Israel Alter was born in Lemberg (Lwow), Poland at 23 September of 1901. His family was noted for its line of distinguished rabbis. With the rise of Hassidism in the eightteen century, the family was drawn into the movement and so it came about that young Israel was raised in a typical ultra-Hassidic home.

He had early developed a beatiful voice, and by the time he was seven was often called upon to chant the services in the local synagogue. At the close at World War I, having turned seventeen, young Israel decided to devote himself to music.

With the reluctant consent of his parents he left for Vienna to enroll in the State Academy for Music and Art, where he was a pupil of the renowned Professor Stefan Pollman, presently in London. He also studied hazzanut with the two most distinguished cantors of Vienna, Yitshak Tsvi Halperin and Leibush Miller. At twenty Alter took his first cantorial position, succeeding Josef Basser at the Brigittenauer Tempel-Verein and serving for three years.

In 1925 he was called by the Jewish community of Hanover, Germany to be obercantor of the Synagogen Gemeinde. there he remained for ten years. There he remained for ten years.

With the rise of Hitlerism Alter left Germany in 1935 for South Africa to become cantor in Johannesburg – The United Hebrew Congregation. Here he continued until 1961, when he moved to the United States and joined the faculty of the School of Sacred Music in New York.