{"id":15186,"date":"2017-03-21T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/?p=15186"},"modified":"2020-07-27T08:15:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T08:15:08","slug":"ben-zion-shenker-unsung-composer-songs-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/jewish-world\/people\/ben-zion-shenker-unsung-composer-songs-sing\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Zion Shenker: The Unsung Composer of the Songs We All Sing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15072\" style=\"width: 645px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/ouwp\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1679437394\/Jewishaction\/shenker-milken-archive\/shenker-milken-archive.jpg?_i=AA\"><img width=\"635\" height=\"425\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15072\" class=\"size-large wp-post-15186 wp-image-15072\" style=\"box-shadow: none;\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSI2MzUiIGhlaWdodD0iNDI1Ij48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTAwJSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxMDAlIj48YW5pbWF0ZSBhdHRyaWJ1dGVOYW1lPSJmaWxsIiB2YWx1ZXM9InJnYmEoMTUzLDE1MywxNTMsMC41KTtyZ2JhKDE1MywxNTMsMTUzLDAuMSk7cmdiYSgxNTMsMTUzLDE1MywwLjUpIiBkdXI9IjJzIiByZXBlYXRDb3VudD0iaW5kZWZpbml0ZSIgLz48L3JlY3Q+PC9zdmc+\" alt=\"\" data-public-id=\"Jewishaction\/shenker-milken-archive\/shenker-milken-archive.jpg\" data-format=\"jpg\" data-transformations=\"f_auto,q_auto\" data-version=\"1679437394\" data-seo=\"1\" data-responsive=\"1\" data-size=\"635 425\" data-delivery=\"upload\" onload=\";window.CLDBind?CLDBind(this):null;\" data-cloudinary=\"lazy\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-15072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Ben Zion Shenker, z\u201dl, 1925-2016 \u00a9 Milken Family Foundation. Courtesy of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>By David Olivestone<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This past November, on the Friday evening of the week in which Ben Zion Shenker, <em>z\u201dl<\/em>, passed away, my wife and I were guests in the home of a Sephardi family. Expecting a different type of Shabbat experience, I was taken by surprise when the host led us in singing <em>Eshet Chayil<\/em> to the melody with which we are all so familiar. He dedicated it to two <em>kallot<\/em> (new brides) who were present. I made another suggestion: \u201cLet\u2019s also dedicate it to the memory of Ben Zion Shenker, who composed that melody and who died this week.\u201d But it turned out that neither our host nor anyone else around the table had ever heard of Ben Zion Shenker. \u201cI assumed that <em>niggun<\/em> was a hundred years old or more,\u201d said our host. And, of course, when I told him that Shenker was also the composer of the most familiar tunes we sing for <em>Mizmor leDavid<\/em> and <em>Yassis Alayich<\/em>, besides more than five hundred other <em>niggunim<\/em>, he was amazed.<\/p>\n<p>I only met Ben Zion Shenker once, at a presentation he gave about his work, but you could not but be struck by his modesty, even though he was revered in Jewish musical circles as the leading contemporary exponent of Chassidic music. Having been an avid Shenker fan for many years, I asked him for an autograph, and he was clearly taken aback. Given this humility, perhaps his anonymity among the larger Jewish community is unsurprising.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike most other singers, <em>chazzanim<\/em>, and even many composers, Shenker could not be classified as a \u201cperformer,\u201d apart from on his recordings. His appearances on the concert stage were extremely rare, though he was unstinting in giving of himself to lead hours of singing at Chassidic events. And when you listen to any of the many albums he recorded, or watch him in action on YouTube videos, it is evident that he was never simply trying to show off his warm and vibrant voice (what the<em> New York Times<\/em>, in its obituary, described as a \u201creedy tenor\u201d). His concern was with how the melody could convey the message contained in the words, how one\u2019s <em>deveikut<\/em> (attachment to God) could be intensified through the song. Famed Chassidic entertainer Avraham Fried says there was \u201ca soulful transcendental feeling of prayer\u201d in Shenker\u2019s singing.<\/p>\n<p>Even in a professional environment, he never stepped out of character. Veteran Jewish music publisher and historian Velvel Pasternak, who produced many of the early Chassidic albums, once told me about the difference between Shenker and other Chassidic singers. \u201cWhen the others walk into the studio,\u201d Pasternak related, \u201cthey bring throat sprays and inhalers, and all sorts of props. First they do their vocal exercises and warm-ups, and only then are they ready. Ben Zion comes in with a siddur, and simply starts to sing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shenker was born in Brooklyn in 1925. Music was his passion since childhood. In a 2011 interview, he told Charlie Bernhaut, longtime host of a weekly online program of <em>chazzanut<\/em> and other Jewish music, that his mother never had to give him toys to play with. \u201cShe would put me down next to the phonograph with a pile of Yossele Rosenblatt records,\u201d he recalled, \u201cand I would sit there entranced for hours on end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He joined the choir of Cantor Joshua Weisser at twelve years old, and soon began studying with the well-known Jewish music teacher and conductor Seymour Silbermintz. When he was about fifteen, his father took him along to a <em>tisch<\/em> of the second Modzitzer <em>rebbe<\/em>, Reb Shaul, himself a prolific composer, who had just arrived in America. Picking up a book of music notes of <em>niggunim<\/em> that happened to be there, Shenker began humming the songs. The <em>rebbe<\/em> was amazed that the young boy could read music and thus began a lifelong relationship, with Shenker acting as musical secretary to the <em>rebbe.<\/em> To make a living, even though he had <em>semichah<\/em>, Shenker was involved in his family\u2019s sweater business, and later in a diamond company, but music was his real occupation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/ouwp\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1679437396\/Jewishaction\/shenker-ben-zion-weinreb-quote\/shenker-ben-zion-weinreb-quote.png?