At the 16th European Cantor’s Convention Cantor Heller, December 6, 2024February 13, 2025 In Budapest, colleagues and friends, Hazzanim (prayer leaders) and music scholars, to share our knowledge aimed at enhancing community engagement through prayer. An example of our rehearsal can be heard here before Shabbat in the beautifully designed Rumbach Synagogue, known for its impressive architecture and intricate stucco walls. Also my participation at the gala concert in tribute to Maestro Hazzan Naftali Herstik zz”l, with whom I sung in Prague in 2016 this piece he conducted with his students of the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute. My lecture on the original organ from Temple times II BCE that demonstrates it’s more Jewish than that it has roots in the Church, as many that oppose its use in Synagogue would falsely argue. Bringing the Temple organ to the Synagogue Related Hazzanut CantorialEuropean Cantors AssociationHazzanutLewandowskiLiturgySulzer
Hazzanut Come and Sing: Lewandowski’s Psalm 92 July 31, 2026 Last week I wrote about one of our Lewandowski masterpieces, Tavo Lefanecha, and the High Holidays approaching. Today I want to invite you to something simpler and equally beautiful: our Friday night services, where another jewel from Lewandowski’s pen is part of it. Psalm 92 is part of Kabbalat Shabbat, the… Read More
Hazzanut Lewandowski and the Case for Communal Singing August 4, 2026 In the nineteenth century, synagogues across Europe faced a contentious question: should an organ be part of the liturgy? For many, the answer was no. The organ seemed to belong to the Christian church, not to Jewish worship. It was seen as a symbol of assimilation, a departure from tradition…. Read More
Hazzanut In Budapest at the Rumbach Synagogue for the 14th European Cantors Association annual convention November 7, 2022October 5, 2023 Attending the 14th European Cantors Association annual convention in Budapest at this beautiful Synagogue built 1872 and restored in 2021 by the Hungarian government. For 5 days, almost a 100 of us, coming to pray from all over the world to share experiences, knowledge and our music. Two choirs joining… Read More