The Passing of Ben Zion ShenkerZ"L The Modzitz hassidic dynasty has lost a great composer By LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN articles I have read, I have missed a their deaths in Treblinka. Fastag on way of affecting the soul, that plane on the way to Israel and he recent passing of Ben sense of the message of his music. the spot composed a melody for the music can convey messages and inspired by an article he read about Zion Shenker z"l, the ac- And so as we just passed the shelo- words of Maimonides’s principle, awaken feelings that words cannot. Naomi Shemer’s Yerushalayim shel Tknowledged master com- shim (the completion of the first Ani Ma’amin, “I believe in the com- But the tradition of Modzitz never Zahav (“Jerusalem of Gold”). poser and singer of hassidic music, month of mourning), I thought I ing of the Messiah.” He began to understood the words to block the When most people think of joy- has left the Jewish community with would try to get across some of the sing it and all the Jews in that car music from having the spiritual ous hassidic dance music, heard so messages that he sought to teach began to sing along. Fastag asked effect. This notion is behind the often at weddings, they think of through this medium. that if anybody should survive, he custom of Chabad Lubavitch has- loud almost boisterous singing and PERSPECTIVE should bring the melody to his sidim to prefer melodies without sharply defined beats, much of it a great void. He passed away in he Modzitz hassidic dynasty is rebbe who by this time was in New words for the expression of deep created by the electronic tools of Brooklyn on November 20. Ben Tfamous for its complex musical York. Two men jumped off the train spiritual emotion. Modzitz saw the today’s music industry. Ben Zion Zion Schenker was born to hassidic compositions set to words from the and one survived, eventually reach- words and music as one entity. For and the various arrangers who immigrant parents in 1925. They Bible and Siddur (prayer book). raised him with a deep appreciation for Jewish music, played cantorial music for him, and gave him piano lessons. He was soon singing in choirs, made his first record at 13, and had his own 15-minute weekly radio program. He studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, then in Williamsburg, where he received semichah (Rabbinic ordination) and Brooklyn College. When he was a 15-year-old, the Modzitzer Rebbe, Rebbe Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub (1886-1947), of blessed memory, who had recently arrived in Ameri- ca as a refugee, realized that Shenk- er was sight singing the Rebbe’s own composition from a musical score and asked him to be his musi- Ben Zion Shenker z"l, acknowledged master cal secretary. By 1956 he had put composer and singer of hassidic music. out the first hassidic record ever. (Two years later Shlomo Carlebach This music is well known for its released his first record.) From then melodious character, its complexi- ing safety in Switzerland. There he this reason, every musical phrase, worked with him understood things until his passing just a few weeks ty, and especially for the way in found someone to write down the every bar, every note, had to be differently. Joy can be expressed ago, Shenker notated and recorded which every note seems to express musical notes and brought them carefully chosen. even in a slow song, as is the case in innumerable melodies of the Mod- the meaning of the words. It has with his story to relatives of the The music of the Modzitz Rebbes the melodies he composed for the zitzer Rebbes and composed over been performed by the Israel Phil- composer, also named Fastag. They and that of Shenker could be happy Passover hymn Chad Gadya (“One 500 songs of his own. In his later harmonic and because of its com- sent the story and the music to the or sad. On the one hand, it might Kid”). Even for fast melodies, loud- years he began to work with his plexity lends itself beautifully to Modzitzer who asked young Ben express the joy of the Jew in observ- ness and heavy rhythm were not friend and neighbor, the Klezmer full orchestration. Shenker’s own Zion to read the music. Reading the ing the commandments or the joy of what made joy, rather a kind of musician, Andy Statman. Together original compositions were animat- notes, he began singing Ani a specific occasion — one of the fes- light almost “prancy” tone, usually they produced two CDs of Ben ed as well by the spirit and high Ma’amin, and the sad song of the tivals or a family celebration, a bar accompanied softly by brass and Zion’s own compositions. A final artistic quality of these hassidic Holocaust, this haunting melody mitzvah or a