People

Szaul Berezowski (Shaul Berezovsky) was a son of Fajwel, a cantor from Grodno. His father was the one who gave him his first music lessons. Berezowski learned to play piano from Lila Fidelman. He studied at Warsaw conservatory (1926-29), and later lived in Białystok, where, before the outbreak of World War II, he became involved with the Jewish theatre: among other things, he accompanied the performances of the well-known pair of comedians, Szymon Dżigan and Izrael Szumacher, and later on, a famous actor and singer, Anna Nożyk. 

He became the conductor of Białystok's "Apollo" theatre orchestra, located at 22 Sienkiewicza Street, and, simultaneously, directed a military jazz band. 

When the Red Army started occupying Białystok, Berezowski worked as the manager of Dżigan and Szumacher's musical entertainment theatre.

After the war, he came back to Łódź, where he composed music for the National Jewish Theatre, he organized and directed the Jewish folk choir operating at the Jewish Social and Cultural Society (Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów), and he composed the score to two films prouced in Łódź, "We survivors" (Mir ibergewlibene) and "Undzere kinde-jornr"  (Our children).

Berezowski also conducted the choir during prayers in th Orthodox Church of St. Alexander Nevsky at Kilińskiego Street in Łódź, and "Kalinka", a Russian choir. During that time, he also founded and directed a choir of Jewish industrial cooperatives in Łódź. In 1957 he moved to Israel, where he continued to actively participate in theatre and music. 

He passed away on April 2, 1975 in Tel Aviv. 

Posthumously, his memoir in Jiddish was published in Tel Aviv (1976)

Berezowski's compositions are still being performed today - listen here.

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Szaul Berezowski with Orthodox choir.