Haim Wasserzug (Yiddish: חיים וואסערצוג, romanized: Ḥayyim Vasertsug; 1822 – 24 August 1882), also known as Haim Lomzer (Yiddish: חיים לאָמזער), was an English ḥazzan and composer. Some of the principal cantors of the European continent and of America were numbered among his disciples.^[2]

Wasserzug was born at Sieradz, Prussian partition of Poland, in 1822, where his father filled the office of cantor.^[3] As a child he was endowed with a remarkably sweet voice, and in 1840 he was elected ḥazzan at Konin.^[4][5] His renown soon spread among the Jewish communities of Poland, and he received a call as ḥazzan to Novy-Dvor, where his introduction of four-part choral singing instead of traditional ḥazzanut aroused considerable opposition against him on the part of the Ḥasidim.^[5] Thirteen years later he was appointed to a post at Lonisa, near the Lithuanian frontier. Here he remained for five years, when he was elected cantor of the Great Synagogue of Vilna.^[4] In 1867, on the opening of the North London Synagogue, he was elected its First Reader, which office he held until his death in 1882.

In 1878 he published Sefer shire mikdash, a collection of 143 compositions written during his ḥazzanship at Vilna, which received high commendation by Nikolai Zaremba, Frederic Weber [Wikidata], Henry Wylde, and others.^[6] It includes his best known work, a setting of Zokhrenu l'ḥayyim. Works by Wasserzug were also included in The Voice of Prayer and Praise, a popular anthology of Ashkenazi synagogue music used in British Orthodox synagogues.^[7]

He died on 24 August 1882 at the Royal Sussex Hospital, Brighton, after catching a chill from remaining in the water for too long while sea bathing.^[3] He was survived by his wife Rebecca née Woyduslawski and 15 children, five of whom were the offspring of his first marriage with her sister Rachel née Woyduslawski.^[3][8]

Wasserzug's daughter Sara was married to Rev. Abraham Levinson, who served the Middle Street Synagogue, Brighton, for 31 years.^[8][9] His son, David Wasserzug, was educated at Jews' College, London, and officiated as rabbi at Cardiff, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, and, after 1905, at the Dalston Synagogue, London.^[10] Another son, William, studied at the Leipzig Conservatorium and was Choirmaster of the Bayswater Synagogue,^[10] while his youngest son Israel (later known as Ivor Warren) was Choirmaster of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue at St John's Wood.^[11]

• Sefer shire mikdash: Ancient and Modern Synagogue Music [Songs of the Sanctuary]. London: Weekes and Coy. 1878.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jacobs, Joseph; Lipkind, Goodman (1906). "Wasserzug, Haim". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 475.