Religious singing can be traced back to the beginnings of recorded history. The earliest example of a singer leading musical worship in the Jewish faith dates back to Miriam in Exodus 15: 19–21: “Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.’”
The role of cantor does not appear in historical records until the seventh century B.C.E. in Babylonia. Cantorial music prospered in the ensuing centuries—reaching its height in the years between World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45) in Europe.
Traditionally, males over the age of 12 or 13 (depending on the branch of Judaism) were allowed to become cantors. In 1955, Betty Robbins was appointed as cantor of Temple Avodah, a Reform congregation in Oceanside, New York—becoming what many believe to be the first female cantor in Judaism’s 5,000-year history. Today, all major Judaic religious movements except the Orthodox movement allow women to serve as cantors.