Please click here to hear Cantor Merel sing the Avinu Malkaynu, and click here to see Barbra Streisand’s version, sung at a ceremony in Israel honoring Shimon Peres, z”l, on his 90th birthday.
By Sheldon Foster Merel
ENCINITAS, California — Barbra Streisand’s CD , Higher Ground was released in 1997, and included the Hebrew song, Avinu Malkaynu . Streisand fell in love with Max Janowski’s Avinu Malkaynu , as did hundreds of cantors in North America , and catapulted it to fame beyond the synagogue. I doubt however if most know its importance in the Jewish Holy Days, or its composer, who was one of the most prolific American Jewish composers of modern times.
Max Janowski (1912 -1991) was born in Berlin where he trained as a pianist and organist, and later became head of the piano department at the Mosashino Academy in Tokyo. He emigrated to the United States in the early 1930’s, and became Music Director in 1937 at K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Congregation of Hyde Park until his death. He was a composer, conductor, choir master and voice teacher. Baritone Sherrill Milnes of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and the mezzo-soprano Isola Jones were among his voice students.
I was first introduced to Maestro Janowski’s compositions in 1956 when I was cantor in Chicago , but his music was already legendary. After I became cantor at Beth Israel in San Diego, I invited him to be our Composer-in Residence in 1982 , and he accompanied our choir and me on Sabbath evening. I love singing his music,and several years later included his Avinu Malkaynu on my CD, Chants of a Lifetime from Synagogue to Opera.
The Avinu Malkaynu prayer is chanted during evening and morning services of both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Holiest Days of the Jewish calendar. The cantor and choir sing this prayer facing the open ark as the congregation stands. The popularity of Janowski’s Avinu Malkaynu is similar to that of the Kol Nidre melody.
Each line of the Avinu Malkeynu (Our father, our king) prayer begins with these two Hebrew words, and is followed by individual, supplicatory phrases : asking God to hear our voices (Sh’ma Ko-lay-nu.) , remove oppression, war, and famine from the world. We ask God to have compassion upon us and our children, and make an end to sickness. Finally, we pray that the New Year will bring strength and peace to our people.
The masculine, Our Father, our King, is a carry over from older traditional prayer books . Although liberal prayer books are now gender sensitive these two Hebrew words, Avinu Malkaynu are so ingrained in our tradition, that they have been kept in singing and translations. such as : “Avinu Malkaynu inscribe us for blessing in the book of Life. “
Thank you , Barbra Streisand for bringing this wonderful Liturgical song by Maestro Janowski to vast new audiences.
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Merel is cantor emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego. Now a nonagenarian, he is a resident of Seacrest Village Retirement Community.