My Son, the Singer

When Simcha Leiner was ten years old, he tried to get into his camp’s choir, but was rejected. He was very disappointed. Decades later, his mother, Chavi Leiner, smiles at the memory. “The rejection doesn’t seem to have stopped him…” she says.

“I thought my children were musical like anyone else who was musical,” says Carol Razel, mother of famed singers and composers Yonatan Razel, Aharon Razel, and Ricka Razel-Van Leeuwen, “until my oldest, Yonatan, began high school. They placed him in the regular track for math, instead of the honors track. As a mom with a college degree in mathematics, I was furious. When I asked the principal why Yonatan wasn’t in the higher-level classes, he looked at me and said, ‘Well, your son is an extremely talented musician. I think it would be a pity for him to be doing math homework instead of practicing music.’ That was the first time I understood that what Yonatan had was a real gift.”

World-renowned chazzan Avremi Roth’s parents realized his incredible musical talent when he was all of eight months old. “Avremi was a baby who cried excessively, much more than the average infant. One day, I decided to play music for him. I put on some classical music, and to my surprise, he immediately calmed down,” says his mother, Sarah. “Around that time, we met someone involved in music, and I pointed out that when Avremi cried or babbled, he didn’t sound like a typical baby. The man listened carefully and responded, ‘He has a unique voice.’”

When he was a little older, Avremi’s grandfather would sing him pieces of cantorial music, and after hearing it once or twice, he’d already know it by heart and be able to sing it in his own little voice. By the time he was five, he’d begun learning to play the piano. Since his feet couldn’t reach the pedals, special pedals had to be made for him.