Josef Gottbeter, ‘Ono Adonoj’ (O Lord, deliver us!)
Josef Gottebeter (1877–1942) was the organist and choirmaster of the Grand Choral Synagogue, Rostov-on-Don, during the period when Froim Spektor (1888–1948) was the synagogue’s Cantor (1915–28). The precise date of composition for Ono Adonoj is unknown, but it was most likely composed prior to 1928, the year that Spektor departed Russia for South Africa having been appointed Cantor at the New Hebrew Congregation (Roeland Street synagogue), a post he held until 1934.
The manuscript score was notated by Spektor in one of the music notebooks that ultimately ended up among the papers of Cantor Morris Katzin (1902–74). Whether Katzin inherited these notebooks from Spektor or transported them to South Africa himself is uncertain. However, the two were close friends during their Cape Town years, and it seems likely that they regularly exchange musical materials between them.
Whilst Spektor left Russia and avoided encountering the horrors of the Holocaust in person, Gottbeter’s fate was tragic. After the German attack on Russia in 1941, he was evacuated to Kislovodsk in 1942 with his wife and daughter, where they were almost certainly murdered by the Nazis.
Gottbeter, Ono Adonoj - Full Score