Jack Halpert was born in 1957 in Zilina, Czechoslovakia into a music loving family and the younger of two children. The family moved to Ireland in 1964 when his late father, Cantor Isaac Halpert was appointed Chief Cantor of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation, a position he held until his retirement in 1980. Jack had his first musical experience at the age of 8 when he was asked to sing in his father’s choir and it was during the following years spent alongside his father in the Synagogue that Jack learnt and grew to love the art of Chazzanut. He went on to study Liturgical music under Leo Brill at Jew’s College, London and later returned to Dublin to study voice production at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
With a love of music and theatre from a young age, Jack performed in numerous musicals, revues, and comedies in reparatory and even branching into opera when he had the opportunity to perform in the chorus of “The Magic Flute” for the Dublin Opera Society as well as “Aida” in London. It was during this period spent in London in early 1980s that Jack had the privilege of conducting the High Holy Day services at the prestigious Western Synagogue in Crawford Place, Westminster.
In 1984 Jack moved to Canada to join the rest of his family who were now living in Toronto. During this period Jack formed his own Chassidic band performing for various Jewish communities throughout Ontario, produced concerts, worked a s a casting agency supplying extras for the film industry as well as officiating at High Holy Day services when the opportunity arose.
Following the decision to move over to Israel in 1989, Jack put the entertainment profession on hold and embarked on a new life in the tourism industry. It was a few years later that he met his partner Kate, and despite the country’s unstable political situation during this time they settled in Jerusalem and continued the travel business together.
The period 2000 to 2003 saw tourism in Israel suffer unpredictable highs and lows and with no immediate sight of a full recovery, Jack and Kate decided it was time to return to England and in April 2004 they moved back to Kate’s home city of Norwich. Jack quickly became involved with the Norwich Hebrew Congregation and during the past five years officiated as their Cantor assisting during the High Holy days and occasional weekly services.
Over the past couple of years Jack suffered ill health, which despite sapping most of his physical energy it did not dampen his enthusiasm for life, his mind constantly churning out new ideas and future plans. He was immensely proud of his Jewish values and nothing gave him greater pleasure than the opportunity to share his vast knowledge of Judaism with those around him.
Kate Ellis