An Atlanta cantor, who is the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, will sing the National Anthem at the Presidential inauguration of Jimmy Carter. Cantor Isaac Goodfriend of Atlanta’s Ahavath Achim Conservative Congregation, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by telephone yesterday that Jan. 20, the day of the inauguration, will also be his 52nd birthday. “It is a double honor,” he said. “I am overwhelmed.”
Goodfriend, who was born in Poland, was interned in Nazi forced labor camps there as a teenager. He lost both of his parents and all of his brothers and sisters during the Holocaust, he said.
In Atlanta for 12 years, Goodfriend lived previously in Cleveland. He campaigned in the Ohio city for Carter last year. The cantor said that Carter has attended many Jewish functions at which Goodfriend sang. “I tried to teach him some Yiddish songs,” Goodfriend said. He added that Carter did manage to him the tunes.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
