Max Helfman

Max Helfman was a Polish-born American Jewish composer, choral conductor, pianist, singer, and educator. He had a long career arranging both secular and religious Jewish music and was considered to have a gift for writing music that was both singable and emotionally complex, which was modern and original and yet rooted in traditional folk and synagogue melodies.

Among his best known works are his Shabbat Kodesh (1942), a Sabbath Cantata, and his Di naye hagode (1948), a Yiddish-language Cantata about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He directed many choirs and educational institutes on both the east and west coasts, most famously the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in California for seventeen years; his influence is most strongly felt on the religious music of Reform Judaism. He was also well known for socialist and pro-Zionist causes and affiliations.

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