The Rita and George M. Shapiro Audio Archive is a repository of recordings of religious services, lectures, and concerts that took place in Park Avenue Synagogue’s Sanctuary between 1954 and 2004.
Explore the Shapiro Audio Archive database http://www.shapiroaudio.pasyn-archives.org/
We hope you enjoy this remarkable piece of PAS history and email us at [email protected] to share your thoughts.
May 19,1977 Nearly 50 Years Ago: Cantor David Lefkowitz and the Park Avenue Synagogue Chorale Inaugural Concert
On the one-year anniversary of his arrival at Park Avenue Synagogue, Cantor David Lefkowitz presented the Inaugural Concert of the PAS Chorale accompanied by a symphony orchestra conducted by Abraham Kaplan. The 70-member chorus, formed in December 1976, was led by Kaplan, an Israeli-born conductor-composer who was Director of PAS Choral Activities. With four soloists and the chorale, Cantor Lefkowitz performed classical liturgical works and newly arranged compositions to a capacity audience. The concert was the third in a series that included “Great Liturgical Classics Revisited” (March 12, 1977) and “Highlights of Contemporary Jewish Liturgy” (April 22, 1977). The May concert included compositions by Jacob Lefkowitz, Eugene Cines, Max Janowski, and Kaplan, as well as works by Schubert and Handel. One highlight was a choral version of “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” by Naomi Shemer, which became popular after the Six-Day War in 1967 and was performed, on this occasion, on the 10th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.
September 19, 1954 A Once-in-a-Generation Moment, A Generation Ago Dedication of the Milton Steinberg House
Seventy years ago, the Milton Steinberg House – constructed for the “educational, cultural, and social activities of the congregation” —was dedicated as a memorial to Rabbi Milton Steinberg, who passed away in March 1950.
Rabbi Simon Noveck spoke at the dedication about lighting the eternal flame in the chapel. “It will be not merely the flame of learning and of faith, but it will be the flame of the immortality of influence of Milton Steinberg.”
In Memory of Milton Steinberg
Rabbi Milton Steinberg, who led Park Avenue Synagogue from September 1933 until his death at age 46 on March 20, 1950, was beloved by our congregation and greatly admired by rabbinic colleagues and scholars. In the Oct. 19, 1951 edition of “The Reconstructionist,” Rabbi Simon Noveck, who succeeded Rabbi Steinberg, wrote that Rabbi Steinberg’s more than 1,000 pages of published sermons, sociological and theological writings, and fiction “constitute a kind of spiritual legacy … for our generation.”
Noveck noted that Rabbi Steinberg’s “purpose was less to inform than to awaken the mind, not so much to teach as to have the listener learn by being intellectually creative. Therefore, he never gave a conclusion but always presented alternative possibilities, sharing his thoughts with the audience until his point of view gradually unfolded.
Although the Shapiro Archive does not contain recordings of Rabbi Steinberg speaking from the pulpit (the audio taping began in 1954 with the opening of the Milton Steinberg House) it does include sermons and remarks by many renowned scholars who paid tribute to Rabbi Steinberg on his yahrzeit.