Remembering Isidore Patz…Twice!

Since I was a kid, I have had a passion for Jewish music that became immersed in, and has blessed me with joy, way beyond any dreams I may have had when I first encountered this beautiful art form. This is how it started.

The grand, Moorish styled “Garden’s Shul”, set in leafy, shaded gardens in Cape Town South Africa, was built in 1901 by the first Jewish community to be established in sub-Saharan Africa (originally in 1841.) It is known as South Africa’s “Mother Synagogue”.

The majestic Table Mountain frames the imposing double turreted external façade, while the impressive domed interior features the warmest, cavernous acoustic sound. Thus the resident choir, singing from the “choir room,” set above the Aaron Hakodesh (Holy Ark) produced a magnificent, sacred sound which reverberated across the shul.

In 1965, I was fortunate to be drafted into that choir, as a ten year old boy soprano. The impact of this experience on me was immediate and will last as long as I live. It sparked that love of Jewish music that has sustained itself over the past 6 decades.

But just how did I get to join the choir?

Isidore (“known as Issy”) Patz was my late father’s first cousin, once removed. Issy possessed the most beautiful tenor voice and was a lead singer and soloist in the choir over a period of 60 years. One day in 1965, he called my father and I happened to be nearest the phone when it rang. Luckily for me, at the time, the idea of a mobile phone had still to form in someone’s mind! So I picked up the phone and politely said, “Hello.” Issy asked to speak to my father, so I dutifully called out, “Dad!” My father came to the phone and Issy asked, “Albert, who answered the phone?” When my dad answered, “My son Richard,” he said, “You should send him down to the Garden’s Shul Choir for an audition. I can tell by the way he called for you that he is musical!” My father duly acted on that advice and so it was that Issy Patz became the catalyst for that great blessing that has become a huge presence in my life.

(Isidore, Sylvia, Dennis and Geoffrey Patz)

I have never forgotten what Issy Patz did for me.

For the past 45 years my wife Cheryl, myself and our family have lived in Israel. On a visit to Cape Town many years ago, I went down to the shul and discovered a series of bronze plaques placed on a wall towards the front of the shul, which honor members who have served the choir with great distinction. I was delighted to find that one of those plaques is inscribed, “In loving memory, Isidore Patz, a devoted chorister of the Garden’s Synagogue Choir from 1932 to 1992. He will always be remembered.” Subsequently, every time I have travelled to Cape Town I have made a point of going to visit “the plaque.”

Just before Rosh Hashanah this year, my friend Gilad Stern happened to mention to me that he would be attending holiday services at the Garden’s Shul. As such, I asked him to kindly act as my proxy, go up to the plaque and nod in appreciation. On the eve of the chag at around 5 p.m. I received a video clip from Gilad, showing him going up to the plaque as requested. He had gone to the shul before the chag to leave his Tallit and Machzor, and while he was there, he would fulfilled his pledge. I was most grateful to him.

On his way back home he performed another “mitzvah” by going to Highlands House, the Jewish Old-Aged home, where he did the rounds, wishing the residents a “Shana Tovah.”

As he passed by the home’s shul he happened to notice a friend, Arthur Levin, who had arrived to help out with the festival services. Gilad walked in and Arthur, who in the 1980’s had also sung in the Garden’s Shul choir told him of something astounding that had just happened. He had randomly picked up a High Holiday “Machzor” and casually opened it. There, in the inside front cover, written in a beautiful handwriting, was the name of the person who had used it, undoubtedly for many years. Arthur recalled him fondly for his magnificent tenor voice. The name in the machzor was… Isidore Patz.

See video:

(Photo credits: Courtesy of Jeanine Patz and Richard Shavei-Tzion)