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A Cantor and a Mensch
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Cantor Leonard Gutman
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A Cantor and a Mensch
Shaarey Zedek Assistant Cantor Leonard Gutman retires after 21 years.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
After 21 years, Assistant Cantor Leonard Gutman has retired from Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
Gutman touched many lives in the Detroit Jewish community through the performance of weddings, b’nai mitzvah, baby namings, funerals, High Holiday and weekly services.
A native Detroiter, Gutman was with CSZ as an assistant cantor since August 2000 but began attending the shul when the congregation was housed on Chicago Boulevard. He prides himself on taking a hobby and making it into a fulltime career.
As assistant cantor, Gutman led CSZ morning and evening services and read Torah at minyan as well as on Shabbat and on holidays. He also helped guide CSZ b’nai mitzvah students and led shivah minyans.
Gutman had been thinking about retirement for about a year.
“It was time to turn the reins over to someone else,” he said. “But I will be always grateful to Rabbi Irwin Groner and Congregational Past President Larry Berry who hired me, as well as having the counsel of the past presidents of Shaarey Zedek, who guided me along this extraordinary life path.”
Gutman received his Jewish education at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah and graduated from Wayne State University in 1972 with a B.A. in history. He had the benefit of being under the tutelage of several chazzanim in the Detroit area: Simon Bermanis, Max Shimansky, Chaim Najman and Meir Finkelstein, with Hazzan David Propis, as well as Rev. Joseph Baras, who expertly taught him to read Torah.
“I had great mentors. They were all very instrumental in my growth. I will always be grateful because each one took me to another level,” Gutman said.
It was the Torah reading that really got him started, reading at various synagogues throughout the community while he made his living elsewhere. Then came the opening at Shaarey Zedek when Cantor Sidney Rube retired.
One of Gutman’s greatest efforts was making time for all CSZ staff and congregants.
“I made sure I always talked to all the employees. whether it would be a rabbi, a cantor, a hazzan or the maintenance person,” Gutman said. “It was always nice to talk to them and get to know them.
“I loved having relationships with the congregants, too,” he added. “Taking care of their concerns, it was very gratifying for me.”
Gutman prided himself on knowing everybody’s Hebrew name by heart, one of many ways he connected himself to the congregation and community.
A PROUD TEACHER
Gutman said he enjoyed teaching the kids their lessons, teaching them how to daven and getting them through their bar and bat mitzvahs and then seeing them grow up and become productive members of society.
“It touched my heart. They knew they could count on me. I made sure they had someone at the synagogue to call all the time, day or night. Seeing how families grew, it was really wonderful to see.”
Over the past 21 years at Shaarey Zedek, Gutman estimates he supported the b’nai mitzvah preparation for more than 1,000 kids.
“I felt it was really important to be consistent, to be who I am, and to answer congregants’
Cantor Gutman helps Max Young with bar mitzvah preparation.
questions or concerns to the best of my ability and within my knowledge,” Gutman said. “I always was truthful with them, and I felt that was very important to establish and continue relationships, which is the name of the game. Relationships are so important.”
Dr. Richard Brown, former CSZ president, has known Gutman since he started, becoming close with him not only in synagogue life, but personally as well.
“He’s kind, caring and professional in his synagoguerelated activities, and those qualities carry over into his personal life,” Brown said.
“He took his profession home with him. That’s the way he was with everybody and still is.”
Brown believes Gutman’s legacy at CSZ will be a respect in quality of performance and a respect from all the members.
‘TRUE PROFESSIONAL’
“A true professional. Always available, always there, every morning and night. When you had an issue, it came before everything else,” Dr. Brown said.
An example of Gutman’s kindness, he was famous for making sure congregants weren’t alone on a holiday.
Kathleen Brown, a Shaarey Zedek congregant, remembers a time Gutman extended his generous hand when she was a widow, and before she got remarried to Dr. Brown.
“Cantor Gutman asked where I was going for the holidays, and I said I’m not really sure. He said, ‘Well I’m sure and you’re coming to my home.’ He said, ‘You’ll come here every holiday every year and if you have somewhere else to go, you’ll tell me, but until then, you’re going to be our family now,’” Brown said.
“There were also other people they took in their home on the holidays, new widows, older people who didn’t have family, and he would personally ask them where they would be.”
Dr. Brown added, “That sums it all up. That’s the kind of person he is. He kept his word because we have been going there together ever since.”
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