Renowned cantor Sherwood Goffin recently passed away at the age of 77. Cantor Goffin received his cantorial degree from Yeshiva University’s Belz School of Jewish Music, where he later taught. He was the founding chazzan at Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue, where he served for half a century. In 1986, Cantor Goffin received Cantor-for-Life tenure from the synagogue.
In a eulogy, Rabbi Shaul Robinson, current spiritual leader of Lincoln Square, referred to Cantor Goffin as “the glue that held our synagogue together” as rabbinic leadership changed over the decades. Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald of the National Jewish Outreach Program said that Cantor Goffin “died before his time …. There was another song in him.”
Cantor Goffin served as honorary president of the Cantorial Council of America and recorded several albums. He performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and sang at every NCSY National Convention from 1962 to 1991, as well as at many OU conventions.
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