Hanina Karchevski

Hanina Karchevsky (1877-20 December 1925), was a Jewish composer, conductor and music teacher who became an important figure in the establishment of the musical culture of the pre-state Yishuv and of Israel.

Biography Karchevsky was born in 1877 in Petrovka, a village in Russian-ruled Bessarabia. He moved with his parents to the nearby town of Bender, where he studied Torah. At the same time, he learned piano and notation with his teacher, who was also a cantor (hazzan) where he was heard by the well-known cantor Zeidel Rovner, who convinced his parents to move to Kishinev, so the child could join the synagogue's choir. At the age of 22, he moved to Warsaw, where he conducted an army orchestra.

As a supporter of Zionism, he immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1908, during the Second Aliyah. He taught music there in several institutes, among them the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, where he founded an orchestra and a choir.