more from
Park Avenue Synagogue
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

about

Kurt Weil (1900-1950), one of the most influential composers
of cabaret and theatre, was born and raised in a
religious Jewish family in Dessau, Germany. His
father, Albert Weill, was a cantor. After studying in
Berlin in the 1920s, he turned to musical theater and
cabaret, working closely with Bertolt Brecht and gaining
a reputation across Europe. As the Nazis came into
power in 1933, he fled to Paris and later immigrated
to America, where he began incorporating jazz and
blues into his works. His most well-known works
include The Threepenny Opera (Bertolt Brecht and
Elisabeth Hauptmann, 1928), Rise and Fall of the City of
Mahagonny (Brecht, 1930), The Pledge (Caspar Neher,
1932) and The Seven Deadly Sins (Brecht, 1933).
Kiddush by Kurt Weill was the first synagogue piece
to be written in an American popular style. Composer
Jack Gottlieb said Weill’s “setting of the Kiddush
prayer, which is dedicated to his father, is a fascinating
amalgam of Germanic stolidity, American blues, and
Broadway pop harmony.” (Funny, It Doesn’t Sound
Jewish. State University of New York and the Library
of Congress, 2004. p. 155)
Cantor David Putterman of New York’s Park Avenue
Synagogue commissioned the work in 1943. It was part of
an annual program designed “to accumulate an expanded
repertoire of sophisticated works for American synagogue
services whose worshippers were no strangers to the
variety of contemporaneous developments in the concert
world,” according to Neil W. Levine, the artistic director of
the Milken Archive of Jewish Music.
The piece premiered on Friday evening, May 10, 1946
at Park Avenue Synagogue for its 75th anniversary. It
was sung by Cantor Putterman, the synagogue choir,
and The Hebrew Arts Singers—conducted by Max
Helfman—with Isadore Geller on organ.

lyrics

Praised are You, Lord our God,
Ruler of the universe,
Creator of the fruit of the vine.
Praised are You, Lord our God,
Ruler of the universe,
who has sanctified us through His commandments
Lovingly You have favored us with the gift of
your Holy Shabbat
And has taken delight in us.
Out of love and with favor You have given us the
holy Sabbath
As our inheritance,
in remembrance of Your creation,
First among the sacred days
Which recall the Exodus from Egypt.
You have chosen us of all peoples for Your service,
And You have given us a sacred purpose in life.
In loving favor, You have given us
Your holy Shabbat as a heritage.
Praise are You, O Lord, who hallows the Shabbat.

[Friday evening]

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם
אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְרָצָה בָנוּ
וְשַׁבַּת קָדְשׁוֹ בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן הִנְחִילָנוּ זִכָּרוֹן לְמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית
תְּחִלָּה לְמִקְרָאֵי קֹדֶשׁ זֵכֶר לִיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם
כִּי בָנוּ בָחַרְתָּ וְאוֹתָנוּ קִדַּשְׁתָּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים
וְשַׁבַּת קָדְשֶׁךָ בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן הִנְחַלְתָּנוּ.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ מְקַדֵּשׁ הַשַּׁבָּת

Barukh atah, Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen.
Barukh atah, Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha-olam,
asher kid'shanu b'mitsvotav v-ratsa vanu,
ve-shabat kodsho be-ahava uv-ratson hinhilanu,
zikaron le-ma’aseh v'reishit, t'hila le-mikra’ei kodesh,
zekher li-y’tsi’at Mitsra’yim.
Ki vanu vaharta ve-otanu kidashta mikol ha’amim,
ve-Shabat kodsh'kha b'ahava uv-ratson hinhaltanu.
Barukh atah Adonai, m’kadesh ha-Shabat.

credits

from Heritage, released September 18, 2018

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue New York, New York

Cantor Azi Schwartz is the Senior Cantor of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York, and is a world-renowned vocal performer and recording artist whose music reaches Jewish and interfaith audiences internationally.

Azi has performed at Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden; on PBS and on Richard Gere’s movie 'Norman'; and for Pope Francis.

He has released nine albums of Jewish liturgical music.
... more

contact / help

Contact Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue, you may also like: