The Polish-born cantor Simon Hass, who has died in London aged 97, was widely admired and respected as one of the finest cantors in the world, gifted with vocal brilliance combined with humility, prayerful majesty and devotional intensity.

He was born in 1925 in Jaroslav, Poland, to Sarah and Reb Moshe Hass, scions of a distinguished Chasidic family. His father, a wine merchant, was a prominent member of the Jewish community, a scholarly, musical and highly competent baal tefillah (prayer leader).

The environment into which Simon Hass was born was infused with communal leadership, charity, learning and music.

His eldest brother Jacob, a student at the prestigious Chachmei Lublin Yeshivah, became a pre-war child prodigy singer, and in 1933 at the age of 13 was invited to intone the memorial prayer in front of thousands for the celebrated Rabbi Meir Shapiro, a member of the Polish parliament, yeshiva head and founder of the international synchronised page-a-day of Talmud study (Daf Yomi) system.

Simon studied at the Belz, Tarnow and Lubavitch yeshivot, displaying strong academic talents, independence of mind and great musicality.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War his native Jaroslav was occupied by the Germans, and Jewish life became increasingly subject to Nazi terror.

Reb Moshe Hass, the community leader, was arrested as a prominent Jew, held hostage and faced imminent torture and/or death.

His wife Sarah bravely negotiated with the arresting Nazi officer — with the ten Hass children in tow — to secure his release, which she miraculously achieved. The family managed to reach Soviet-occupied Lvov (now Lviv, Ukraine) where they had relatives.

The respite was short as they were subsequently deported by the Soviet authorities to Siberia as bourgeois Polish aliens.

One sister succumbed to the harsh conditions. Simon found some solace from the permanent hunger through singing in the terribly tough, cold conditions, and even managed to find a chazanut teacher in a fellow deportee.

An older sister was employed by the Soviet military authorities and enabled Simon to receive altered papers showing he was born in 1927 and therefore not yet of military age, while the tide of war was turning in favour of the Allies.

After the war the family returned to Poland to find the wider family had been murdered and the pre-war large communities had been destroyed.

Simon briefly enrolled in the Lodz conservatoire as the only Jewish student. Realising that no realistic future lay for them in Poland, the Hass family moved on to Paris where Simon again enrolled in the conservatoire.

Four Hass siblings were to become cantors: Jacob obtained a cantorial post in New York, identical twins David and Benjamin travelled to British Mandate Palestine, where they were interned in Cyprus before subsequently pursuing military careers in Israel as well as music studies, which led to a range of posts. Most of the family moved to London where they re-established their lives.

Tragically, Sarah Hass died shortly afterwards at the age of 49.

Simon’s UK charity concert career was launched with his London debut in February, 1950 in aid of Mifal Hatorah, supporting refugee Jewish clergy and their families. He was soon appointed cantor of Hendon United Synagogue as successor to David Kusevitsky.

There Simon met his beloved life partner Elaine; the couple married in 1950 and raised three children, Stuart, Naomi and Sarah. He continued his studies in London, obtaining an LLMC for operatic and classical singing and enrolled in the cantorial studies programme at Jews’ College under renowned chazan Salomo Pinkasovitch.

This gave him expertise in a variety of styles from Nussach Anglia to the Chasidic melodies learnt from his father. He also joined his colleagues in the unique London Chazonim Choir of 45 voices under the baton of Rev Leo Bryll.

On hearing him in Hendon, Sir Isaac Wolfson persuaded him to apply for the post of cantor at the Central Synagogue, London, a position he held with distinction for over 40 years.

There he reintroduced midnight choral selichot services well attended by cantorial aficionados from near and far, which were colloquially known as “Midnight Hass”! People from all walks of life, including leading figures in Anglo-Jewry, were moved by his dignified and highly professional style.

In return Cantor Hass loved his flock and declined many offers of high-profile posts abroad. His appearances at the annual Warsaw Ghetto memorial events in London, where he recited the memorial prayer, remain some of the supreme moments of cantorial emotion in Anglo-Jewry.

His brother David readily recognised that Simon’s vocal prowess and musical professionalism were clearly in a superior league. Cantor Hass’s voice was unique, possessing a phenomenal quality of golden timbre preserved at the high and low extremes, encompassing tenor and baritone ranges, supported by breath control worthy of a top opera star. His diction, especially in sprechstimme (classic recitative, sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech), was striking and meticulous.

As a textual interpreter within traditional nussach motifs, his ability to disaggregate and reaggregate a paragraph of prayers, infusing meaning into each syllable, was outstanding.

At his command were modes of sweet lyricality, Chasidic niggun and dramatic boldness. He could entreat and demand as the prayer required. For a voice of such magnitude, the flexibility of his coloratura was impressive.

He made beautiful use of falsetto and demonstrated absolute fluency in the texts. A book of Jewish learning was never far from his side.

Through personal contacts, charm, concerts and LP sales, he raised enormous funds for charities, particularly Lubavitch, whose selfless work in alleviating the situations of the Siberia deportees during the Second World War he never forgot.

Though he spoke little of his musical opinions and background, he produced an astounding array of recordings of chazanut, including modern American works such as by Rumshinsky, emotional cantorial art, yeshiva melodies, Yiddish folksong classics, poignant ghetto songs and Israeli repertoire.

The records include dramatic orchestrations and also beautiful piano accompaniments by John Gunter, and elegant arrangements of works made famous by Golden Age cantorial luminaries such as Sirota, Rosenblatt, Pinchik and Oysher.

Cantor Hass appeared in concert in the US, Israel and throughout the UK, including the Royal Festival Hall, invariably to rave reviews.

His steely inner strength in having endured terrible adversity early in life provided a reservoir of love to cheer congregants, friends and family in times of difficulty. He was the last survivor of his siblings and his passing represents the end of an era.

At his funeral he was lauded by Chief Rabbi Mirvis, Rabbi Barry Marcus, and his family. Rabbi Marcus noted that his passing risked the demise of inspirational chazanut.

A challenge of modern Jewish leadership remains to act to rebuild expertise in nussach hatefillah (appropriate prayer modes) and to attract vocally and academically gifted individuals into synagogue and pastoral careers.

Rev Hass is survived by his son Stuart, daughters Naomi and Sarah, sons-in-law George and Yossi, daughter-in-law Nicole, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Elaine predeceased him in 1995.

Cantor Simon Hass. Born 31 July, 1925. Died 15 October, 2022.