Last year, at UJA’s New York City commemoration of October 7th in Central Park, Cantor Schwartz led the prayer for Israel: Avinu Shebashamayim. All shared similar hopes and prayers at this moving community-interfaith event: an end to conflict that begins with the return of the hostages. As this s...

Corinne Allal (1955-2024), a hall-of-fame Israeli rock artist and one of the country’s most beloved voices, sadly passed away last year. In honor of her memory, we are releasing a recording of a new piece the PAS Music Center commissioned her to compose, made by combining an original vocal sketc...

Sixty years after Simon & Garfunkel released this song, we find ourselves once again in a world deeply divided. “People talking without speaking - people hearing without listening.”

If you recognize some of the singers here, it’s because they also opened the Tony Awards earlier this year. Singin...

As this song expresses, may you be sealed in the Book of Life, and may the new year ahead bring sweetness, happiness, and peace. Shanah Tovah!

Music by Beth Styles, arr. by Oran Eldor, commissioned by PAS Music Center
Music Director: David Enlow
Video Editor: Tami Shaham
Audio: Oscar Acevedo

As we approach the High Holidays, here is a piyut recorded live during services in dramatic cantorial style, a centuries-old art in which the cantor’s voice portrays the struggle and triumph of atonement. Once brought to the Broadway stage through Jewish contributions to musical theatre, this sac...

Head back to school with these two favorites from Oliver! sung by Cantor Schwartz’s children. These songs from our Broadway concert and album (coming out September 16), Where is Love and Consider Yourself, show the tenderness and confidence of childhood. Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom!

Featuring ...

Whether it’s Labor Day or Israel Day, there’s nothing like a parade to celebrate, and this year PAS had its own float at the Israel Day Parade in NYC. Even in somber and challenging times, this song reminds us: “it will be better, it will be even better!” Enjoy the feel of the celebratory crowd a...

The month of Elul begins shortly, and with it comes the sound of the shofar. We all hold similar hopes for the new year: peace, safety, and to be written in the Book of Life. We invite you to join us for High Holiday services, in person or via livestream, to pray for these blessings and more. Wis...

With 20 Broadway shows and 15 films to his name, it’s hard to overstate the omnipresence of songwriter Irving Berlin. Born the son of a cantor in Tsarist Russia and raised in the Lower East Side having fled the pogroms, Berlin wrote over 1,500 songs, shaping American music for decades. This song ...

“Have you ever felt like nobody was there?” Taken from Dear Evan Hansen for our recent Jewish Broadway concert, this song speaks to a deep loneliness and longing for connection. Every day, but more intensely this week, we pray for the immediate release of all remaining hostages, for the end of a...

As we prepare for Shabbat and approach Tisha B’Av, we share this musical tribute to Cantor Schwartz’s mentor and teacher, Cantor Naftali Herstik z”l, whose first yahrzeit we mark this month.

Cantor Herstik’s voice filled the Jerusalem Great Synagogue with sacred beauty for over three decades, an...

Our new album, ‘Broadway: A Jewish Journey,’ comes out in two months, and we can’t wait to share it with you! As a sneak peek, here’s a song from Carousel (1945). Its message, “walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone,” resonates as deeply today as it did in the 1940s. Wishin...

With the somber observance of Tisha B’av coming, we offer this prayer for peace, Shalom Rav. Since its composition in 1974, this melody has been the most popular for its text. We recorded it in a more informal style than usual – what do you think? Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom.

Featuring Cantor ...

The first among the Declaration of Independence’s famous rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is life, ‘chai’. In this, Israel’s 1983 Eurovision entry, life is “a song passed from generation to generation”. May we all value and celebrate the precious gift of life. Am Yisrael Chai...

As we explore how to deal with fear and anxiety in many areas of our life, this song offers some wisdom from two sources. Broadway composer and PAS member Zina Goldrich combined two complementary sources for the lyrics of this song, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and Rabindranath Tagore. May this messa...

"If only we could live in peace … if only a new day would come."

This song expresses a longing for true peace such that the next generation will no longer know the pain of war. It is offered for the safety of IDF soldiers and those held captive, with the heartfelt wish that they may return hom...

This month we mark the 92nd Yahrzeit of Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt (1882–1933), the most revered cantor of his day. This piece, the most famous duet he composed, takes for its text an ancient description of the actions of the Cohen Gadol, the High Priest, which we recall on Yom Kippur. We commissi...

As we approach Shavuot, we think about the strength, beauty, and peace of our tradition. Bidding farewell to Cantor Sierra Fox as she leaves our internship, we offer this musical illustration of that tradition which she and Cantor Schwartz sang earlier this month. We have passed this piece, and m...

Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, is a place from which peace should flow, a city full of different meanings, both historical and spiritual. For Cantor Schwartz, it is a city of memories. For the young Israeli composer we commissioned to write this song, Yonit Spiegelman, it is a city of visions and power...

When you think of Mediterranean movie-making, you might think of the Cannes Film Festival, which begins this coming week, but what do you know about the film industry in Israel? Last year, we created a medley of songs from Israeli film. Some scenes you might recognize, if only Chaim Topol’s famou...

During this week’s commemoration of Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut, all eyes are on Israel. Whether you are thinking of the wildfires near Jerusalem, meditating on the war and the hostage situation, or just trying to make sense of things in a shattered world, the poetry in this song will uplift...

At the 2015 Multireligious Meeting for Peace, Pope Francis and other religious leaders, including Rabbi Cosgrove, remembered those who perished on 9/11 and prayed for peace. Cantor Schwartz closed the ceremony with Oseh Shalom. May this song bring comfort to those mourning his loss.

The Magen Avot prayer speaks of awe, rest, Shabbat, peace, and remembering creation. Seeking a summary of keeping Shabbat, it’s hard to think of a better one! As we keep Shabbat in the midst of Passover, this classic style of Hazzanut singing evokes the world of Jewish music and tradition like no...

Park Avenue Synagogue has a history of building bridges between the Jewish and African American communities, such as through the Music Center’s gospel album, Be the Light (2021), and a recent performance of Dave Brubeck’s The Gates of Justice, written in 1969. Especially at Passover, we recognize...