Manfred Lewandowski Collection

Manfred Lewandowski was born on September 1, 1895 in Hamburg, a son of Isidor Lewandowski, cantor (hazzan) of the Warburg Synagogue and later the Beneckestrasse Synagogue, and his wife Dara Peichert. The Lewandowski family contained a number of cantors, the most well-known being Manfred's great-uncle Louis Lewandowski. In 1903 Manfred Lewandowski first entered the choir of the Beneckestrasse Synagogue. Three years later he became a meshorer (choir singer) under Yossele Rosenblatt. By the time he was seventeen he was officiating at holiday services in Wilhelmshaven as an assistant cantor (Hilfsvorbeter).

On June 21, 1915 he enlisted in the military, where he served in the Ninth Dragoon Regiment and also as a cantor at holiday services on the front in France. In July 1917 Manfred Lewandowski was released from the army and returned to Hamburg. There he continued to study cantorial music and from 1918-1920 served as assistant cantor in Bremen. In 1920 the cantor Eduard Birnbaum of Königsberg died and Manfred Lewandowski was selected as his successor. Three years later he was called to Berlin to be the chief cantor and music director of the newly-built Friedenstempel (Temple of Peace). In 1928 he became chief cantor of the Lindenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, remaining there until 1938, when he was invited to Berne and then Paris, where he officiated for a time at the Temple Rue de la Victoire de la Communauté Israélite de Paris.

In addition to his work as cantor, Manfred Lewandowski also performed as a secular musician. In 1915 he first appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Wilhelmshaven. In 1924 the first radio station in Berlin was established and Manfred Lewandowski was among the first singers on the Berlin Radio Hour (Berliner Funkstunde). By the late 1920s he was mentioned regularly in the press and became engaged by several record labels to record his music, including Odeon, Electrola and in 1927 the Homophon Company. The rise of the Nazis to power in 1933 halted this area of his career when the Reichskammer forbid Jews to perform for the German public or on broadcasting stations. The Homophon company was closed and all masters of their records demolished.

In 1939 Manfred Lewandowski came to New York and in June 1940 became cantor at the Congregation Emanu-El in Philadelphia, the city in which he resided until his death. Beginning in 1946 he officiated only on High Holidays in various eastern U.S. cities. Following the war he spent many years reassembling copies of his recordings that the Nazis had destroyed. In 1953 some of these were first broadcast on American radio on the Frank Ford show.

Manfred Lewandowski also created his own compositions, mainly for the synagogue but also some for secular use. Many of his compositions were never published. Those that were include his 1942 "Prayer for Victory," performed at victory rallies and his 1958 "If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem/ Im Eshkoheh Yerushalayim" in honor of the State of Israel's tenth anniversary. This work was sung on the maiden voyage of the Israeli S.S. Jerusalem and was also performed by, among others, Richard Tucker of the Metropolitan Opera and Marian Anderson. In 1964 Lewandowski first performed "Shalom-Shalom" on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, a piece that was given to various dignitaries such as Konrad Adenauer and Harry Truman and which received much acclaim in the press as well as performances and broadcasts on German radio.

Manfred Lewandowski died in 1970.