Cantors (Judaism)

This collection contains papers of Abraham Moshe Bernstein, a renowned cantor, choir master, composer of Jewish liturgical and secular music, music teacher, musicologist, writer, and translator. The bulk of the materials consists of Bernstein’s liturgical compositions and arrangements in both published and manuscript form, as well as a substantial collection of manuscripts and published works by various composers and arrangers. The materials include Hasidic folk songs and melodies, religious songs, Jewish hymns, popular songs, children’s songs, operettas, liturgical pieces, and musical exercises for students; choral volumes and partbooks; unidentified and fragmented musical manuscripts; manuscripts of Bernstein’s own writings; personal correspondence; a photo of Bernstein on his deathbed; secular and religious songs, Sabbath hymns, Hasidic folk songs and melodies, assembled by Bernstein for the S. Ansky Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society in Vilna.

This collection includes personal and official documents of the Adolf Schwersenz family, including his professional work as a cantor, mainly during his time in Berlin. It contains sheet music used by Adolf Schwersenz, as well as newspaper clippings and letters.

Records of the Consistoire Central des Israélites de France, as well as of the local consistories for the departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin (Alsace) and Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle (Lorraine), in Strasbourg, Colmar, Metz and Nancy, including minutes, tax-lists, lists of rabbis, cantors, and notables, censuses of Jewish communities, and correspondence.

Handwritten manuscript to poet Arno Nadel by Adolf Kestenberg, 1914, 79 pages; typescript of opera Die Ahasferiden by Ilja Jacobsen, 72 pages; photo of cantors' meeting in Berlin circa 1906-1910

Government decrees, reports, manuscripts, clippings and other materials pertaining to Jewish communities in Baden (Germany)

This collection consists of publications of annual convention proceedings from 1948 to 1973, 1975-1977 and two songbooks from 1967 and some undated.

Cantorial records

This collection contains a three page document from a 2004 memorial for Cantor Erwin Hirsch, including biographical information for him. The collection also contains a CD, available online, with favorites from the liturgy of Congregation Habonim sung by Cantor Erwin Hirsch, assisted by the choir under the direction of Martha Hirsch. Song titles include: Jomim Noroim (High Holidays): 1. Kol Nidre (Lewandowski); 2. Vehogen Baadenu (Lewandowski); 3. Bor’chu - S’hema (Lewandowski); 4. Ovos (Kirschner) 5. Kev Akoras-Berosh Hashonoh; 6. En Kizvoh (Kirschner); 7. Al Tashlichenu (Lewandowski); 8. Tovo Lefonecho (Lewandowski); 9. Birchas Kohanim (Alman) 10. Ha Yom Teamtzenu (Kirschner); 11. Final Kaddish (Southern German). Shabbat and festivals: 12. Tov Lehodos (Lewandowski); 13. Hashkevenu (Birnbaum); 14. Shabbat Kiddush (Lewandowski); 15. Lo Omus (Birnbaum); 16. Torah Service (Kirschner); 17. Ez Chaim Hi (Kirschner) 18. Torass Adonoi (Lewandowski)

The collection contains play manuscripts, programs, playbills, posters, photographs, correspondence, agreements, scrapbooks, clippings, printed ephemera, and memorabilia relating to Yiddish theater primarily in the early twentieth century, especially the interwar period. Also included are items of printed ephemera related to Yiddish film, Hebrew theater, and a broad range of Jewish performers, including cantors, singers and dancers. Geographically, the materials originate predominantly in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union; and, to a lesser extent, the United States, especially New York City. Also included are materials from Western Europe, Palestine (Eretz Israel), South America, and other regions around the world. Among the theater personalities represented in the collection with significant amounts of material are Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Joseph Winogradoff, Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Moyshe Lipman, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. The theater groups best represented include the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT; Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater), founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska; the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater / Nay Teater (Warsaw; Vilna), under the direction of Michael Weichert; the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (known by its Russian acronym "GOSET"); Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, of New York; and the Hebrew theater "Habimah." A wide variety of other professional as well as amateur theater groups are represented with smaller amounts of material.

The bulk of the collection consists of musical scores and sheet music, both handwritten by Henry Shotland and printed works he collected. In addition, there is biographical collection compiled by Marianne Shotland and a picture of cantor Leo Kartschmaroff.