_i=AA\"><img width=\"635\" height=\"168\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-post-15186 wp-image-15071 size-large\" style=\"box-shadow: none;\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSI2MzUiIGhlaWdodD0iMTY4Ij48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTAwJSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxMDAlIj48YW5pbWF0ZSBhdHRyaWJ1dGVOYW1lPSJmaWxsIiB2YWx1ZXM9InJnYmEoMTUzLDE1MywxNTMsMC41KTtyZ2JhKDE1MywxNTMsMTUzLDAuMSk7cmdiYSgxNTMsMTUzLDE1MywwLjUpIiBkdXI9IjJzIiByZXBlYXRDb3VudD0iaW5kZWZpbml0ZSIgLz48L3JlY3Q+PC9zdmc+\" alt=\"\" data-public-id=\"Jewishaction\/shenker-ben-zion-weinreb-quote\/shenker-ben-zion-weinreb-quote.png\" data-crop=\"3.78\" data-format=\"png\" data-transformations=\"f_auto,q_auto\" data-version=\"1679437396\" data-seo=\"1\" data-responsive=\"1\" data-size=\"635 168\" data-delivery=\"upload\" onload=\";window.CLDBind?CLDBind(this):null;\" data-cloudinary=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>Shenker\u2019s creativity and influence spanned many decades. He composed the tunes for <em>Mizmor leDavid<\/em> and <em>Eshet Chayil<\/em> in 1946 and 1953 respectively, sang in the first-ever album of Chassidic <em>niggunim<\/em> in 1956, and was still composing, and even recording his latest compositions, together with klezmer musician Andy Statman, in his nineties. He inspired several generations of Jewish singers and musicians, including Shlomo Carlebach, who became a close friend.<\/p>\n<p>There is a sophistication to Shenker\u2019s compositions that is a substantive cut above the popular run-of-the-mill neo-Chassidic music of today. Often relatively simple, at other times complex in the Modzitz tradition, his compositions touch every emotion, with joy being by far the most common. He loved to sing marches, his right fist banging unceasingly on the table to the tempo. Prayerful <em>pesukim<\/em> from Tehillim or the Prophets inspired him to compose tender, poignant melodies that touch the recesses of the heart. Not infrequently, he would transform into a traditional <em>chazzan,<\/em> mining the depths of his soul for plaintive musical phrases that would uplift and inspire.<\/p>\n<p>According to Yossi Green, also a leading contemporary composer of <em>niggunim<\/em>, \u201cBen Zion Shenker was the trailblazer of a new genre of Jewish music\u2014the American <em>niggun<\/em>, with a modern syncopated rhythm, a low first part, and a high, exciting second part.\u201d Pasternak points to one quality of Shenker\u2019s compositions that characterizes them all. \u201cHe had a great ability to write a melody that people can sing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is so true. Is there any shul anywhere at which his <em>Mizmor leDavid<\/em> is not sung during <em>seudah shlishit<\/em>? But besides his own compositions, he popularized dozens of Modzitz <em>niggunim<\/em>, such as <em>Lo Tevoshi<\/em> that enlivens our Kabbalat Shabbat, <em>Ein Kitzva<\/em> that energizes our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Mussaf, and <em>Shoshanat Ya\u2019akov<\/em> that entertains us on Purim. Melodies like these have become so much a part of our lives that it is hard to imagine a Shabbat or <em>yom tov<\/em> <em>davening<\/em>, or a wedding, without them. Shimon Cramer, popular singer and <em>chazzan<\/em> of the Riverdale Jewish Center in New York, grew up on Shenker\u2019s music in London. \u201cEveryone was using his melodies for parts of the <em>davening<\/em>,\u201d Cramer recalls. \u201cI\u2019m sure that still today there are some tunes that I sing that I don\u2019t even realize are his.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pasternak has taken on the huge task of notating, and ultimately publishing, all of Ben Zion Shenker\u2019s songs, so that his genius will live on and can reach ever wider circles. Yet how will their composer be remembered? Like Carlebach and some others, perhaps his reputation will become that much greater after his passing. But surely he himself would want his legacy to be measured only by how much his music continues to inspire us in our prayers and to uplift us in our celebrations of life.<\/p>\n<p><em>David Olivestone, formerly senior communications officer of the Orthodox Union, lives in Jerusalem and is a member of the <\/em>Jewish Action<em> Editorial Committee. His most recent contribution to the magazine was a tribute to Cantor Sherwood Goffin.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Listen to Ben Zion Shenker\u2019s niggunim at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.benzionshenker.com\/index.html\">http:\/\/www.benzionshenker.com\/index.html<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zi9yX87ReoM&amp;t=5s\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zi9yX87ReoM&amp;t=5s<\/a>; and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3B-kAFls9MU\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3B-kAFls9MU<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Olivestone This past November, on the Friday evening of the week in which Ben Zion Shenker, z\u201dl, passed away, my wife and I were guests in the home of a Sephardi family. Expecting a different type of Shabbat experience, I was taken by surprise when the host led us in singing Eshet Chayil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":15072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,172,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-profile","category-tribute","issues-spring-20175777"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ben Zion Shenker: The Unsung Composer of the Songs We All Sing - Jewish Action<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By David Olivestone This past November, on the Friday evening of the week in which Ben Zion Shenker, z\u201dl, passed away, my wife and I were guests in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/jewish-world\/people\/ben-zion-shenker-unsung-composer-songs-sing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ben Zion Shenker: The Unsung Composer of the Songs We All Sing - 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