Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy - Yahrzeit Number 11

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Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy

New York City 

September 8, 1918 - May 1, 2012

Nine Minute ZZ Slideshow
edited by Barak Zahavy
200+ ZZ Sermons cited in the New York Times - Download PDF

edited by Tzvee Zahavy

My Plea - In Mommy Edith's Memory on her Birthday - Quit Smoking Cigarettes Today

My mother was a strong athletic woman. I believe that she would be alive and 97 years old today, if not for cigarettes.

In 2000 my mother Edith Zahavy passed away on the 4th day of Tammuz after six months of hospitalization at Mt. Sinai in NYC. She was 79.

For 63 years she smoked, mostly menthol cigarettes. The corporate tobacco pushers hooked her into addiction by giving her free samples outside her school, Hunter College, when she was a teenager. They supplied her habit for six decades.

For several years prior to her death she could hardly walk because of her profound vascular disease, heart disease and emphysema. Her last months in the hospital on a respirator were awful as all of the organs of her systems weakened and failed.

My mother was a beautiful, selfless, generous, creative, religious person who dedicated her whole life to her family, to her friends and to her students. She first brought us up (myself and my brother and sister) and then went on to teach in the NYC public schools. She also founded the Park East Day School.

She stood behind my father, me and my siblings through thick and thin. But through the years she always smoked, mostly Newports and Salems. When I was in high school she would send me down on Fridays to buy her Challahs for Shabbat and a pack of cigarettes for Friday.

As I remember her -- an active vibrant woman -- I plead with you -- if you smoke cigarettes -- QUIT TODAY. Please for the sake of the memory of my mother -- for your own sake -- for the sake of your spouse, your parents, your children, your friends -- please stop.

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(Repost annually from 2006)

Louis Danto: My Favorite Cantor

Recently in my research for my current book, I learned that the great cantor Louis Danto passed away this year July 23, 2010 at age 81.

Here is my recollection of the chazan extraordinaire, from a working draft of the chapter on the "performer" in my current book project (posted 11/1/2010).

Cantor Louis Danto was a happy Hazzan. His chanting was upbeat and peppy. I heard him often at the Atlantic Beach Jewish Center as a child and teen ager in the fifties and sixties. I knew then that Danto was a world class singer, a tenor whose beautiful voice was trained yet ethereal. And I could see that he comprehended and loved the words of the prayers and cherished their meanings. I did not know at the time that he had studied at Yeshivas and in conservatories in Europe, that he had won prizes, that he later would go on to perform worldwide, to record many albums of Jewish songs, of folk, popular, romantic and operatic music. 

As a kid in Atlantic Beach, I did not know that later he’d be celebrated for his unmatched graceful yet ornate bel canto artistry, for his classical vocalization and his just plain beautiful singing. I just loved his extraordinary rendition of the shehechiyanu blessing after the Kiddush on a Yom Tov holiday. In it we simply praise God for keeping us alive and bringing us to this special day. His blessing rang out with such emotion and expressivity that it just lifted my soul. I can recall vividly to this day Danto’s ringing repeated conclusion of the blessing, “…to this day,” “Lazman hazeh, lazman hazeh…” And I’ve tried at every holiday to replicate the joy of that singing as best as I can in my own prosaic chanting of the same blessing.

Danto defined for me how a formal davening should sound. Wow, he set the bar way high up. His lyrical davening changed the character of the sanctuary. From listening to him I learned that a good chazzan like Danto creates a palpable focus, a presence, a joyous and numinous, holy quality in the house of prayer.

Not every congregation can be fortunate enough to have such a performer. Many synagogues still do have professional cantors who lead the services. However, for reasons that I have yet to figure out, many congregations these days want basically untrained volunteers to lead the prayers. 

Whatever the style, at every service in an actual brick-and-mortar synagogue, Jewish prayer is an orchestrated performance, led by a leader and joined by an involved congregation. The synagogue members attending the service act at times as a performing chorus and at other times as a listening audience.... to be continued in my book...

You can hear and see a clip of Cantor Danto's mastery at a concert in Brooklyn in 1982: Moshe Koussevitzky Memorial Concert, Chapter 3, Cantor Louis Danto זצ"ל from Arthur Rubin Studios on Vimeo.

Danto @ Judaica Sound Archives @ Florida Atlantic University

God's Favorite Prayers by Tzvee Zahavy

Is Carl Icahn Jewish?

Yes, corporate raider billionaire Carl Icahn is a Jew.

Wikipedia says, "Icahn was raised in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York City, where he attended Far Rockaway High School. His family was Jewish in name, but his father was a 'dogmatic atheist'. His father was a frustrated opera singer who settled on being a cantor, before becoming a substitute teacher. His mother also worked as a schoolteacher. He graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1957 and then joined New York University School of Medicine, but he dropped out after two years to join the army."

Icahn's net worth (3/2013) is $20 billion. He tweeted on August 13, 2013 that he had taken a stake in Apple stock and the buying that ensued sent the stock up over 5% within a day.

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