Jascha Nemtsov (Weimar) - The Cantor of the Reform Temple in Hamburg - Leon Kornitzer and his journal (Der jüdische Kantor)
From the Music of the Portuguese synagogue in the 19th to the Rolf Lieberman Era in the 20th century
The presence of Jewish Culture in Europe is going back to the times of the Roman Empire. In 2021 Germany has celebrated1700 years of Jewish live and culture. The city of Hamburg decided in 2020 to rebuild the largesynagogue on Bornplatz, which had been destroyed 1938 during the Reichskristallnacht. On this occasion, the University of Music in Hamburg initiates an international conference on Jewish music in Hamburg past and present.
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Jascha Nemtsov (Weimar)
The Cantor of the Reform Temple in Hamburg Leon Kornitzer and his journal (Der jüdische Kantor)
Leon Kornitzer was born in 4.5.1875 in Vienna and settled in Ham- burg in 1913. The profound changes in synagogue music at the Hamburg Reform Temple in the early 20th century were initiated by Kornitzer, who replaced the previously cultivated Sephardic melo- dies and introduced music in German, which was based on Protes- tant church music with traditional Ashkenazic sounds. His most fruitful creative period began with his appointment as head cantor at the Hamburg Temple Association in 1913, during which he increasingly expanded his field of activity.
As founder and editor of the monthly journal “Der jüdische Kantor” (1928-1938), he published musical supplements and, above all, a number of essays, most of which addressed practical questions of the precentors. Kornitzer was also the editor of a collection of syn- agogal, paraliturgical and folkloristic melodies by German-Jewish composers for polyphonic choir, violin and piano and piano solo, published in 1933 under the title Jüdische Klänge. Kornitzer also ser- ved as chairman of the Association of Jewish Cantors in Germany. This position helped him to obtain a visa with which he could realize his emigration to Eretz Israel in 1939, which had been planned since 1936. Until his death he worked as a conductor at the Central Syna- gogue in Haifa.
Jascha Nemtsov is a pianist and musicologist. His academic work focuses on Jewish music and Jewish composers in the 19th and 20th century. He is Academic Director of the Cantorial School of the Abraham Geiger College and a member of the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam. Since 2013 he has a tenure full position as Professor for History of Jewish Music at the Liszt University of Music Weimar. As a pianist he has recorded more than forty CDs, featuring numerous world premiere recordings. Many of his CDs have been honoured with various international distinctions, among them the German Record Critics Prize (2007) and the OPUS KLASSIK – the German Classic Award (2018).
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