Cantor Benzion Miller was with us almost from the very beginning of the Jewish Culture Festival. We used to call him one of the pillars of the JCF – not only because of his beautiful singing but also for the many pieces of advice he gave us, for his kindness, and for his help in solving problems and dilemmas.
This year’s festival was supposed to be his grand return after an illness. In mid-December 2024, we met with him in our office to finalize the date of his concert, the program, and the guest performers… The following night, he was already in the hospital, from which he never returned.
The 34th JCF Cantors’ Concert is dedicated to the blessed memory of Benzion Miller.
His son Shimmy will perform in the concert, along with two of Benzion’s students: Nissim Sa’al and Israel Rand. They will be accompanied by the Cantors’ Choir conducted by Maestro Yossi Schwartz and Menachem Bristowski on piano. Please join us on Sunday, June 29, 2025, at 7:00 PM in the Tempel Synagogue, where Benzion performed many times. The concert will also be broadcast live on our website. In our online program you’ll find more information about the concert and the artists, and below you can read a personal farewell to Benzion Miller written by Janusz Makuch.
Only death can prove the sincerity of a friendship. It seals this friendship. For ever and ever.
For twenty-eight years I had the good fortune and honour to be friends with Cantor Benzion Miller. I am wrong to use the past tense as this friendship did not end with his death. It will end with mine.
Chazzan Miller loved Krakow deeply. Despite being ill and his doctors’ disapproval, on 18 December 2024 he travelled from Brooklyn to celebrate his 77th birthday with his close friends. There is a recording of Havdalah in which he blesses wine, light and spices of the world that he was about to leave for what turned out to be the very last time.
Two days later, he lost consciousness. He began the painful journey of returning to the Temple in Yerushalayim, where today, free of pain and bitterness, together with other great cantors such as Yossele Rosenblatt, Gershon Sirota, Moshe Koussevitzky and a choir of cantors of all ages, he sings incessantly before the face of the Almighty.
I was with him on this journey until the moment when Raizy, his daughter, and Eli, his son, who were watching over him, decided to take their father home to Brooklyn, where his loved ones were waiting. He died shortly after that.
What did the presence of Cantor Benzion Miller mean for our Festival? My God…, I don’t know what to say. Whatever I say – it will be too little. Or not the right thing. However, I know what his absence means.
When he was leaving Brooklyn to come to Krakow, he left everything at home and in the synagogue open, unfinished, in the waiting mode – feelings, thoughts, prayers, songs…, after all, he said he would return soon. “The day before” we talked about the concert. Benzion spoke about the message of beauty and peace from Kazimierz. And about the great joy of returning to Krakow after the time marred by the pandemic. I already know that he will not return, so it will probably be necessary to close it all, recap, describe, arrange in some chronological order, archive it. But I don’t want to do it. I will wait. Despite everything. After all, he said he would return. If only for this one moment. Because I know that his spirit will appear at today’s concert. He will come. He will be with us – alongside Blima, Benzion’s widow, his children, family and friends. Us.
We wanted Benzion to perform together with his son, cantor Shimmy Miller. Today Shimmy will sing for his Father with other cantors, once students of the Master and now some of the most outstanding cantors of our time.
And only after this concert, when the lights go out and darkness falls, will I be able to leave the empty Festival room and close the door behind me. Happy that my Friend is still with me.
Janusz Makuch
