At this very time when the whole world is almost in chaos, we must look to the cultural and above all to the spiritual forces to reconstruct human life on a nobler, purer and above all a saner basis.
It is through music—the universal language—that we may help bring the nations together in amity.
Music which can allay the unrest of labor created by the monotony of the toil of the wage earner forced upon him through our inventive genius, which has taken the burden from the back and hands of man and put it on to the machine.
Music, which can start the rhythmic flow of movements through the muscles and sinews and the very blood of your children.
Music, which can assuage your grief and intensify your joy.
Music, which can fill your brain with infinite harmonies.
Music, which can hold the family together and bring peace and happiness to the humble home of the mechanic as well as the palatial home of the millionaire.
Music!—as the mother sings to the babe at her breast, as the choir chants as the wedding, in the requiem for the dead.
Music! Music! which begins where words end, which whispers to us of immortality.
John C. Freund on “Jewish Traditional Music”, in an address to the Jewish Ministers-Cantors Association at Temple Emanuel on December 19th, 1922.
Cantor Hinda Eisen Labovitz 