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The Jewish Cantor in History Moshe Koussevitzky's Early Career Byron's September 2019 Volume 44 Number 1 The Jewish Cantor in History Moshe Koussevitzky’s Early Career Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty,” a New Setting Odessa’s Unsung Composer — Pinchas Minkowsky Congregational Song in American Conservative Synagogues and Much More... September 2019 Volume 44 Number 1 The Journal is optimized to be read using Adobe Acrobat Reader (click here for a free download). The Bookmark feature, which allows readers to directly access and then jump between articles, may not otherwise function. Front Cover: Jubilee Synagogue, Jerusalem Street, Prague. LOOKING BACK The Jewish Cantor in History—or—Music in Medieval Judaism Israel Goldschmidt ......................................................................................................... 4 A New Setting by Charles Heller of Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty,” Gleaned from several sources (Click where indicated to access the audio file) ........ 14 A Moment in Time: Odessa and Its Unsung Composer— Pinchas Minkowsky (1859-1924) Marsha Bryan Edelman.................................................................................................. 16 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cantor—Moshe Koussevitzky’s Early Career (1918-1928)—on the 120th Anniversary of His Birth Mark Friedlander ........................................................................................................... 26 The Development of Congregational Song in the American Conservative Synagogue 1900-1955 Geoffrey Goldberg ......................................................................................................... 35 A Bibliography of Selected Jewish Worship Services Written for Cantor, Choir and Organ, during the Years Following World War II Charles Davidson ........................................................................................................... 89 N’GINAH L’MA’ASEH (Click on each first page of music to access its audio file) L’khayim, brider (after Idelsohn Thesaurus IX, #467; audio by Moshe Bear and members of HaZamir Long Island) ......................................................................... 97 Shiviti (Nissi Blumenthal; arr. for guitar by Benjamin Rosner; audio by Elizabeth Shammash) ...................................................................................... 99 The Aleinu Section (Arthur Yolkoff & Pinchas Spiro); audio by Gideon Zelermyer & the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, Montreal ................................................. 102 A LITERARY GLIMPSE “N’ilah in Hell” (I. L. Peretz 1915, 1948; tr. JAL, 2015)............................................. 106 1 DIVREI K’RIAH Anfei Hayim Triennial Haftarah System Arianne Brown and Rachel Goldsmith .......................................................................... 110 A Day in the Life of a Berlin-based Liberal Woman Cantor Jalda Rebling .................................................................................................................. 115 REVIEWS Scholar in Resonance—Selected Writings of Dr. Joseph A. Levine in Celebration of His 85th Anniversary Marsha Bryan Edelman.................................................................................................. 116 Joshua R. Jacobson’s Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation; Second, Expanded Edition (2017) Neil Schwartz ................................................................................................................. 118 Judit Niran Frigyesi’s Writing on Water−The Sounds of Jewish Prayer Joseph A. Levine ............................................................................................................ 120 T’fillat Shmuel—Selected Writings of Hazzan Samuel Rosenbaum z”l (1919-1997) Prepared on the Occasion of His 20th Yahrzeit Robert Kieval ................................................................................................................ 121 Jeffrey Summit’s Singing God’s Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism Scott Sokol .................................................................................................................... 123 Wayne Allen’s The Cantor—From the Mishnah to Modernity Kimberly Komrad .......................................................................................................... 125 Joey Weisenberg’s The Torah of Music Matthew Austerklein ..................................................................................................... 128 CD of the London “Blue Book” Charles Heller ................................................................................................................ 130 LOOKING AHEAD Rescuing a Nearly-Lost Liturgical Tradition: Synagogue Music of the Romaniote Jews in Greece Miranda Crowdus (click on Example 5 music to access the audio file) ................... 132 MAIL BOX Editor’s Reaction to a Photo of Avigdor Kusevitsky’s Gravestone in Warsaw (1934) Submitted by David R. Prager ....................................................................................... 149 Celebrating Gladys Gewirtz (1928-2012) 60 Years after Her Retirement as Music Director at Camp Ramah in the Poconos Joseph A. Levine ............................................................................................................ 150 B’ofel leil (Author unknown; music after Luigi Cherubini) .......................................... 151 (Click on the first page of music to access its audio file) 2 IN MEMORIAM Mordechai Sobol (1951-2018) YouTube of Hazzan Sobol chanting Rosenblatt’s V’hu rahum in a Ma’ariv service (right click on hyperlink, then left click to open the video) ................................................. 153 Richard M. Berlin (1943-2019) (Click to access a recording of Hazzan Berlin singing his own arrangement of Max Helfman’s Hashkiveinu) .......................................................................................................... 154 Donald Neil Roberts (1945-2019) ............................................................................................ 156 Velvel Pasternak (1933-2019).................................................................................................. 157 Alex Levin, Dancing on Simhat Torah in the Venetian Ghetto Synagogue, reprinted here with the artist’s kind permission. 3 LOOKING BACK The Jewish Cantor in History–or−Music in Medieval Judaism By Israel Goldschmidt Life would be an eternal bloodletting without music! (Karl Ludwig Börne) This article is derived from an editorial written by Dr. Goldschmidt, who served as Rabbi of the Synagogue in Briesen, West Prussia. It first appeared in the periodical, The Jewish Cantor, as a series of installments that began in October 1879. Der Jüdische Kantor was published in Bromberg by the Cantors Association of Central Europe from 1879 to 1899. Its translation was commissioned by Matthew Austerklein, then cantor at Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County, in Bethesda, Maryland, after he discovered it in the digital archive of the University of Frankfurt-am-Main (http://sammlungen.ub.uni- frankfurt.de). This robust online resource contains digital copies of many important Judaic works in German, including cantorial collections and sheet music. The present article is adapted from a complete commissioned translation of the German original, done by Rabbi Rebecca Kushner, of Iowa City, IA, where she works with several small Midwestern congregations. She was trained as a professional flautist at the Staatliche Hochshule fuer Musik in Freiburg, Germany, and spent several decades in German opera and radio orchestras. Rabbi Kushner is also a published poet in both English and German. She received Rabbinic Smikha from the Aleph Alliance of Jewish Renewal in 2015. At the time of this publication she was completing her MSJE thesis at Spertus Institute in Chicago, on the topic of “Zacharias Frankel as a Jewish Educator.” The Jewish Cantor’s Historical Importance any intelligent and distinguished cantors considered it highly desirable to present these journalistic fragments in their entirety to a wider public. This was based on the idea Mthat the historical importance of the cantor would lend the contemporary cantor more dignity and honor, both inwardly, in his own consciousness, as well as outwardly. May this opinion be verified! This would be a deeply desired goal especially for congregations. Would it not be more honorable and advantageous if the position of the Cultural Emissary would be just as popular as the generally lower paid civil servant? Does it reflect the healthy condition of our German Fatherland when a Jewish father, when considering the professional direction for his son, reacts calmly to the question of his son's future with, "My son can become anything except a Jewish congregational professional!" And this, although the professional positions within the Jewish congregations usually provide adequate financial compensation. Who can deny that it is an honor for a State when all its professionals are proud of their employment status? This is generally the case in our native country. But then each community must consider the honor of their own professionals as a special duty and obligation. To contribute to this end alone would be a worthy endeavor. The Jewish People is one of the strangest historical phenomena. Its story stretches from nebulous antiquity into the present as the only living witness of the lively existence that blossomed so magnificently thousands of years ago in the lands where the three continents of the old world converged: Asia, Africa and Europe.
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