Benarroch Hazzanut Archive
This site contains most of the cantorial repertoire of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London - "Kahal Kadosh Shaar Hashamayim" - which was established in 1656 and is the oldest Jewish community in the British Isles.
The recordings on this site were made in 1997 by the Senior Hazan of the congregation, the Revd. Halfon Benarroch, who retired in 2008, after many years officiating at Bevis Marks Synagogue. They were converted from cassette to MP3 format in 2010.
Revd. Benarroch passed away in December 2022. Over the years I had told him of the positive feedback I often receive from users of this site and he was delighted. On the last occasion we spoke he said: "I'm so glad I made those recordings when I did; I couldn't do it now". A reminder to us all not to delay important tasks!
This site was initiated and produced by Rabbi Jonathan Cohen (Visiting Rabbi of Bevis Marks Synagogue between 2012-2014), and is maintained by him on a voluntary basis, as a free online resource for those interested in studying our ancient and beautiful tradition.
The various hymns sung during services are not included in this archive, but a sister website with recordings of many of these can be found here: London Sephardi Congregational Melodies
Links allow you to play individual files online, while from the bottom of most pages, and on the Downloads page, you can download ZIP files for off-line listening and creating CDs for private use.