Israel age

Israel Alter (also: Yisraʾel Alter ) (born September 23, 1901 in Lemberg ( Galicia ) / Lwów / Lwiw, Austria-Hungary ; today: Ukraine ; † November 16, 1979 in New York (NY) ) was a chasan and last senior cantor in Hanover . The well-traveled composer was known as "the first of the Chasanim, the cantor of the cantors".

Life

family

Numerous students from the vocational school center there also took part in the laying of the stumbling blocks in 2013 in front of the memorial to commemorate Jewish life in Ohestrasse .

Benjamin Z. Maissner , Cantor and Music Director at the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and the Jewish Chamber Choir there

Five stumbling blocks for the Maissner family in front of the Lange Laube 1 building ; Bernhard Maissner was murdered in occupied Poland , and four relatives were able to flee to Palestine or South Africa in 1939 .

Israel Alter was the son of the merchant Abraham Juda Alter and his wife Frajda Alter, née Klein . He had a brother who also became a cantor. Israel married Anna Brenner (* 1901), with whom he had the children Eleazar (* 1923) and Klara (* 1926). Anna's siblings Hermann Hersch Sobel-Brenner (* 1903), David Sobel-Brenner (* 1907) and Regina Brenner (* 1912) last lived in Hanover with the Alter family under one roof at Ohestrasse 8, which was later replaced by the memorial of Jewish life in Ohestrasse and before which seven stumbling blocks were laid for the family on November 12, 2013 . in the presence of "family members from South Africa , Canada and Israel " who came to this event .

Israel Alter was the uncle of the cantor Benjamin Z. Maissner . This is related to Bernhard Maissner (also: Bejrisch Bernard Majzner * 15 December 1877 in Przyrow / Piotrkow / Russia ; as part of the so-called " Poland action " on 28 October 1938 after Bentschen ( Zbąszyń deported), on August 10, 1939 deported to the Treblinka extermination camp and later declared dead) and his wife Regina Rivka Richter (* 1877) and their children Isaac (* 1905), Rosa (* 1912) and Isidor (* 1913). For these last seven family members, seven stumbling blocks were also laid in Hanover on November 12, 2013, in front of the Lange Laube 1 building .

Career

Little is known about the childhood of Israel. After studying the Talmud in Lviv and completing his regular school, Israel Alter attended a business school in Vienna , where he passed an examination in various subjects in 1919. From 1921 to 1923 he took lessons at the Vienna State Academy for Music and Performing Arts in the subjects of "singing, choral singing, speaking and lecture exercises, facial expressions and dance, fencing, piano, general music theory and Italian". In addition, Alter was taught cantor singing by Jizchak Zwi Halprin , the cantor of the main synagogue in Lemberg, so that Alter received both classical and cantoral singing training. While still studying at the Vienna State Academy, when he was only 20 years old, he got his first job as cantor in the Brigittenauer Tempel association synagogue as successor to Josef Basser . In the same year 1921, Israel married his wife Anna Brenner .

In Germany at the time of the Weimar Republic , Israel Alter applied for the position of senior cantor at the New Synagogue in Hanover in 1925, for which he was hired on June 1, 1925. In addition, he had "numerous appearances in synagogues and concert halls in Europe", including again and again in Poland , before touring the United States in 1929 and 1930 and there, together with the Hanoverian pianist John Mandelbrod , his first two concerts at Carnegie Hall . Numerous press reviews have been received from this period .

After the seizure of power in 1933 by the Nazis and by the anti-Semitism then in Hannover state-organized disenfranchisement and tyranny in particular against Jews emigrated Israel Alter in 1935 initially to South Africa . There he worked at the largest synagogue in Johannesburg , the synagogue of the United Hebrew Congregation . In 1961, Alter emigrated to the USA to work as a cantor in New York .

estate

Two friends in the Villa Seligmann : Andor Izsák (left) and Benjamin Z. Maissner with the facsimile of Israel Alter Srapbook

In the estate of Israel Alter, among other things an album of self-collected Concert reviews found in different languages (see the section literature ) as well as historical recordings of songs aged around 40 shellac records from about 1930, including one for liturgical actions "actually does not take exemplary" Recording of a “soul prayer for the fallen soldiers of the First World War ”. After the records were inherited by the daughter Israel Alters in Tel Aviv in 1979 , they came into the possession of the Toronto- based cantor Benjamin Z. Maissner, a nephew. After initially considering leaving the original shellac records to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem , Maissner decided to hand them over to Professor Andor Izsák , director of the European Center for Jewish Music , in Hanover. The plates should now "have their place where they were created."

Exhibitions

Lord Mayor Stefan Schostok at the exhibition opening 2013 in the Villa Seligmann

In 2013 the Villa Seligmann in Hanover presented the exhibition Israel Alter as part of the Autumn Days of Jewish Music 2013 . The last senior cantor in Hanover .

