Jewish Music Research Centre
Cantor Moshe Nathanson
Moshe Nathanson, son of Rabbi Nahum Nathanson, was born in Jerusalem in 1899. Until age 10, Nathanson attended a traditional heder (all-boys religious school) in the old city of Jerusalem. Moshe left the heder to attend Bet Sefer Lemel, the elementary division of the Ezra school in Jerusalem, where A.Z Idelsohn was the director of the choir. Sheldon Feinberg, in his book “A Song Without Words” claims that Idelsohn assigned his students to compose words to the niggun on which Hava Nagila is based. Feinberg asserts that Moshe Nathanson was in fact responsible for the lyrics that have become so popular today. In 1922, Nathanson immigrated to Canada, where he studied Law and Music at McGill University. Mid-degree, Nathanson decided to transfer to the Institute of Musical Art in New York (now the Julliard School of Music). In 1924, he became the cantor at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (Morecai M. Kaplan's Synagogue in New York, and the founding community of the Reconstructionist movement in the United States), a post he held for over forty-six years. One of Nathanson’s most important contributions to the field of Jewish music is his compilation of liturgical melodies Zamru Lo (4 vols.), which is still widely used in the USA today.
Cantor Moshe Nathanson
Moshe Nathanson, son of Rabbi Nahum Nathanson, was born in Jerusalem in 1899. Until age 10, Nathanson attended a traditional heder (all-boys religious school) in the old city of Jerusalem. Moshe left the heder to attend Bet Sefer Lemel, the elementary division of the Ezra school in Jerusalem, where A.Z Idelsohn was the director of the choir. Sheldon Feinberg, in his book “A Song Without Words” claims that Idelsohn assigned his students to compose words to the niggun on which Hava Nagila is based. Feinberg asserts that Moshe Nathanson was in fact responsible for the lyrics that have become so popular today. In 1922, Nathanson immigrated to Canada, where he studied Law and Music at McGill University. Mid-degree, Nathanson decided to transfer to the Institute of Musical Art in New York (now the Julliard School of Music). In 1924, he became the cantor at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (Morecai M. Kaplan's Synagogue in New York, and the founding community of the Reconstructionist movement in the United States), a post he held for over forty-six years. One of Nathanson’s most important contributions to the field of Jewish music is his compilation of liturgical melodies Zamru Lo (4 vols.), which is still widely used in the USA today.