Leipziger Synagogalchor

The Leipziger Synagogalchor is unique in German music history. It was founded in 1962 by the Jewish Cantor Werner Sander in order to be able to perform the choral music of the Reformed synagogues again, of which only a few sources have survived after the Shoah. At the same time, Sander began arranging Yiddish and Hebrew songs for mixed choir.

The amateur choir, which consisted of non-Jewish singers and was under the sponsorship of the Association of Jewish Communities in the GDR until the fall of the Wall, conquered in the two German political systems a solid but ‒ with its special repertoire and its ambassadorial function ‒ not at all an everyday position in the choral landscape.

In 2017 the ensemble was honored with the Obermayer German Jewish History Award. On the initiative of the choir, the "Revitalization of synagogue choral music of the 19th and 20th centuries in Central and Eastern Europe" was included in the Nationwide Directory of Intangible Cultural Heritage as a good practice example. The Leipziger Synagogalchor is a member of the Tolerant Saxony Network and is institutionally funded by the Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig. Since September 2022 Philipp Goldmann has been the artistic director of the ensemble.