They were/are great chazzanim; especially Taube. What do you do though with someone who grew up non-Orthodox and becomes a cantor out a real desire to do something Jewish with his life? He knows no better. It’s true, under certain circumstances, R. Yosef Dov Soleveitchik together with Rabbi Belkin did allow certain YU musmakhim to take non-Mechitza pulpits on the belief that the rabbi might be able to turn the schul around, or at least stem the tide. Generally these dispensations were for one year subject to reevaluation, and other conditions were often applied as well. The most famous example of a success of this notion is Lincoln Square Synagogue in NYC. When he was frst hired, R. Riskin did not daven in the schul. He davened at a hashkama minyan and then went there to give his sermon but functioned as the congregation’s rabbi in every other way. Eventually he created a vibrant and very important Orthodox schul; albeit one with a controversial mechitza. The heterim had varied success. Some schuls did become Orthodox, others made more limited changes, but did not take the “big jump” and the rabbis in question acted in kind. Some followed the drectives of the Rav and maintained a place in the Orthodox rabbinate, and others didn’t. Eventually such arrnagements became untenable as the chasm between Orthodoxy and Conservatism became too wide.
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