ROITMAN, DAVID

ROITMAN, DAVID (1884–1943), ḥazzan and composer. Roitman was born in Dorozhinki, Russia, and studied with several ḥazzanim, notably jacob samuel morogowski (Zeidel Rovner). He was ḥazzan in Vilna (1909–12), St. Petersburg (1912–17), and Odessa, before emigrating to the U.S. in 1921. From 1924 until his death, he officiated at Congregation Shaare Zedek in New York. Roitman had a light, flexible, lyric tenor voice with an exceptional falsetto. He was noted for his clarity of rendition and his power of improvisation, while still maintaining an overall simplicity of expression. His compositions Ashamnu mi-Kol Am (in: G. Ephros (ed.), Cantorial Anthology, 2 (1940), 145–6) and Raḥel Mevakah al Baneha, both deeply moving liturgical laments, achieved widespread popularity. In 1961, L. Avery published Selected Recitatives of Cantor David Roitman.