Volume 7, Number 3 - Cantors Assembly

MAX WOHLBERG: A RABBI’S CANTOR
31
THEODORE STEINBERG
The name of Max Wohlberg was well-known to me through his
writings in various journals and his reputation as a composer of
liturgical music. Our paths never crossed, however, until I was called
to the pulpit of the Malverne Jewish Center in August, 1968. Hazzan
Wohlberg had been serving there as cantor for about 10 years.
I suddenly found myself in the presence of a man who was a hazzan
for all seasons. I had the pleasure of sharing the pulpit with him
during the last few years of his distinguished career as a synagogue
cantor. Being associated with a true master of Jewish music was a
very special experience. I heard portions of the liturgy sung for which I
never realized there was, or could be, appropriate music. Emet v’yatziv
or a weekday Minha, or selections from the Selihot, which I
thought were meant to be hurried through, for all of these, Max
Wohlberg had a melody, and it was always the right melody. He was
full of musical surpises and, invariably, they were sweet surprises.
Anyone sensitive to the ligurgy and attentive to the meaning of the
works, had the enriching experience of a week-in, week-out garden of
delights issuing forth from Max Wohlberg’s creative musical pen and
mouth.
Max Wohlberg is a diminutive man whose voice is not large or
powerful, yet his masterful control and musical instinct had the effect
of making the words he sang come alive. He helped the worshipper
become more sensitive to the rich possibilities of the liturgy. Certain
prayers, perhaps those which conveyed special meaning to him, were
always sung softly and with reverence. He used his voice, not as a
jewel or adornment in its own right, but as an adornment to the sacred
words he was interpreting.
As every reader of this JOURNAL knows, Max Wohlberg is a fine
scholar who controls the entire range of Jewish liturgical music. It
always seemed to me that he knew the whole prayerbook by heart, as
well as the meaning of every word which he could translate effortlessly
into at least three or four languages. Hazzan Wohlberg was able to
shift from the Ashkenazic to the Sephardic pronounciation with ease,
and I recall one Sabbath morning when he was chanting the service in
the customary Ashkenazic mode: several visitors from Israel walked in
unexpectedly and he immediately switched over to a Sephardic accent.
Rabbi Theodore Steinberg is spiritual leader of the Malveme Jewish Center in
Malveme, New York.