Volume 7, Number 3 - Cantors Assembly

MAX WOHLBERG:
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
21
JOSEPH PRICE
When one thinks of the field of Jewish music and considers the
men and women who have made an important contribution to the field,
the first name that should come to mind is that of Hazzan Max
Wohlberg. He has made a lasting impact on every aspect of Jewish
music.
The only connection he had with Jewish music in his earlier years
was on his father’s side of the family. Joseph Wohlberg, Max’s grandfather,
was a hazzan and a shohet in Kis Varda, Hungary. His father
was a baa1 tefillah in the kloiz of the town where they lived; for the
high holydays he served at the bet humidrush. There was
also an uncle, Abraham Issac Wohlberg, who was a professional hazzan
in Budapest, and who later held fine positions in Brooklyn. He
finally settled in Yonkers where he served for many years.
Wohlberg has a very good Judaic background, attending such
famous yeshivot as Krasna, Szartmar and the Nagy Karoly Yeshiva,
but he did not begin to study music until much later.
His father died in 1909, when Max was 2% years old. He was sent
to his mother’s sister in Budapest, who, with her husband, owned
Stem’s Kosher Restaurant. It was here, at the age of four, that
Wohlberg made his first public appearance. It was discovered he had a
good voice, so on Friday evenings and Shabbat afternoons he would
sing z’mires for the family from atop a table in the restaurant.
He stayed in Budapest for a few years and was treated very well.
The family was well-to-do and Max wanted for nothing. After a while,
he became a member of the choir at the Kazinci St. Synagogue, the
large orthodox synagogue of the city, which is still in existence. He
also attended the day school there, where he studied Mishna in
Hungarian and Hebrew.
Joseph Price is a former student of Hazzan Max Wohlberg. He is a member of the 1977
graduating class of the Cantors Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America.