Arno Nadel


Arno Nadel was a Jewish musicologist, composer, playwright, poet, and painter.

Early life

Nadel was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, at the time of his birth, part of the Russian Empire, to an Orthodox Jewish family.

Career

In 1890, Nadel moved from Lithuania to Germany. At the age of 12, Nadel studied in Königsberg, Germany, under the cantor Eduard Birnbaum. He also studied with conductor and composer Robert Schwalm.
In 1895, when he was 17 years old, he moved to Berlin and enrolled in the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. He studied with composer Ludwig Mendelssohn and Max Lowengard.
After graduating he worked at the Kottbusser Ufer Synagogue as an educator and choirmaster. In 1916, he became choir director of the Jewish community of Berlin which included the supervision of music at all Berlin synagogues.
Nadel was also a very prolific playwright and poet. Starting in 1918, Nadel took up painting as well, painting several self-portraits and biblical scenes.
In 1922, at the request of Jewish leadership, Nadel worked for years on an anthology of synagogue music, Kompendium Hallelujah! Gesänge für den jüdischen Gottesdienst, which he finished in 1938 and intended to publish in seven volumes.
Before he was deported, Nadel was able to leave his large collection of old Jewish liturgical materials with a non-Jewish neighbor, some of which survived and were purchased by his friend Eric Mandell. What remains of these materials is held at Gratz College in Philadelphia.

Personal life

Nadel was married to Beate Anna Nadel.
He was a resident of Schöneberg quarter of Berlin. In November 1938, he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Although Nadel was lucky enough to get papers to leave for England, he was too frail to make the trip. In March 1943, he and his wife were deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp. He died there the same year.

Published works