David Fair is a cantor with a theater degree. Of course he’s a budding TikTok star.
A video he shared there last month with his good-natured responses to the sometimes tiresome questions he’s fielded as a cantor has been viewed more than 40,000 times. A second installment, posted a week later, has surpassed 8,000 views.
“I’m a cantor,” Fair says while hoisting a Torah scroll into the air. “Yes, people actually go to school for this.”
“I’m a cantor,” he says while walking the halls of his Reform synagogue, Temple Emanuel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “And not just because I couldn’t make it on Broadway.”
“I’m a cantor,” he says while talking on the phone. “No, I’m sadly not free on Friday night. No, I’m not free next Friday night. Nope, I’m never gonna be free on Friday night.”
@cantor.david I’m a cantor… #whatcantorsdo #cantors ♬ original sound – David
The videos are Fair’s contribution to the #ofcourse trend, where social media users repeat and sometimes act out stereotypes associated with the social or professional groups they belong to — with tongue firmly in cheek. Fair told J. on Monday he was inspired to hop on the trend after seeing Reconstructing Judaism’s “I’m a Reconstructionist rabbi” video on Instagram.
“Everything you see is things that come up that I have to lovingly respond to,” he said, including attempts by members of the Jewish community to set him up with their single granddaughters. “Women do try to fix me up! But I’m in a relationship, so that doesn’t fly,” he said.
In fact, it was Fair’s boyfriend, Corey Dane, a marketing strategist and yogi, who wrote and filmed both videos.
“He’s really the mastermind behind it all,” Fair said with a laugh. “I remember saying to him, ‘How on Earth do you know that?’ He said, ‘David, you come home and you talk about this stuff all the time.”
Fair, 40, grew up in Baltimore and studied theater at the University of Maryland and voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After he was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2021, Temple Emanuel hired him as its cantor and religious school director.
He also joined TikTok that summer as a way to reach a larger audience. “I love TikTok,” he said. “I use it to do what I love doing, which is teaching.”
Most of his more than 100 videos consist of him talking to the camera about issues that are important to him, such as identity, race and Judaism. His most popular video to date, with more than 230,000 views, is about the differences between race, ethnicity and culture. He also makes videos on less serious topics, like the life-altering benefits of a nap followed by a bowl of cholent.
@cantor.david Let’s define some terms in regards to labeling. #jewsofcolor #wearenotarace #blackjew ♬ original sound – David
His favorite TikTok accounts include those of Rabbi Sandra Lawson, Rabbi Rebecca Schorr, TV host Joy Reid and early childhood education accounts such as TheChildcareWhisperer.
“Rabbi Lawson does what I’m trying to do, using it as an educational tool and always trying to communicate courtesy and respect even in the midst of the trolls,” he said. After one user left a comment on his first “I’m a cantor” video accusing him of supporting genocide in Gaza, Fair recorded a patient, three-minute-plus response on his conflicted feelings about the Israel-Hamas war.
Many viewers of his “I’m a cantor” videos may not have been aware that Fair is the only ordained Black cantor in the United States. (He will soon be joined by Jenni Asher, who will become the first Black woman cantor when she graduates from cantorial school next year.)
“I think it’s really important that Jews of color, especially Jews of color in leadership, are visible,” said Fair, the son of a white, Jewish mother and a Black, non-Jewish father. He added that being a Jew of color is “definitely part of my identity and something I’m very proud of, but it’s not the primary fact of who I am. I would say my faith is who I am and the kindness I try to show to people.”
Fair has been thrilled by the response he’s received to his #ofcourse series and is considering making a third part — with his boyfriend’s assistance, of course.
“It makes me happy that people are deriving joy from it, and especially that cantors are feeling like our experience is being told,” he said. “Every cantor has had a Mrs. Silverstein walk up to them and ask, ‘Can you turn the heat up a little bit?’”