wedding. Famous wind instruments. Sadness did not CD is still in production. melodies, although he absorbed the that we all know so well, spread to among Ben Zion Shenker’s own require the often repetitive crying spirit of other hassidic groups dur- the entire Jewish world. The humble melodies is his Yosis Alayich, “Your sounds of East European chazanut ll this and much more you ing a trip to Israel with his father as Ben Zion let years go by before he God will rejoice over you,” com- (cantorial music) but could be Acould have read in a number of a young man. Some of his own told the story of his role in bringing posed in 1965 and sung joyously at transmitted by a slow halting tempo obituaries that related the accom- compositions have become staples this niggun (hassidic melody) to the weddings. But it can also express and by compositions that accented plishments of this man who never in the Jewish community, sung reg- Jewish world. sadness, such as the famous Modzitz the most expressive words in the earned a living from his music, not ularly on Sabbaths and played at One of the main features of the melody Habeit Mishamayim Ure’eh, traditional texts. even collecting royalties for most of weddings. Each one of these melo- music of Modzitz is that it is always “Look from Heaven and See,” call- his recordings and compositions. dies can be seen as a lesson in the composed for the particular words ing on God, begging Him, to be cog- eb Ben Zion spent his entire He worked in the clothing and dia- significance of the words for which in question. Yes, occasionally a nizant of the terrible suffering of His Rlife dedicated to the goal of mond businesses to support his fam- it was composed. melody may be moved from one set people, composed by the Rebbe Rav preserving and spreading the music ily while serving also as the chazzan of words to another, but for that to Shaul right after the Holocaust. of Modzitz and composing his own (cantor) of the Modzitz shteibel et me tell you a story about Reb happen it will have to pass the same These alternating emotions that beautiful music. Shenker’s personal (small synagogue), first in Crown LBen Zion. Sometime in 1945 he test, namely the question of wheth- indeed make up the life of the Jew in archive of recordings (over 600 90- Heights and then in Flatbush. He was present with the Modzitzer er it truly expresses the meaning of modern times permeate this music. minute cassettes, plus tens of reel- was a man of humility and dignity Rebbe and other distinguished rab- those words. The great artistry of They express the tension that we all to-reel tapes) is part of the archives as I discovered when I had the priv- bis and hassidic rebbes at a bris Shenker was in his ability, both in feel when we experience at the same of the Institute for Preservation and ilege of meeting him some years when Rabbi Shaul called him up to interpreting the music of the Mod- time the horrible sadness of the Documentation of Modzitz Music. ago at a wedding. In fact, it is said the front and read a letter to him. It zitzer Rebbes and in composing his Holocaust and the joy of having the Some of his melodies have become that this great artist would perform was a story of how one of the own, to express precisely the inner State of Israel. Special in this con- so famous that many are unwilling free of charge for those who could- rebbe’s relatives, Azriel David Fas- significance of the words. He text is his Velirushalayim Ircha (“To to believe that they were composed n’t afford a singer at their wedding. tag, had been packed with other believed that the music that he com- Jerusalem your city, return in mer- in America, thinking that they must But somehow or other, in all the Jews in a cattle car bringing them to posed and recorded has a special cy”) composed in 1968 on the El Al continued on page 9 8 JEWISH WORLD • DECEMBER 23, 2016 A Great Jewish Bard Leonard Cohen’s Jewish heritage in his life and art By YVETTE ALT MILLER keenly aware of the millions of in which he frankly discusses his He arranged for a concert to be held Cohen’s final album, “You Want lthough Leonard Cohen, the Jews murdered there during World battle with self-hatred but features a in Ramallah and asked Amnesty It Darker,” released three weeks influential, world-famous War II: “I love your body and your powerful chorus in which he asks International to help him donate the before he died, is a somber album in ACanadian-Jewish musician, spirit and your clothes / But you see God to protect the soldiers fighting proceeds of his performances to which, in decidedly Jewish terms, he who died on November 7, 2016, at that line there moving through the for Israel: “And may the spirit of peace groups.