Works

The European Center for Jewish Music has re-released the works of Israel Alters, which were collected on shellac records, on CD in a three-part edition Cantor Israel Alter :

Vol. 1 liturgical chants ,
Vol. 2 Yiddish songs and
Vol. 3 opera arias and songs .

literature

Andor Izsák (Ed.): Israel Alter - Scrapbook (in English, German and Hebrew), 1st edition 2013, Georg Olms, Hildesheim 2013, ISBN 978-3-487-15073-4 .
Simon Benne: Center for Jewish Music / Records return to Hanover. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung . June 26, 2012, last accessed November 10, 2013
Henning Queren: Israel Alter - the singer from Hanover's synagogue / The European Center for Jewish Music is reminiscent of the legendary Cantor and the Reichspogromnacht 75 years ago. In: New Press . November 7, 2013, p. 19.
Horst Weber, Stefan Drees (Hrsg./Ed. :): Israel Alter Collection. In: Sources on the history of emigrated musicians. 1933 - 1950 (= Sources relating to the history of emigré musicians ), 2. New York , Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-23747-2 , p. 172; online through google books

Web links

Commons : Israel Age - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Cantor Israel Alter Vehagein Baadeinu , singing rehearsal and a portrait photo on Youtube .com

Katrin Farkas: Cantor Israel Alter ( Memento from December 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) (in English)

Israel Alter / 1901–1979 (in English) on the milkenarchive.org website of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music ,

Andor Izsák: Edition Cantor Israel Alter on the website ezjm.hmtm-hannover.de

Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen (ed.), Sophie Fetthauer (collaborator): Israel Age in the encyclopedia of persecuted musicians from the Nazi era on the website of the Musicological Institute of the University of Hamburg , with numerous other sources

Israel Age in the National Library of Israel , Jerusalem

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Compare the GND number of the German National Library
↑ handwritten note by Benjamin Z. Maissner from November 10, 2013 with reference to the birthday of the age on the holiday of Yom Kippur in 1901; compare the Hebrew calendar for 1901 here
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen (ed.), Sophie Fetthauer (collaborator): Israel Alter (see section on web links )
^ Leaflet for the opening of the exhibition Israel Alter. The last head cantor in Hanover in the Villa Seligmann on November 10, 2013.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Andor Izsák: Edition Cantor Israel Alter (see section Web Links )
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d N.N. : Family Alter-Brenner / Ohestrasse 6 (at the memorial). Brief information (double-sided, A4) on the occasion of the laying of the 7 stumbling blocks on site on November 12, 2013, ed. from the state capital Hanover, Department of Education and Qualification, Project Remembrance Culture, Sallstraß6 16, 30171 Hanover
↑ ^a ^b leaflet from Villa Seligmann (with text by Andor Izsák): Autumn Days of Jewish Music 2013. Hanover 2013.
↑ ^a ^b Compare the documentation at Commons (see section Web Links )
↑ ^a ^b ^c Simon Benne: Center for Jewish Music / Records ... (see literature)
↑ ^a ^b Memorial Book - Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny 1933–1945 under the name Majzner, Bejrisch Bernard , last accessed on November 12, 2013
↑ Peter Schulze : Jews. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 326ff.

personal data
SURNAME	Dude, Israel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dude, Yisraʾel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian singer and composer, cantor of the Jewish community in Vienna, Hanover, Johannesburg and New York
DATE OF BIRTH	September 23, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lviv
DATE OF DEATH	1979

[DNB-1] Compare the GND number of the German National Library

[2] written note by Benjamin Z. Maissner from November 10, 2013 with reference to the birthday of the age on the holiday of Yom Kippur in 1901; compare the Hebrew calendar for 1901 here

[LexM-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen (ed.), Sophie Fetthauer (collaborator): Israel Alter (see section on web links )

[4] Leaflet for the opening of the exhibition Israel Alter. The last head cantor in Hanover in the Villa Seligmann on November 10, 2013.

[Meldungen-5] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Andor Izsák: Edition Cantor Israel Alter (see section Web Links )

[Kurzinfo_Stolpersteine-6] N.N. : Family Alter-Brenner / Ohestrasse 6 (at the memorial). Brief information (double-sided, A4) on the occasion of the laying of the 7 stumbling blocks on site on November 12, 2013, ed. from the state capital Hanover, Department of Education and Qualification, Project Remembrance Culture, Sallstraß6 16, 30171 Hanover

[Herbsttage_2013-7] t from Villa Seligmann (with text by Andor Izsák): Autumn Days of Jewish Music 2013. Hanover 2013.

[Commons-8] Compare the documentation at Commons (see section Web Links )

[HAZ_26.06.12-9] Simon Benne: Center for Jewish Music / Records ... (see literature)

[Gedenkbuch-10] Memorial Book - Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny 1933–1945 under the name Majzner, Bejrisch Bernard , last accessed on November 12, 2013

[11] Peter Schulze : Jews. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 326ff.