Biography
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Hazzan Howard Shalowitz was born in Chicago, Illinois. He began singing at the age of 10 as a boy soloist in various High Holy Day choirs throughout the Chicago area as well as on recordings, radio, and television. After he was graduated from the Solomon Schechter Day School, he studied at the Hebrew Theological College and received a diploma from both the High School of Jewish Studies and New Trier West High School.
While attending college, he sang solos with symphony orchestras, sang the lead tenor roles in six Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, served as hazzan at Tikvat Shalom Congregation, and delivered a singing telegram to opera star Luciano Pavarotti. He then received his Bachelor of Arts degree and completed his Master of Arts coursework while on a voice scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.
After attending the Jewish Theological Seminary of America Cantors Institute, he received his Juris Doctor degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. Since the age of 18, he has officiated as the High Holy Day hazzan at various congregations throughout the United States and Canada; including nine years at the prestigious Sutton Place Synagogue in New York City, and at the Loop Synagogue in Chicago. As chairman of the Cantors Assembly’s Ambassador Program Committee, he led services and lectured on Jewish music throughout North America. He has also been the hazzan in residence at 6 week-long Imun adult education programs for lay leaders of congregations. From 1999 to 2003, Hazzan Shalowitz served as the hazzan for Passover at the Radisson-Deauville in Miami Beach; and from 2004 to 2012, as the hazzan for Passover cruises in the Caribbean.
He has served as an adjunct professor of Jewish Music at Webster University, a guest lecturer on Jewish music at the University of Miami, and an instructor at Washington University's Lifelong Learning Institute. He has authored several published articles about Jewish life in smaller Jewish communities around the World including those in Tahiti, San Juan, The Dominican Republic, Norway, Martinique, Barbados, and St. Thomas. He has led tours of the Jewish communities in Martinique, Barbados, Panama, and San Juan.
He is the president of the St. Louis Circle of Jewish Music, the past-President of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) and the St. Louis Bar Foundation; served on the Board of Governors of the Missouri Bar; and served as Vice President of the Midwest Jewish Congress.
Shalowitz has been featured in publications for his dual vocational accomplishments as a lawyer and a cantor, including in the American Bar Association Journal and the American Bar Association Bar Leader magazine.
He has sung numerous times at naturalization ceremonies in federal court, and has served on the faculty of the Central Agency for Jewish Education and at Block Yeshiva High School.
For all of his volunteer work in the St. Louis community, he received the JCCA Mitzvah Star Award. In 2010, The Cantors Assembly awarded a Scholar Certificate to him for his continuing education and scholarship in Jewish Music.
Hazzan Shalowitz wrote, narrated, and produced 4 television programs for the Jewish holidays: The Sound of the Shofar, The Light of the Menorah, The Cup of Elijah, and The Scroll of Esther, which have aired on St. Louis television for over 24 years. He won a national Telly Award as co-host of the weekly television show See/Hear; and hosted a weekly television show Legally Speaking in St. Louis. Shalowitz continues to be seen on HEC-TV with programs that are broadcast worldwide.
Since 2016, Hazzan Shalowitz has been the hazzan for "Show Me Hanukkah" by leading the blessings and songs for Hanukkah at the Missouri Governor's Mansion. On January 1, 2020, Hazzan Shalowitz completed the entire 7-1/2 year cycle of Daf Yomi by finishing reading the entire Babylonian Talmud, and is now over 4 years into his second cycle of Daf Yomi. He continues to lead services and lecture on Jewish music worldwide with his most recent engagement in Curacao.
