Ben Zion Shenker
Ben Zion Shenker (1925–2016) was a world-renowned American Hasidic composer and hazzan, associated with the Modzitz hasidic dynasty. Shenker was born in the heyday of the American hazzan. He became interested in the art as a child, and was performing on radio by his early teens. Soon after, he became close to Rabbi Shaul Taub, the Holocaust-surviving Modzitz Grand Rabbi, who was known for his mystical Hasidic compositions. He dedicated much of his life to recording and publishing the large stock of pre-war Modzitz songs, as well as Taub's post-war work. Shenker created a music label, Neginah, for the purpose of recording those songs, and himself became a composer of hundreds Modzitz moded songs. Early life Shenker's parents were Mordechai and Miriam Shenker, Polish hasidim who came to America about 1921. Their son was born four years later, and they raised him in Williamsburg. He had two brothers and a sister: Chaim Baruch, Nachman, and Rose. Even as a child, he showed interest in cantorial music, preferring to listen to greats such as Yossele Rosenblatt rather than play with toys. Joshua Samuel Weisser (originally Pilderwasser), known as the leading New York cantor of the 1930s, took Shenker into his choir