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The Travels of a Shofar

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A Shofar is a type of trumpet usually made from a ram's horn. It is customarily sounded during the High Holidays (encompassing Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), the most solemn and important time in the Jewish year, when Jews atone for their sins and pray for forgiveness. The sound of the Shofar is intended to awaken the conscience of every Jew. It also commemorates the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by reminding us of the trumpets of the enemy army.

For the Greenberg-Tripoli family of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, one Shofar on display at the Aron Museum also represents their family history and a journey from Russia, to Scotland, to Montreal.

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Moses Greenberg was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to parents who had emigrated from Russia. The family does not know exactly why the Greenbergs left Russia, but it is clear that they valued their roots and hoped to preserve their traditions. They brought many of their personal goods with them from Russia to Scotland. Among them was the family's Shofar, as well as a pair of candlesticks with which the family celebrated Shabbat.

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As a young man, Moses announced his intentions to leave Glasgow for America to make his fortune. His mother reacted to this declaration by insisting that he first visit Russia to learn about his heritage.

When Moses returned from Russia, he told his mother about a young woman whom he had met by the name of Hannah. He had decided that he would send for her once he was settled in America. Again, Moses's mother intervened. She advised Moses to bring Hannah to Scotland first, where they would marry. Afterwards, they could go to America together. Once again, Moses followed his mother's directions. Hannah was brought to Glasgow, where they were wed. By the time the young couple set off for America, they already had two children and a third on the way.

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The journey to America, and then finally to Montreal, was a long one. They arrived in Montreal in 1881, but had first journeyed through Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Boston. In St. John's, Newfoundland, Moses found work overseeing the repair and restoration of an old church.

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Moses Greenberg
1880
St. John's, Newfoundland

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The picture shows Moses surrounded by the work crew, with the church in the background. Moses is the bearded man at the centre looking out at the camera. He steps onto the ruins of the church with one foot and uses a cane to balance himself. Moses was trained as a photographer and would later open a photography shop in Montreal, so he may have been involved in arranging this photograph.

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Just as his parents had once brought the Shofar with them from Russia to Scotland, Moses brought the Shofar with him from Scotland to his new home in Montreal. The Shofar represented a part of his heritage, and it was used often in Montreal.

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Ram's Horn Shofar 19th century
Date not available
Russia

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Isobel Greenberg, who married one of Moses and Hannah's grandsons, discusses the significance of the Shofar and her father-in-law's memories of Moses Greenberg: "Moses's mother had put [the Shofar] away for him to take as part of his heritage, when he left for America or for wherever he was going... Well I think that holding onto the past and bringing something that had been used by other members of the family kind of tied them up together - there probably was another one left in Glasgow and so they knew that when they were celebrating the holidays, they were using something that had been used before and would sort of tie them all together... My father-in-law, my husband's father Zebulin, used to tell us stories about how Moses, who was a very big man but suffered from diabetes, lost a toe, and then a foot, and then a leg eventually. It got more difficult for him each year to blow the Shofar. So Zebulin remembered that as a little boy that they would sit there and giggle, because he had a red beard and red hair, and his face would get as red as his beard when he was blowing the Shofar."

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Moses and Hannah Greenberg were never members of Temple Emanu-El, but some of their children became involved with the Temple as a result of their friendship with the rabbi at the time, Rabbi Harry J. Stern. Isobel was married to Harold Greenberg by Rabbi Stern in 1950, at which time Isobel converted to Judaism and became a member of the Temple's Sisterhood and an active volunteer.

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At one point, the Shofar disappeared from the family's lives. Isobel had never seen or heard of the Shofar until one day when she was visiting her husband's aunt Golda. While they were going through an old trunk, they re-discovered the Shofar. Isobel displayed far more interest in the Shofar than any of the other family members at the time, and so Golda gave it to her.

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Isobel Greenberg, on acquiring the Shofar
2005
Montreal, Quebec

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"So she gave it to me, and my husband used it a few times, when the children were small. And we took it to Temple a couple of times, and Rabbi Stern used it on the bema for services... I just treasured it. And then when my grandchildren were becoming Bat Mitzvah and Bar Mitzvah, I thought it would be nice to put it in the museum, because it's something that you don't find anywhere today. It would be a nice place to have it kept because it had been treasured by so many people before."