https://youtu.be/BNPvjt73eC0# Amen Shem NoraThis Shabbat will be the 44th anniversary of my ‘aprova’ at Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in the City of New York. It will also mark 44 years since I first got to know my beloved teacher and friend, Abraham Lopes Cardozo(z’l).I owe to Bram Cardozo an enormous debt of gratitude. Not only did he teach me the New York and Amsterdam variants of the western Sephardi tradition, but together with his wife Irma, he welcomed me into a home whose very essence was music and the love of singing, a spirit that I subsequently tried to create with my own family.This week's offering ‘Amen Shem Nora’ is a tribute to him. This Piyyut, which became Bram’s musical calling card, comprises four stanzas and a refrain. Its first printed appearance was in Shlomo Mazal Tov’s compendium ‘Shirim Uzemirot Vetushbahot’ (Constantinople, 1545), but it did not enter the Spanish and Portuguese canon until the mid-20th century. Once it did, Bram ensured that it would become a mainstay of the Spanish and Portuguese Simchat Torah repertoire, as well as a staple at his own Shabbat table. He not only introduced it to the New York and London communities, but by performing it in recitals, he popularised it throughout the Jewish world. Indeed, it's not an exaggeration to say that no concert of Spanish and Portuguese music could be considered complete without it.Please like and share.