William Bogzester was born in Vienna, where he had his first exposure to cantorial art, and he immigrated to the United States when he was in his twenties. In New York, in addition to freelance cantorial officiating, he was active in the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association (Hazzanim Farband), whose membership consisted mostly of traditional cantors—lay as well as professional. Throughout his life he was a highly visible personality among New York’s cantorial fraternity, known affectionately by colleagues as “Willie Best.” Prior to the existence of any formal cantorial schools in America, he also established a reputation as a private teacher, and several among the succeeding generation of accomplished cantors were his students. Bogzester wrote a number of cantorial compositions, some of which were programmed frequently in cantorial concerts—especially those presented by the Hazzanim Farband, often with a chorus of more than 100 voices.
By: Neil W. Levin
Milken Archive
6 thoughts on “Kaminos”
Was Nicholas related to Alexander Saslavsky who married Celeste Izolee Todd?
Anyone have a contact email for Yair Klinger or link to score for Ha-Bayta?
wish to have homeland concert video played on the big screen throughout North America.
can organize here in Santa Barbara California.
contacts for this needed and any ideas or suggestions welcomed.
Nat farber is my great grandpa 😊
Are there any movies or photos of max kletter? His wife’s sister was my stepmother, so I’m interested in seeing them and sharing them with his wife’s daughter.
The article says Sheb recorded his last song just 4 days before he died, but does not tell us the name of it. I be curious what it was. I’d like to hear it.