Volume 7, Number 3 - Cantors Assembly

HAZZAN MAX WOHLBERG
The JOURNAL OF SYNAGOGUE MUSIC is pleased and honored to
dedicate this issue to marking the 70th birthday of Hazzan Max
Wohlberg, and to a celebration of the man and his unique career as
hazzan, teacher and composer.
There are dozens of adjectives which could be appended to his
name, all complimentary, all true. He is an outstanding hazzan, an
acknowledged scholar, both in our general tradition and in our chosen
field; a composer who is uniquely attuned to the needs of his colleagues
and has concentrated his composing to satisfying those needs; a
teacher - there are now almost one hundred graduates who have
studied in his classes at the Cantors Institute, and scores of others
who have heard him lecture at regional meetings, at conventions, at
convocations. An entire American Jewish community has been
enriched by the countless articles which he has written for this Journal
and for other academic and scholarly publications. In addition, and of
equal importance, he has the very special qualities of humanity,
gentleness, sincerity, topped off by a sense of humor which is
sophisticated, yet never out of reach of the common man, pointed, but
never used as a weapon, folky yet deep and meaningful.
We honor him with this Festschrift because he has seen fit, in a
most generous fashion, to share all of these gifts with us. He is like the
hasid in the old tale who together with a number of friends comes into
a cold house in the dead of winter. Some reached into their packs and
pulled out scarves, gloves, coats, whatever they could find, to keep
themselves warm. He, on the other hand, went out, gathered some
wood and built a fire so that all would be warm.
He has, indeed, built a fire whose warmth and pervasiveness will
never leave the hearts and minds of anyone who has come into contact
with him.
During this, his 70th year, the Cantors Assembly, in its 30th year,
takes pride and pleasure in presenting him with this token of affection
in the hope that it will symbolize for him the strong and lasting bonds
he has created between himself and the entire hazzanic world.
SR