Isaie Schwartz

Isaie Schwartz was born on February 15, 1876 in Traenheim (at that time German Empire, now France). In 1890 he moved to Paris to attend the Talmud Torah, then the Israelite Seminary of France. After his studies he was first appointed temporary Rabbi of Marseille in 1901. Shortly afterwards he became Rabbi of Bayonne, his first permanent position. During World War I Isaie Schwartz fulfilled his military duties as a stretcher bearer. In 1919 Alsace-Lorraine - the native region of Isaie Schwartz - was ceded back from the German Empire to France and he became Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg. Isaie Schwartz remained in this position until 1939 when he was named chief rabbi of France, succeeding Israel Levi. Shortly before the invasion of Nazi forces in Paris in June 1940 Isaie Schwartz first fled to Vichy, then to Lyon. There he created a coordinated committee of Jewish welfare organisations and distributed funds to needy Jews. He also addressed several letters of protest against the racial laws to the Vichy Government. During this time he could escape Gestapo raids several time and was arrested not until 1944. Isaie Schwartz managed to escape and received French Officers’ Cross of the Legion of Honour
for his heroic work with the French Resistance movement in 1948.
Isaie Schwartz died on 22 July 1952 in Paris (France).

In my possession are two autograph music manuscripts of Isaie Schwartz. Both works are scored for mixed choir and organ (or piano) and dedicated to Leopold Bauer, president of the Israelite community in Strasbourg. The first work is titled "Psaumes CXVIII", the second one is dedicated to the memory of Arnaud Aron, the Chief Rabbi of Bas-Rhin. From the dedications one can deduce the time of composition: Arnaud Aron died in 1890 and Leopold Bauer in 1900. At the time of composing these works Arnaud Aron had already passed away, but Leopold Bauer not yet. Therefore these works date from around 1895.