The Hermann Ehrlich papers contain handwritten documents on the genealogy of the Ehrlich, Rosenbaum, and Romberg families, including family trees. It contains also the collected work of Hermann Ehrlich as a cantor and teacher, including hymn books and sheets of music. Furthermore there are notes on the life of Hermann Ehrlich.

This collection contains a variety of materials representing the pre-World War II German existence of Ilse Baum's family, including postcards, vital documents and photographs. Specifically there are German and US vital and military documents for Ilse's parents Erich and Grete (née Dublon) Baum (circa 1914-1978); Ilse's Poesie friendship book created on the occasion of her emigration from Germany, with entries by family and friends, accompanied by Ilse's later notes about the wartime fate of several friends (entries dated 1938-1945); seven postcards, mostly to/from Erich Baum during his WWI service and featuring pictures of him and his unit (1916-1923); fifteen photographs of Ilse Baum's extended family (circa 1900-circa 1940); three photographs of David Dublon's grave (circa 1930-circa 1960); documents pertaining to David Dublom, Grete Baum's father: a program for his silver jubilee celebration, an obituary, a death certificate, and correspondence regarding his grave at the Jewish cemetery in Bonn (1913-1956).

Collection documents Cantor Albert's career as a cantor and mohel in Beth Jacob, the Wall Street Synagogue in Boston, MA; B'nai Zion, the Orms Street Congregation in Providence, RI; and Beth Jacob in Pittsburgh, PA. Folder consists of an advertisement in Yiddish, with English translation, publishing Albert as a mohel; a certificate from the Orms Street Synagogue electing Albert as a Reverend and granting him license to preform marriages for the congregation; a letter from the City of Boston Registry Department requesting that Rev. Alpert use the term Rabbi rather than "Rav Sons of Abraham" on his marriage certificates, a telegram from Pittsburgh requesting the Rabbi's presence for the Fourth of July, 1908; Alpert's obituary; and a brochure summarizing the Cantor Joseph L. and Rachel E. Alpert Family Memorial Scholarship established for the School of Sacred Music at the Hebrew Union College in New York, NY.

Series V of the Leo Baeck Institute Institutional Archives consists of clippings, photographs, A/V materials, and a few other original documents that have been assembled at LBI New York, 1955-1997.

This collection contains Leopold Kraemer's certification documents as a teacher and cantor, professional recommendations, and liturgical sheet music.

This collection contains personal identification documents and school records of Alex Löwenstein, as well as a short manuscript on Grevenbroich and materials on antisemitic legislation.

The Manfred Lewandowski Collection documents the professional life of cantor Manfred Lewandowski with a focus on some of his more prominent compositions. It additionally holds some genealogical material on the Lewandowski family. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings and copies of photographs; also included are sheet music, official and professional documentation including certificates, family trees and genealogical notes, and an essay on cantorial music.

The collection contains original and published materials pertaining primarily to the family of Marietta Bach in Munich, Germany and their textile company. Also included are mostly published materials about Jews in Bavaria during the Nazi period and the November pogrom.

The items in this collection consist of synagogue music scores from Southwestern Germany, both cantor's manuals and choral music.

The Papers of Reverend Abraham Lopes and Mrs. Irma Robles Cardozo contain various materials reflecting the personal and professional lives of Rev. and Mrs. Cardozo, including Rev. Cardozo’s position as Hazzan at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City and Irma Lopes Cardozo’s numerous philanthropic activities. In addition, there are various materials relating to Sephardic communities throughout the world, honors the Cardozos received, and individuals who had an important influence upon them.

The collection comprises a portion of the records of the Jewish community of Wąbrzeźno, known in German as Briesen. The records date from 1871 to 1921, concentrated in the era when the town of Briesen was part of the province of West Prussia, in the German Empire; only a handful of items date from the years 1920-1921, when the town was part of Poland. The collection comprises administrative and financial records kept by the Briesen Jewish Community Council, except for one volume of records kept by the Jüdischer Lese-Verein (Jewish Reading Society) of Briesen, in the years 1901 to 1908. Approximately 40% of the collection comprises financial records, 1882-1921, including official budgets and tax lists; 20% concerns the community's religious institutions; and another 20% comprises records related to community employees, especially rabbis and cantors. The remainder of the collection includes correspondence, communal meeting minutes and decisions, circulars announcing meetings, and a variety of administrative records. Included are records pertaining to communal council elections; synagogue seat rentals; burials and the care of graves; the construction and maintenance of the mikveh (ritual bath house); the expansion of the cemetery; synagogue rules and the renovation of the synagogue; charitable activities, often in cooperation with regional and national Jewish organizations; and the religious school and Jewish elementary school.

