Yehoshua Leib Neeman among a Generation of Ashkenazi Cantorial Teachers in Israel

The first two decades of the State of Israel were a flowering period for the Ashkenazi musical liturgy. Boys’ and men’s choirs sang in several synagogues, mainly in the great cities; cantors and teachers initiated activities to compose and disseminate new liturgical compositions for children and the general communities; and a few cantorial schools were active simultaneously. The outstanding persons during this period were: Leib Glantz and Shlomo Ravitz in Tel-Aviv, Michael Perlman in Yavneh, Yitzchak Heilman in Haifa, Shlomo Zalman Rivlin and Yehoshua-Leib Neeman in Jerusalem and Zalman Polak, in both Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. This paper will concentrate on the cantor Neeman, who established and taught in the cantorial school of the Israeli Institute of Sacred Music. He was one of the few cantors world-wide who published systematic manuals for the study of biblical cantillation and for the study of the Nusach prayer chants, both according to the Ashkenazi Lithuanian tradition. Y.L. Neeman published a series of two volumes (High Holy Days and Shabbat) under the title “Nosach LaChazan”. He also completed a third volume, which he was unable to publish, containing chants for the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (Shalosh Regalim) and for the weekday services. Thus, he tried to create a full cantorial compendium for the entire liturgical year. The two published volumes enjoyed success and served as study material for cantors in Israel and abroad. Although a staunch traditionalist in his cantorial outlook, Neeman was nevertheless an innovator in his teaching methods and in his unique way of notating the cantillation motifs and cantorial chants. The paper will compare Neeman’s approach to those of his contemporaries.