Cantor Yehudah Leib Mandel - Ani Mamin

Cantor Yehuda Leib Mandel 1904-1994 *Hazzan Yehudah Leib Mandel* Born in Csepe, Hungary, Hazzan Mandel studied in cheder and yeshiva, receiving smicha from two institutions. After serving in the Czech army, he supported himself by davening in nearby communities while his reputation as a cantor grew. He trained at Vienna’s Kantorenschule under noted hazzanim, and was offered the prestigious pulpit at Vienna’s Sulzer Temple but chose to begin his career in Novisad, Yugoslavia as Oberkantor. He later won a competitive post as Oberkantor at Riga’s Great Choir Synagogue, then became Oberkantor of Budapest’s Rumbach Street Temple, a major center of Neolog Judaism. He was the final cantor there before the war. During World War II he was conscripted into forced labor camps. His immediate family was deported to Bergen-Belsen while other relatives perished in Auschwitz. After the war he reached Palestine on a maapilim ship, reunited with his wife and son, and served in Haifa. He then emigrated to New York, first serving at the Romanische Shul with only monthly appearances, and later settled in Philadelphia where he served Beth Judah of Logan until retirement. He was elected President of the Cantors Assembly of America. Known as a master of the Central European and Austro-Hungarian hazzanut tradition, his limited recordings highlight his command of nusach, especially in the Slichot service. He lived by the principle _Da Lifney Mi Atah Omed_ — "Know before Whom you stand." He was married first to Ella Klein, and after her passing, to Lilly Miklos.