אברהם אדלר

Abraham Adler (1916-2003), cantor and composer, born in Sarasău, Romania (then part of Austria-Hungary). After attending the school in his village, he and his family moved to Sighet in 1928, where he finished his studies at the Jewish high school. During this time, he also pursued canto lessons with Mendel Hoerer, the clerk of the Great Orthodox Synagogue of Sighet. Gifted with remarkable musical talent, he left at the age of 20 to study in Czernowitz (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), under the tutelage of the renowned musician Pinchas Spektor.

In 1940, he returned to Sighet and became employed as the clerk of the Great Synagogue. On June 10, 1942, Adler, along with other young Jews, was sent to a forced labor battalion on the Eastern front. After WW II, he returned to Sighet only to discover that his entire family had perished in Auschwitz Nazi death camp and his house had been occupied.

In 1950, he immigrated to Israel, where he found employment as a clerk for the synagogues in Haifa and as an editor for the music section of the local radio station. In 1955, he married Hilda Miller and accepted a job offer from prestigious synagogues in Australia.

In 1974, he relocated to Vienna, Austria, where he lived for the rest of his life serving as Oberkantor of the Great Synagogue. Adler, a trailblazer in the realm of Jewish liturgical music, played a pivotal role in the revival of Hasidic-Orthodox songs from Maramures, Galicia, and Bucovina. Notably, he was the first to promote this genre of music in concert halls and on the radio.