Naftali Hershtik

Naftali Hershtik was born in 1947 in Salgótarján

Naftali Hershtik was born in 1947 in Salgótarján, Hungary, to a family with a long line of cantors and rabbis. His family moved to Israel in 1951. His father, Moshe Menachem Hershtik, was a cantor and taught him the basics of cantorial music.

As a child he sang in the choir of the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv. In 1961 he toured the United States and Canada with his father and brother. He studied at yeshivas in Tel Aviv and Kfar Hasidim and trained with cantors including Moshe Koussevitzky, Leib Glantz and Shelomo Ravitz.

In 1966 he became cantor of the Geulat Israel synagogue in Tel Aviv, and in 1970 of a synagogue in Haifa. From 1972 to 1979 he was cantor of the Finchley United Synagogue in London while studying at the Royal College of Music. In 1981 he was appointed Chief Cantor of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue and held the post until 2008.

In 1984 he co-founded an academy for cantorial arts that became the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute, where he served as artistic director and later general director. He performed with orchestras in Israel and Europe and recorded albums. He died at his home in Ra'anana in 2024.