OBITUARY: The peerless chazan who coined the term Midnight Hass
Jewish News' historian Derek Taylor pays tribute to Rev. Simon Hass, one of the most celebrated chazans of the 20th century.
Rev. Simon Hass LLCM, 1926-2022.
In his time the finest chazan in Britain since the war, Simon Hass has died at the age of 97.
He was born and brought up in Poland and was a very young student at the Belza Yeshiva. When the war broke out Poland was divided between Germany and Russia and, as a thirteen year old Jew, he was arrested and sent to a camp in Siberia. He was there for seven years and his sister died. Whilst in the camp he was appointed the chazan at the Great Synagogue in Irkutsk, Siberia, when he was only 17.
It was typical of the Soviet regime that at one point he was sent to prison for four months for religious activities. but it was finally agreed between the allies and the Russians after the war that the Poles should be repatriated.
In spite of the massacre of millions of Jewish Poles in the Holocaust, there was still a great deal of antisemitism in Poland after the war and those of the Hass family who had survived, moved on to Paris, where Simon Hass won a scholarship to the Conservatory after having studied at the Lodz Conservatoire.
As a graduate he saw an advertisement for a chazan in Britain and after a short time there at the Hendon Synagogue, applied for the post at the Central. In 1992 he recalled: “The first time I knew freedom was early in 1950, when in my early twenties, I arrived in this very special country. I had escaped from the tyranny of Nazi Germany and the despotism of Stalin, during my seven years in Siberia.”
“Little did I dream 23 years ago when suffering under tyranny and persecution, that I would live to see this day in this great freedom loving country.
He didn’t speak English well but his tenor voice was absolutely excellent. His experiences in Siberia had been traumatic and when he sang on Yom Kippur, he would name the concentration camps in which so many Jews had perished, and for that brief moment his voice would break and tears would come to his eyes. As he said once: “Little did I dream 23 years ago when suffering under tyranny and persecution, that I would live to see this day in this great freedom loving country.”
There were 15 applicants for the position of Central Synagogue chazan and it was agreed that each should be interviewed and his voice tested. Number two on the list was Simon Hass. When he had sung his piece, Sir Isaac Wolfson, the warden, was so impressed that he closed the proceedings and said he didn’t want to hear anybody else. Simon Hass was inducted in April 1951 and became one of the shining lights of the community.
The quality of his singing became well known and he took the trouble to study at the London College of Music and pass their exams. He was often invited to give charity concerts. There were 50 to 60 weddings a year at the Central and Simon Hass took care of his voice; he had singing lessons twice a week to keep it up to scratch.
In 1963 he started a Selichoth midnight service on the eve of the festival of Rosh Hashonah. The crowds who came had to be marshalled by the police. Over the years the services were widely reported and became known as the Jewish Midnight Mass. This was popularly changed to the Midnight Hass.
His very intelligent and charming wife was Elaine, but tragically, she died of cancer at 62 in 1995. She had been an enormous help to her husband who she had married when she was eighteen, and was a pillar of strength to the synagogue’s Ladies Guild.
She was clever, vivacious and committed to good causes. A member of the 35s, trying to get permission for Russian Jews to emigrate, she helped sufferers from Alzheimers and was part of the Synagogue’s chevra kadisha, looking after the bodies of the deceased. She was also a good poet and worked with her husband for over 40 years. In her memory Simon Hass created the Elaine Hass Memorial Trust which has since made substantial donations to good causes.
Simon Hass was devoted to the Central and this was well illustrated at the time of the Holydays in 1964. He had fallen and been taken to hospital to deal with an injured leg. He insisted, however, on being released to conduct the service on Yom Kippur and went back to hospital the day after.
Simon Hass was asked in 1980 whether he had thought of accepting offers from abroad. He said: “I love this country and the freedom is more than all the money ones offered. So I could have lived in New York, but after seven years with my parents, six brothers and four sisters in a Siberian camp, treated worse than animals, to me this country is so very special.”
He was a very charitable man. He was asked how he managed it. He explained that, for example, when Sir John Cohen died, he left him £2,000 and that was where the charity came from.
The royalties from the records he made he donated to Ravenswood, the Tottenham Home for Jewish Incurables, and the Salvation Army. It was a busy life and he very much enjoyed helping others.
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