Boaz Bischofswerder (25 February 189528 June 1946) was a German Rabbi and composer. He is arguably best known for being the father of leading German/Australian contemporary composer

Felix Werder Felix Werder AM (24 February 19223 May 2012) was a German-born Australian composer of classical and electronic music, and also a noted critic and educator. The son of a distinguished liturgical composer, he composed all his life. His published ...

. Bischofswerder was born on 25 February 1895, in

Lublin, Poland Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

. Later, having moved to Berlin, he rose to the position of Rabbi of the reformed synagogue of Brunenstrasse. In 1933 Bischofswerder and his family left Germany because of their Jewish heritage, and went to live in London. Then in 1940 Bischofswerder was deported as an enemy alien to Australia, on board the ''

HMT Dunera HMT (Hired Military Transport) ''Dunera'' was a British passenger ship which, in 1940, became involved in a controversial transportation of thousands of "enemy aliens" to Australia. The British India Steam Navigation Company had operated a prev ...

'', along with his son Felix. Bischofswerder died on 28 June 1946 at St. Ronan's Private Hospital,

Malvern, Victoria Malvern () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 8 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington Local government areas of Victoria, loca ...

. Apart from his sons Felix and Manfred, Boaz was also survived by his wife Helene. In 1996 the Archive of Australian Judaica, located at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

published a collection of Bischofswerder's musical works. In 1998, Bischofswerder was the subject of a documentary, directed by Naomi Bishops, produced by Peter Tammer, for the VCA School of Film & Television. In the documentary "Two sons tell the story of their father, Boaz Bischofs Werder, a rabbi and musician who flees fascist Germany but is caught in an unexpected turn of events. The brothers' title of their father's journey reveals much of their own distinct life paths."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bischofswerder, Boaz 1885 births 1946 deaths 20th-century German rabbis German composers 20th-century German composers