Rabbi Israel Goldfarb, a leading religious musicologist, died in a hospital in suburban Oceanside last night, at the age of 87.
The author of 10 volumes of music for the synagogue and other religious institutions, he was named rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel Anshe Emes in Brooklyn, where he had been the rabbi since 1905. Some of his songs are in the Army and Navy Hymnal. He was a former president of the New York Board of Rabbis.
Born in Poland, he was brought to the United States in 1892. He was graduated from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he served as professor of Jewish liturgical music for 22 years. In 1949, he founded the School of Sacred Music of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform rabbinical seminary.
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