Sherwood Goffin, the cantor of Lincoln Square Synagogue on Manhattan’s West Side from 1965 until 2016 and a faculty member of the Philip and Sara Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University since 1987, died on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. He was 77 years old. [Here is the video of the eulogies].
In addition to being a teacher of Jewish Liturgy and Folk Music at Belz, Goffin also was the Honorary President of the Cantorial Council of America, an affiliate of Yeshiva University and the only Orthodox organization of cantors in the world.
Known by many as “The Chaz” (short for chazzan, the Hebrew word for cantor), Goffin was granted Cantor for Life tenure at Lincoln Square Synagogue in 1986. He also served there as the principal for its Hebrew School, where he taught hundreds of students for their bar and bat mitzvahs.
From the 1960s through 1995, he was a popular artist in the world of contemporary Jewish music, performing throughout North America as well as in South Africa and Israel, including performances at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. During that period, he recorded six Jewish music albums, including cantorial music, liturgical music, folk music and an album from 1970 dedicated to Soviet Jewish refuseniks.
As a teacher at Belz, Goffin taught courses to college students and aspiring baalei tefillah [leaders of prayer] for more than 30 years. He was also the Belz’s outreach coordinator and held seminars in nusach ha-tefillah [the liturgical traditions of Jewish prayers] around the country on college campuses and Jewish communities.
In Fall 2018, he taught Megilot Cantillation and Shabbat Shaharit. Recognized as an expert on nusach ha-tefillah, he regularly lectured on the subject of traditional Jewish prayer services cantillations and melodies. He released several mp3 CDs that featured his renditions of Jewish prayers and music.
Goffin grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and attended high school at Mesivta Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yeshiva College in 1963 and a Cantorial Degree from Belz in 1966. A resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he is survived by his wife Batya, three children and several grandchildren.
May the entire family be comforted among all who mourn for Zion and Jerusalem.
[yu news]
