Community Magazine August 2016

When people commented on how taxing it must be for him, he said he didn’t care howmany hours he spent on the endeavor; he did it for the love of the pizmonim . Because his eyesight was failing, Gabriel asked his youngest daughter, Iris, for her assistance. She was pivotal to the process, constantly taping passages to papers in the pizmonim books. Though she didn’t enjoy the tedious task of collating many parts of the prayers, she valued the fact that she was helping to assemble what would become a timeless prayer book. When their work was finally completed, Iris accompanied her father to Israel to deliver the manuscript to the publisher. When Gabriel got off the plane and stepped foot in Israel, he knelt and kissed the ground. Kaddish Immediately upon his arrival to Brooklyn, Mr. Shrem was offered various cantorial positions in the community. Though he’d learned most of his pizmonim repertoire in Egypt, it was in Brooklyn that he truly became a Hazzan . In applying the pizmonim melodies to the various prayers, Gabriel had a distinct way of elevating the name of Gd. Building upon the established cantorial traditions of his predecessor, H. Moshe Ashear, he achieved new heights of Hazzanut . Mr. Ronnie Tawil compares Mr. Shrem’s cantoring to the high quality radios that they used to make in the 1950’s. “They just don’t make them like they used to,” he says. Joey Mosseri recalls, “From the age of five to twelve, he was the Hazzan I heardmore than 90% of the time. He had his own unique way of fitting things and he was also the number one stretcher [of Hebrew words]. Many times as kids, we timed him doing Kaddish : [It took him] 5 to 7 minutes! You never wanted to get stuck standing for Kaddish [when he was the Hazzan ]. Everyonemade sure to get into the kenis and sit down in time before Kaddish began.” Semehim The Great Sages define the “rich” as those who are happy with their portion. Mr. Shrem, or Daddy Gabe, as his family referred to him, was a very content man, because he loved who he was and what he did. He loved teaching students. His daughter, Emily, remembers, “He would attract all the kids, who followed him to shul.” She continues: “Every Shabbat afternoon, you would find Daddy Gabe, sitting by the window and learning Humash. He gave Bar Misvah lessons to so many young men in our community. Neighborhood men would stop and tell me that he taught them what they know and that they learned and practiced because of him. He loved what he taught.” For Gabriel, religion was very much a part of his working life, too. He stopped work every day at 4:00pm and took his men to the back of the warehouse to pray minha. His wife went so far as to say that “if there was a bed in shul, he would never come home.” Mimisrayim There is a unique story behind how Gabriel left Egypt. In his youth, he contracted Trachoma, an eye infection common to the region. Just before his family attempted to leave the country, Gabriel was notified that, because of the disease, he would not be allowed to board the boat to theUnited States. It was decided that hewould remainwith his uncle and aunt, Abraham and Zakiah Chehebar, until his father could come back for him. Gabriel’s younger brother, Saul, recalls his mother, Flora, crying constantly on the ship, because she had to leave her son behind. It wasn’t until after his Bar Misvah that his father, Abraham, returned and brought Gabriel back to the United States. For Gabriel, these years in Egypt were far from a negative experience; in fact, they proved to be formative for him. It was there that he absorbed the vast knowledge of his uncle, AbrahamChehebar. It was also during this time in Egypt that Gabriel first learned pizmonim . Gabriel knew an estimated 300 pizmonim melodies; more than anyone else in the community. In the 1970’s, he recorded at least 265 of them onto tape cassettes for his class at the Yeshiva University Cantorial Institute. These recordings have been digitally enhanced by the Sephardic Pizmonim Project and are currently available on pizmonim.com. Nakdishach In a January 1986 interview with Dr. Kay Kaufman Shelamay, Mr. Shrem emotionally discussed the Nakdishach prayer. He got so inspired, he said, when his congregants united as one and joined him in saying the powerful words “Kaddosh, Kaddosh, Kaddosh.” To him, this show of unison, this spontaneous fervor, was what made his role worthwhile. To have the full response of the congregation behind him and in support of him brought him tremendous pleasure. He considered himself to be the captain of a ship, responsible for guiding the lives of his congregants to safety with his cantoring. Alas, Gabriel’s prospects began to dim. Ultimately, trachoma caused him to lose vision in one eye. Despite several corneal transplant surgeries to try and restore the vision that remained to him, his eyesight was never restored. By the end of his life, he was totally blind – though, spiritually, he soared. Kaddish Titkabal May the Almighty Gd accept our prayers for the elevation of Mr. Shrem’s neshama . May his family and students be protected with the same diligence he showed in preserving the pizmonim and heritage of Am Yisrael. Amen. Gabriel Shrem with his two grandchildren; Gabe and Larry Heffez. Gabriel Shrem with son, Abie Shrem, on his wedding day, 1972. 40 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE