Berlin Says Farewell to Cantor Who Was Powerful Link to Past The grave of Estrongo Nachama in Berlin. (Wikimedia Commons)
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They stood with bowed heads under a gray sky, listening to prayers of mourning at Berlin’s Heerstrasse Jewish cemetery.
Old and young, Jews and Christians, hundreds gathered Monday for a final farewell to Cantor Estrongo Nachama, who had graced the community with his voice since 1947.
Nachama died Jan. 13 of a heart attack at the age of 81.
His passing marks not only a loss for his family and congregation. It also deprives the community of a powerful link to the past and a force that kept Berlin’s postwar Jews going at a time when it might have seemed pointless to do so.