LEFKOWITZ, DAVID

LEFKOWITZ, DAVID (1941– ), ḥazzan and composer. Lefkowitz was born in Cleveland. From childhood he sang in the choir of his father, the cantor and composer Jacob Lefkowitz, and appeared with him in concerts and on radio programs. He studied cantorial music with his father as well as at the Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Juilliard School in New York. At the age of 18 he began to serve as cantor at the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center in   Brooklyn, at Temple Emanuel in Paterson, New Jersey, and at the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York, where he was chief cantor from 1976. He has a lyric tenor voice, and appeared on radio and television programs in the United States. Every year he arranges a special prayer service at his synagogue in which he performs some of the classical repertoire of the cantorial world as well as compositions written especially for him. He has produced records of portions of the prayer service, and composed, rescued, and edited rare synagogue works (such as david nowakowsky 's works) from many periods and in many styles. Lefkowitz was the vice president of the American Society for Jewish Music and served as the vice president and music director of the David Nowakowsky Foundation and as a faculty member of the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College. His honors include the David Putterman Award from the Cantor's Assembly (2003) for Lifetime Achievement in the Cantorate, and a 2003–4 appointment to the Rabbinical Assembly Law Committee. (Akiva Zimmerman / Israela Stein (2nd ed.)