in a very different environment. I grew up from the age of 6 in Amarillo, Texas, in a very small Jewish community, but there was a Jewish community and a synagogue. My family was very active; that typically tends to happen in communities that are not large Jewish populations. The way to feel Jewish and to be around other Jews is to come to synagogue because you’re not necessarily seeing them at school or in the workplace or neighborhood. Throughout most of my childhood, my parents switched off between the presidency of the synagogue or the director of education if they were teaching in the religious school.
How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up without a cantor. We had a rabbi for most of my time [at] Temple B’Nai Israel in Amarillo. When I was 14, a cantor from Houston was brought in to talk about what the cantor does, the role of the cantor, how it differs from rabbi, the job description, all the duties the cantor has: leading services, giving concerts, teaching religious school.
What I heard on his first night with us was all I needed to know: The cantor combined singing, pastoral work and teaching into one position, and that was everything I wanted to do. By the time services were over, I declared that I was going to be a cantor. The rest of the week just confirmed that for me.
Soon after, Amarillo could no longer afford to have a permanent rabbi — they would bring in a rabbi once a month from other areas. I was mentored by those rabbis. My mother would always remind me when I was unsure what to do with my life, this was what I wanted to do; that I could make a living doing all the things I loved.
It took a while because going to seminary is a master’s degree; you have to have a bachelor’s. I went to University of Texas; I got a finance degree because I love math. After that, I thought, ‘Yeah, I don’t really want to work in finance,’ and that’s when I called the Hebrew Union College to get information about the cantorial school. I took a year to get the Hebrew knowledge I needed and a couple of the music things I needed. After I graduated UT, I was shipped off to Israel for my first year of cantorial school.
You’re the first female cantor at WHC. What was it like to break the proverbial glass ceiling?
I was hired with two female rabbis, so I never really thought about it. We had a staff of six clergy, and half of us were women — that glass ceiling had already been broken on the rabbi side by a rabbi who was on her way out the door — so I never really thought about it in terms of just myself, but rather the three of us together.
Why do you do the work you do?
I love people and I love Judaism. I think Judaism has something to offer people to help them make sense, to find understanding in the world around them [and] their lives. I love being able to bring Judaism to them and help make it a tool they can use in their lives to understand why they exist, a better understanding of the world around them. We can have more meaning in our lives when we have a better understanding of our place in the world, why the world exists and how the world exists. If I can help people have more understanding of that through the lens of Judaism, then I feel like I’ve done my job.
You met your husband at WHC. Tell me about that.
When I first came, one of the female rabbis and I started a young professionals’ group, 2239. One of the things we did for them was High Holiday services. My very first Rosh Hashanah, [my now-husband] walked down the hallway, came up and asked me a question, and then at Yom Kippur, sat next to me at the break fast. By Sukkot, we were dating. We’re raising our three daughters here and they’re very active. My oldest is the vice president of our youth group now.
What do you like best about D.C.’s Jewish community?
One of the things that drew me to Washington Hebrew and has always kept me here is that they have a multi-generational family here. People may leave for college, but they tend to come back. You see this at Washington Hebrew and the community in general. You’ll have grandparents, parents and children all [WHC] members at the same time, and that is super cool because you have an opportunity to become part of a family. I have the privilege of doing someone’s bar mitzvah, wedding and the baby naming of their child. That’s super cool. I also do funerals for grandparents. To be able to be a part of a family life through successive life-cycle events over 20 years’ time is really rewarding and such a privilege.
