Moshe Wolowelsky's Musical Manuscript
Biography Moshe Wolowelsky (ca. 1854 - ca. 1914)
Moshe Wolowelsky was born about 1854 in the town now known as Ivanava, Belarus, the son of Rabbi Israel Wolowelsky who had come to the community from Drogichin. Moshe married Malka Orlofsky. Some of their children immigrated to Israel and the United States. After her death, he married Malka's widowed sister, Rifka. Moshe died about 1914.
Moshe's profession was variously described as a Maggid, Rabbi, Dayan and "seller of lottery tickets", but in reminiscences by former residents, it is his musical contribution to the community that is remembered. They speak of his beautiful voice, and reputation it had even among the non-Jewish residents of Ivanava.
"…notwithstanding all of my grandfather's fine and resplendent virtues, he was most lauded and renowned for his beautiful and jubilant prayers. … His voice, though not particularly strong, was pleasing to the ear, filling one's soul with joy and setting one's heart aquiver. His singing and prayers during the High Holy Days would draw not only the regular worshipers of the resisters' synagogue, where my grandfather used to pray, but many others from other synagogues around the town would hasten to finish praying early so they could make it to the big synagogue in time to hear the delightful and beautiful melodies of Rabbi Moshe'l Megidas's prayer. Even the town's goyim would come to listen to his High Holy Days prayers…"
During his lifetime, Moshe learnt the unusual skill of reading music, and recorded the tunes used in worship in Ivanava in a notebook. Some are traditional tunes, some may be original compositions or adaptations. After his death, this notebook was held by his descendants in Israel and then in the United States. It is now on permanent loan to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York (www.yivo.org) and in 2020 they prepared these scans of the notebook. How fortunate we are that we can in some measure still hear the sounds that once would have been heard in the homes and synagogues of Ivanava.
(Sources include - Karni, Asher (Wall, Jack translator); " Memories from Grandfather's House – Rabbi Moshe'l Megidas" in Janow al yad Pinsk; sefer zikaron; Yanow near Pinsk; memorial book; ed: Dr. Mordechai Nadav (Katzekovits), with the collaboration of Nachman Blumenthal; (Jerusalem, 1969, Association of former residents of Janow near Pinsk in Israel)