This site contains almost the entire 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. This site has been produced on behalf of the Society of Heshaim (the congregation's publications society) as a free online resource for those interested in studying our ancient and beautiful tradition.  The recordings were made 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 recorded on cassette in 1997, and converted to MP3 format in 2010. The Society of Heshaim wishes to place on record its appreciation to Revd. Benarroch for creating this invaluable archive.
The various hymns sung during services are not included here, but a sister website of old and new recordings of these is currently under construction by the congregation's Director of Music, Mr. Eliot Alderman, at:
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.
Copyright: All material on this site is Copyright © 1997, 2015, The Society of Heshaim, Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation, London. Individual, not-for-profit use is allowed and encouraged. Commercial use of any kind is prohibited without permission in writing from the Society of Heshaim.
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Contact for questions, comments and suggestions about the site: jonathan.e.cohen [at] gmail.com |