Bacon, Hirsch Leib
BACON, HIRSCH LEIB>
BACON, HIRSCH LEIB (1875–1928), ḥazzan. Hirsch Leib Bacon was born in Kolbuszow into the Bacon family of cantors. He studied in the yeshivah in Tarnow and during the period of his studies sang with Cantor Eliyahu Brandsdorfer. He moved to Nowy Sacz and established a choir that performed ḥasidic melodies and Psalms. In 1905 he was appointed cantor in the great synagogue of Chryzanow. He composed music for the Sabbath and holiday prayers, and for other occasions. He wrote hundreds of compositions. His son, Prof. Yitzhak Bacon, chairman of the department of Yiddish at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, is now publishing his father's compositions, which he wrote down from memory. In 1919 Hirsch Leib Bacon moved to Berlin and served as cantor in the bet midrash at Grenadierstrasse 37 until 1924, when he returned to Chryzanow.
[Akiva Zimmerman]