Born in Lodz, Poland in 1928, Cantor Samuel Heber was a young boy when he arrived in the USA on January 1940. Narrowly escaping Europe just before the Nazis invaded Paris, he eventually made his home in St. Louis MO.
He studied Chazzanus under the famed cantor and composer Joshua Weiser in his youth and received his ordination from the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY in 1952. It was at this time that he was invited to St. Louis MO to become a Hazzan at the city’s largest Orthodox congregation. He served as Cantor at Tpheris Israel Chevra Kadisha Congregation in St. Louis, MO until 1973 and officiated at Chesed Shel Emes Congregation (now U.CityShul) for a decade after.
His lyric tenor voice with baritone qualities was unusually brilliant in tone and emotional in warmth. He appeared before audiences throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico and Europe. In 1968 while attending the International Conference of Cantors and Choirs in Israel he was invited to perform in the home of Israel's third president, Zalman Shazar.
Even in his later years he was sought after as a High Holy Day Cantor in congregations around the world.
