Chemjo Vinaver (born July 10, 1900 in Warsaw, Congress Poland) came from a prominent Warsaw Hasidic family. He studied music in Warsaw and Berlin and initially became choirmaster of the Berlin Friedenstempel in Halensee and later a choirmaster of the Jewish Community of Berlin.
At the beginning of the Nazi era, he founded the a-cappella male choir Hanigun, which was mainly made up of Jewish singers who had been barred from working in German opera houses. Vinaver brought much of his family’s Hasidic musical traditions into his work as a choirmaster. He was also interested in the music of Jewish communities scattered throughout the world and performed not only classics of German synagogue music with his choir, but also songs from Yemenite Judaism and the various Sephardic musical traditions. He also wrote numerous essays and books on the history of Jewish music and its various traditions.
Vinaver was also the second husband of the famous Berlin poet Mascha Kaléko. In 1938, they went into exile in the USA with their son Steven. Vinaver continued to work as a composer in New York and later in Israel, where he died in 1973.
Sources/Literature:
- Sophie Fetthauer: Chemjo Vinaver, in: Claudia Maurer Zenck/Peter Petersen (Hrsg.): Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 2010, URL: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00003706.
- Vinaver, Chemjo, in: Encyclopaedia Judaica, URL: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vinaver-chemjo.