For their small wedding in the living room of her parents’ home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1974, Gabrielle and Tim Lawrence turned to a family friend, the only Jewish officiant in the region willing to co-officiate an interfaith marriage between a Jewish woman and a Methodist man: Cantor Alvin Donald.
When their youngest daughter, Kate, married her husband, Marco, in Frederick more than 30 years later, they, too, joined the ranks of the roughly 5,000 couples whose weddings Cantor Donald officiated in nearly three decades as one of the leading progressive Jewish leaders in the region.
“It was a lovely way to complete the life cycle,” said Gabrielle Lawrence, who now lives in Randallstown. “When you stand there under the chuppah and listen, you realize this is especially special.”
Cantor Donald, the cantor emeritus at Temple Emanuel in Randallstown and a popular Jewish wedding officiant , died April 13 due to complications from the coronavirus at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown. He was 92.
Suffering from several preexisting conditions, including two types of cancer, five stents, myasthenia and macular degeneration, Cantor Donald was taken to the hospital three days earlier from the Atrium Village in Owings Mills with fatigue and a wet cough that had set in the week before, his daughter said.
He and his wife, Geri Axelman, who also was hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, had been living at the facility since December, said their daughter Joyce Axelman.
“No one thought it was coronavirus,” said the daughter, a Johns Hopkins researcher who lives in Pikesville. “Neither of them had the symptoms — a fever, dry cough. This was fatigue and a wet cough, like the regular flu.”
Cantor Donald was one of the most in-demand Jewish wedding officiants in Maryland, friends and family said, thanks to his remarkable operatic voice and willingness to preside over interfaith and interracial ceremonies.
He retired two years ago after presiding over a final ceremony: the wedding of his granddaughter Stacey Holland to Adam Konstas, of Baltimore.
Cantor Donald’s former summer routine of driving all over the region to several weddings each weekend made for a hectic schedule, but “he didn’t like to say no to any of them,” Ms. Axelman said.
“He always thought it was better to have some kind of Jewish ceremony than no religion at all,” she said.
Alvin Donald was born May 18, 1927, to Morris Donald, a furrier, and the former Marie Braver, a homemaker. He grew up on Eastern Avenue in East Baltimore and enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 upon his graduation from the Baltimore City College in 1944, his family said.
Stationed at the former U.S. Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, in Port Deposit, Maryland, Seaman 1st Class Donald was proud for the rest of his life of patrolling the Chesapeake Bay for any enemy submarines — particularly during summer crab season.
“He told that story more times than I care to think about,” said his son, Mark Donald, of Lakeland, Florida, with a laugh. “They never found a sub, but they sure as hell protected the Chesapeake Bay.”
A graduate of the Talmudical Academy, Cantor Donald married the former Frances Broth in 1948, and they had two children. The couple lived on Garrison Avenue near Pimlico Race Course in Northwest Baltimore’s Cylburn neighborhood, where he helped form a men’s social club known as the CylGar Club, named for Cylburn and Garrison avenues.
If couples hadn’t already sought out Cantor Donald for his progressiveness, his voice would’ve sealed the deal. An operatic tenor who didn’t need a microphone, especially when singing the liturgy, he had a voice that effortlessly filled a room, his son said. He was a member of the Chizuk Amuno choir during the 1950s and 1960s.
“He could project better than anybody I’ve ever heard sing,” Mr. Donald said. “Once you heard him sing, you’d say, ‘This is the guy.’ His voice was amazing.”
Cantor Donald and Ms. Broth divorced in 1968, and she died of Alzheimer’s in 2003, their son said.
He worked for many years in furniture sales and insurance, becoming a union organizer and shop steward at the old Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., while performing religious duties when called upon, Mr. Donald said.
After the divorce, Cantor Donald moved to Pikesville and married his wife of more than 50 years, Geraldine "Geri" Abarbanel Axelman, and adopted her daughter.
Cantor Donald had a terrific sense of humor, perfect comedic timing and the ability to remember and retell a corny joke from 50 years earlier — all of which he used regularly in his many roles as a salesman, a husband, a father, a cantor and later, a grandfather and great-grandfather.
Cantor Donald was an adventurous eater who would try anything, family said. He particularly loved the shrimp salad at C.J.'s Crabhouse and Grill and the crabcakes at Pappa’s Restaurant and Sports Bar.
His daily morning workouts at the Pikesville Senior Center, and his determination to keep a busy social schedule by surrounding himself with friends, including his breakfast crew and poker group, kept his mind feeling "like I’m 29,” he liked to tell family members.
“He was very much alive," said his son-in-law Ray Franklin. "We really didn’t expect this was how it was going to go down.”
Funeral services at Sol Levinson and Bros. were private. A memorial service to celebrate Cantor Donald’s life will be held at a later date.
In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Cantor Donald is survived by another daughter, Karen Hesse, of Brattleboro, Vermont; four granddaughters and a grandson; and four great-grandsons.