Bernstein, Abraham Moshe

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BERNSTEIN, ABRAHAM MOSHE

BERNSTEIN, ABRAHAM MOSHE (1866–1932), ḥazzan and composer. Born in Shatsk, in the Russian province of Minsk, Bernstein was a cantor in Bialystok and choir director for cantor Baruch Leib Rosowsky in Riga before being appointed cantor of the Taharas Kodesh synagogue in Vilna (1893–1923). A prolific composer, he set to music more than 150 Hebrew and Yiddish poems, the best known being Zamd und Stern and Hemeril ("The little hammer"). He compiled a collection of folksongs, Muzikalisher Pinkos (1927) and a cantorial collection, Avodas Haborei (3 vols. 1931). His son was the Israeli composer Aviassaf Bernstein (Barnea; 1903–1957).

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