On the side, he’s a music guru with broad knowledge and passion, especially for the songs of the past
He’s a rosh chaburah at the Waterbury Mesivta, but that’s just one of his hats. RABBI EZI WARTELSKY delivers shiurim on various platforms, and is also the founder of Yahrtzeit Yomi, where, on each day of the calendar, he offers knowledge and insight about prominent Jews who passed away on that date in history. On the side, he’s a music guru with broad knowledge and passion, especially for the songs of the past.
My taste runs the full gamut from Ben Zion Shenker and the London School of Jewish Song, to Amudai Shaish and Avraham Fried and Benny Friedman and beyond. But the child part of me — which I feel is like quite a big part — in enamored with the work of Shmuel Kunda a”h. I can quote whole sections of Shmuel Kunda’s albums to you, but next week, when my mood changes, I’ll be back in Benny Friedman land.
These days, it would be Ben Zion Shenker’s “Lo Saivoshi.” But I go seasonal. Before Purim, I like to use the Gerrer “Shoshanas Yaakov,” or before Succos, MBD’s “Vesamachta.”
I often sing “Kol Mekadeish” to the vintage “Mimkomcha” tune (composed by Bobover chassid Ezriel Eliezer Mandelbaum Hy’d, which MBD sang on his father’s second Melitzer Oneg Shabbos album), unless I’m eating in yeshivah, where they don’t sing it. When my siblings and I are together for Shabbos, we sing Yossi Green’s “Kah Ribon” from MBD’s Moshiach album.
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