ALTER, ISRAEL

ALTER, ISRAEL (1901–1979), ḥazzan and composer. Born in Lvov, Alter studied music in Vienna. A powerful tenor with a wide range, he began his career as ḥazzan at Vienna's Brigittenauer Tempel-Verein when he was 20. In 1925 he moved to Hanover, where he remained for ten years before becoming chief ḥazzan of the United Hebrew Congregation in Johannesburg, South Africa. He went to the U.S. in 1961, and became a faculty member of the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College. Alter published his cantorial compositions in Shirei Yisrael (2 vols., 1952–57; vols. 3 and 4 were subsequently published by the Cantors' Association of Montreal, Canada) and Cantorial Recitatives for Hallel, Tal, Geshem (1962), and his musical settings of Yiddish poems in Mayne Lider (1957). He also edited some of David Eisenstadt's liturgical works in Le-David Mizmor (n.d.). A phonograph record of his compositions was issued in 1973. In 1978 the Cantors' Assembly of New York issued Alter's "Ribono Shel Olam" for Seliḥot according to the order of services adopted by the Rabbinic Assembly. (Akiva Zimmerman (2nd ed.)