Madame Goldye Steiner was the first known African-American woman singer of khazones, or Ashkenazi Jewish liturgical music. She was the only known African-American woman in the khaznte artistic movement in which non-synagogue audiences experienced khazones, sung by women in concert halls, on the radio, and on gramophone recordings.

Barbara Ostfeld became the first ordained female cantor at age 22, serving a number of temples in her tenure. Ostfeld was passionate about music from a young age and finds joy in her work through poetry and musical theory alike. She is also a writer; her essays on feminism and cantorial work have been printed in several publications. 

Julie Johanna Isner Engel dreamed of becoming a professional opera singer in Germany in the 1930s, but the rise of the Nazis interrupted that dream. Escaping to the United States, she trained her voice in synagogue choirs and local opera performances. In the 1970s, she took a cantorial position at a synagogue in Queens, one of a pioneering generation of women cantors.