The collection comprises a portion of the records of the Jewish community of Krotoszyn, known in German as Krotoschin. The records span the years 1828 to 1919, when the town was part of the Posen (Poznań) region of Prussia and, after 1871, of the German Empire; in 1919, it became part of newly independent Poland. The records are mainly those of the Jewish communal administration, or council, of Krotoschin, along with some records kept by communal voluntary associations, or, in one instance, the teacher of the Jewish elementary school. The collection consists predominantly of correspondence and minutes, with inclusion in some periods of documents such as tax lists and lists of eligible voters; records concerning charitable aid to community members and donations to external causes; and other types of documents, including insurance policies, mortgage records, debt repayment plan, and drawings/plans of property. Highlights include records related to property damage in a town fire of 1827; documentation of income and expenses for the year 1835; records of communal elections, 1834-1872; correspondence concerning marriages, 1838-1841, and requests for death certificates, 1834-1858; a small amount of material pertaining to the religious school, circa 1880s-1902; correspondence with regimental commanders of the German army regarding Jewish soldiers from the Krotoschin area, 1891-1910; applications for the position of rabbi, 1895, and cantor/shochet, 1904-1910; and continuous proceedings of the communal council in the period 1905 to 1913.

The collection comprises a portion of the records of the Jewish community of Ostrów Wielkopolski, today in west-central Poland, in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The region was annexed by Prussia in 1793, in the Second Partition of Poland; in German the town was known as Ostrowo. The records date mainly from 1834 to 1919, with a few materials from as early as 1822. During this period the town was part of the Posen (Poznań) region of Prussia and, after 1871, of the German Empire; in 1919, it was incorporated into the Second Republic of Poland. The community numbered nearly 2,000 members in the late 19th century and declined steadily thereafter due to migration of members to larger German cities or overseas; only a small Jewish community remained during the interwar period. The records are mainly those of the Jewish communal administration, or council; a small amount of material pertains to several community voluntary organizations. Included are financial records such as budgets, balance sheets, and tax lists; communal minutes and decisions throughout the period; correspondence with the government, and, to a lesser extent, with Jewish organizations and other Jewish communities; records pertaining to community members' naturalizations, marriages, births, and synagogue seat contracts; petitions from individual community members, especially pertaining to charitable aid in the mid to late 19th century; records pertaining to communal educational and religious institutions; records on the hiring and employment of community rabbis,cantors, and other personnel, including application materials from candidates not hired; property records and mortgages; documentation of construction and renovation of communal buildings; records related to court cases, bequests, and estate and guardianship matters; and ephemera such as meeting notices and announcement fliers, as well as scattered clippings.

This collection contains documents, including residency permits, letters of recommendation for employment, and correspondence, which illustrate the theatrical career and migration of Leo Balagur (later Renato Monti) from his Ukrainian home to Lviv, Vienna, Berlin, Italy, and finally to the United States.

The Rosenfeld Family Collection comprises several generations of official and personal papers of this family of cantors and physicians. Included are a large number of certificates and other official documents from government and military offices, religious authorities, and academic and professional institutions. There are also a few family letters and essays, notes, family trees and genealogical descriptions and various other material.

The collection contains a brief essay by Ruth Knox née Liebermensch regarding her childhood in Mannheim and emigration from Germany; song printed on the occasion of the wedding of Samuel Liebermensch and Gisela Schiff; and sheet music edited by Samuel Liebermensch, entitled "Lieder des jüdischen Hauses."

This collection contains a photocopy of the handwritten Bar Mitzvah register of the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft at the Friedberger Anlage synagogue in Frankfurt, which was maintained by Salomon Steinberger. Steinberger (1883-1971) was the chazan of the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft for almost 30 years. The collection also includes photocopies of brief biographies of Salomon Steinberger by his daughter and grand-daughter; Austrian military draft records from World War One; a letter regarding his move from Frankfurt to London in 1939; and photographs of Steinberger and his family.

The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence relating to his efforts as a committee chairman for tree-planting efforts in Israel. Other materials concern his genealogy and his memoirs.