Ne'eman, Yehoshua Leib

NE'EMAN, YEHOSHUA LEIB (1899–1979), Israeli *ḥazzan, writer, and teacher. Born in Jerusalem, Ne'eman sang as a meshorer with A.Z. Idelsohn and other ḥazzanim and studied liturgical music and singing with Solomon Rosowsky. His lyric tenor voice and emphasis on correct pronunciation and accentuation of the prayers made him a popular ḥazzan in many of Jerusalem's synagogues. He was often accompanied by his choir, Shir Ẓiyyon. From 1948 Ne'eman was lecturer in biblical cantillation at the Academy of Music in Jerusalem, and from 1958 to 1965 was director of the school for ḥazzanim for the Israel Institute for Sacred Music. He wrote extensively on biblical cantillation including Ẓelilei ha-Mikra (1955), and also published Nusaḥ la-Ḥazzan (1963, with demonstration records). Rosowsky based his The Cantillation of Bible (1957) on Ne'eman's renderings which he accepted as the pure representation of the Ashkenazi tradition.