TAUBE, MOSHE

TAUBE, MOSHE (1927– ), ḥazzan. Born in Cracow, at the age of eight he had already absorbed the traditional cantorial melodies from the cantors Samuel Kaufman and Joseph Mandelbaum. As a youth he began to study music and piano at the Cracow Conservatory. These studies were abruptly interrupted by the Holocaust which he survived. After World War II he immigrated to Palestine and joined the Haganah. He was drafted into the Israel army as soon as the state was declared and fought in the battles to liberate Jerusalem. Taube resumed his musical education at institutes in Jerusalem and Haifa and also appeared in concerts and led services throughout Israel. He took part in Kol Yisrael and Kol Ẓiyyon la-Golah and became chief cantor at the Bograshov Street Synagogue in Tel Aviv. He developed a special cantorial style combining traditional and innovative approaches and composed melodies for prayers. In 1957 he went to the United States and became senior cantor at the Shaarey Ẓedek congregation in Manhattan, serving there until 1965, when he became chief cantor at Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh. Taube studied at Juilliard School of Music and taught at the cantorial school of the Jewish Theological Seminary as well as the University of Pittsburgh. He produced records of his original cantorial works and belonged to the Cantors Assembly. (Akiva Zimmerman)