Cantor Benjamin Z. Maissner and Holy Blossom Temple Music Archive and Library Update

As the summer approaches, I am thrilled to share with you an update regarding Cantor Benjamin Z. Maissner and Holy Blossom Temple Music Archive and Library.

Over the past six years, a dedicated team of volunteers has been working diligently to categorize, scan, and organize an immense amount of material, some dating back well before Cantor Maissner’s tenure. The committee overseeing this effort has been led by Jill Kamin and Gillian Rosenberg, whom I want to publicly acknowledge and thank for the tremendous number of hours they have devoted to this initiative.

A major milestone has just been reached: we recently received a letter from Dr. Amalia Kedem, Music Curator at the National Library of Israel (NLI), officially accepting the Cantor Benjamin Z. Maissner and Holy Blossom Temple Music Archive and Library. This extensive archive includes digital music copies, commissioned works, posters, manuscripts, and much more. As Dr. Kedem expressed in her letter:
“The close cooperation of Holy Blossom Temple and NLI was instrumental in creating a shared understanding of the importance of the collection itself as well as of its significance for the preservation of Jewish liturgical tradition at large.”

This vast collection will soon be accessible not only to those who visit the National Library in person but also to ethnomusicologists and Jewish music enthusiasts worldwide via digital access. Once the files are fully integrated and made available, we will continue to share updates as our collaboration with the NLI progresses.

Meanwhile, the Holy Blossom Archives Committee has retained select materials to remain in-house. These will be curated for access by our congregation and the broader community. Any additional materials will be shared with institutions such as the Abraham Geiger College in Germany or other deserving recipients. We expect this portion of the work to be completed by the end of the summer.

As we transition to the next phase of this project, I am very excited to share with you the latest addition to the archive collection…
In 2020, there were 8 Cantors and Cantorial Soloists who gifted Cantor Maissner with a commissioned piece of music in honour of his 41 years of service to Holy Blossom Temple and to the Cantorate and Jewish Music at large. We commissioned Cantor Jonathan Comisar, who is a wonderful cantor, composer and teacher at the DFSSM at HUC. The piece was intended to be performed at the retirement celebration of Cantor Maissner, and of course, Covid put a harsh stop to an in-person celebration, and at the tim,e there was not enough time or resources to make a recording happen in real time. The recording of this masterful piece finally became a reality this past month.

I would like to share with you a link to an audio recording of the piece as well as a short excerpt about the piece from the composer, Jonathan Comisar himself. The piece is entitled “L’Dor Vador”-from Generation to Generation

“When I first spoke to Cantor David Rosen over five years ago about commissioning a choral work in honour of Beny, we decided on L’dor Vador: from the Kedusha section of the Amidah. (“To all generations, we will declare Your greatness; we will sanctify Your greatness with triumphant praises. Your praise, our God, shall never depart from our mouths forever and ever– because You are God and a Kind, great and holy. Blessed are You, Adonai, the holy God.

This text’s inherent message of transmitting Torah to the next generations would be a fitting tribute to Beny–especially as a gift from 8 Cantors whom Beny mentored and supported and kvelled over. So the core text is L’DOR VADOR, but I wanted to include quotations from other sacred texts to reflect the diversity of Beny’s professional career and role as Cantor, Choir Director, Teacher of Torah, and Jewish leader in the world. To reflect these different roles, I included the texts:

1. “V’shinantam l’vanecha v’dibarta bam” from V’ahavta
   (And you shall teach (words of Torah) to your children and speak to them….
2. “Shiru LAdonai chadash, shiru LAdonai kol ha-aretz” (from Psalm 96)
   (Sing to God a new song, sing to God all the earth)
3. “Kol ha-n’shama t’haleil Yah” (from Psalm 150)
   Every soul (everyone who has breath) praises God

THE MUSICAL TEXTURE:
I intended to bring together the 8 voices of the singers who commissioned the piece: Three women and 5 men (Two sopranos, one alto, three tenors, a baritone, and a bass). Because Beny has been a proponent and lover of choral music, I also endeavoured to create a piece that would have melodic accessibility together with compositional sophistication.’

Two other highlights to the piece are that Eric Abramovitz, principal clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, plays the clarinet part for this recording, and the second is the ending or chatimah.

He adds: “The chatimah — the final seal of the prayer — quotes from ‘O Canada’– the nation’s National Anthem. Since Beny has had a huge impact on the Jewish community of Toronto and, by extension, the larger Canadian Jewish community, it is the final jewel in the crown of Beny’s legacy expressed in the work.”

I am also pleased to share with you that Cantorial soloist Lindi River and I personally visited with Beny a few weeks ago to present him with the recording. He was very touched by it, and it brought
him great joy and an uplift as he continues to endure aggressive treatments for his battle with cancer.

I hope you enjoy the recording, and may we continue to make and create beautiful music at Holy Blossom for many generations to come.

B’shira
Cantor David Rosen