Putterman, David

David J. Putterman was born in 1900 on an immigrant ship en route to New York City. As a boy he was alto soloist in the choirs of cantors Josef Rosenblatt, Gershon Sirota and Zeidel Rovner. During the nineteen-twenties Putterman recorded in Yiddish and Hebrew for the Victor, Brunswick and Vocalion labels. In 1933 both Putterman and Rabbi Milton Steinberg were offered to lead New York's Park Avenue Synagogue. By the time of Rabbi Steinberg's premature death in 1950, they had transformed the congregation into one of the beacons for America's Conservative Jewish movement. Putterman remained at Park Avenue until his retirement in 1976. His three major career accomplishments were: initiating and heading, from 1943-1976, an annual series commissioning contemporary synagogue music; instigating the founding of the Cantors Assembly in 1947; and spearheading the establishment of the Cantors Institute at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1952. David J. Putterman died in New York City on October 10, 1979.

From the description of Papers and music scores, ca. 1874-1979. (Jewish Theological Seminary of America). WorldCat record id: 58438418