Ben Zion Shenker

Ben Zion Shenker (1925–2016) was a world-renowned He became interested in the art as a child, and was performing on radio by his early teens.

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.

Even as a child, he showed interest in cantorial music, preferring to listen to greats such as Yossele Rosenblatt rather than play with toys. Weisser had a Yiddish-language radio program at the time, and Shenker was a soloist on it, with his own 15-minute weekly segment. In performance, mostly during prayers, he was described as having a reedy tenor and perfect pitch.

He recorded an album at age 13.

Music preservation He started the Neginah label in 1956. The name is Hebrew for "playing of music." For its first album, Shenker trained a choir at the residence of the Bessers in Manhattan, former members of the congregation in Crown Heights.

Neginah eventually recorded a total of ten albums, including the most important songs in the traditional Modzitz repertoire, as well as Rabbi Taub's later works and many of Shenker's own 500-plus compositions. Shenker, a humble man, did not mind the anonymity, and was typically surprised when approached as a celebrity. His Yossis Alayich (1965) is also the most commonly used song for Jewish weddings, typically used as the opening song to the first dance at Orthodox weddings throughout the world.

He had three daughters: Esther Reifman, Adele Newmark, and Brocha Weinberger.

Shenker was a prolific artist, with his voice and compositions appearing on dozens of albums.

On February 27, 2022, Ben Zion Schenker was posthumously inducted with the inaugural class of the Jewish Music Hall of Fame.