Harry Coopersmith (1902-1975) was Music Director of the Jewish Education Committee from 1940-1971 ; Richard J. Neumann (1915-1984) was Director of Music Education of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York from 1972-1984.

Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York Music Collection, The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y., Identifier (Box, folder number)

The Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York was founded as the Bureau of Education in 1910. This organization became The Bureau of Jewish Education in 1917. It was the first important central agency of Jewish education in the U.S. The founder of the "BJE," Dr. Samson Benderley (1876-1944), acknowledged the importance of music by organizing a separate department to teach the subject within the Hebrew School curriculum. Composer Samuel E. Goldfarb (1891-1978) headed the Bureau's Department of Music as early as 1918. In 1940 or 1941, the BJE merged with the Jewish Education Committee of New York to form the Jewish Education Committee (JEC). Harry Coopersmith (1902-1975), a composer and educator, was appointed Music Director of the JEC in 1940.

Between 1928 and 1971 the organization published eighteen volumes of collected Jewish songs and hymns and seventy-two choral octavos. In 1970, the Jewish Education Committee changed its name to the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York. Richard Neumann (1915-1984) was appointed Director of Music Education of this organization in 1972. After his unexpected death in 1984, the Music Department continued under Carroll Goldberg, who was appointed Associate, Music Education in 1985. At that time, the music position was shortened from five to two days a week. The BJE's Music Department appears to have been eliminated after in 1988.

The synagogue music is sung primarily in Hebrew, with some English ; some Hebrew, English and Yiddish songs ; correspondence is in English and Hebrew.

On June 1, 2005, the JTS Library received 37 legal-size boxes of materials from Michael Leavitt, President of the American Society for Jewish Music. Originally stored in boxes and metal file cabinets once belonging to the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York, these materials were retrieved, ca. 2003, when the BJE moved from their old offices at 426 W. 58th Street. The collection was then transferred to the American Jewish Historical Society, where a spreadsheet inventory with 2,570 entries (BJEMusic.exe) was created by Judith Tischler and Rachel Wetstein. According to an online description of the BJE's organizational records done by the American Jewish Archives, "they created and maintained a library of Jewish sources that teachers could access...." This collection appears to have been the Music Library of the BJE, which developed from the 1920s until its demise in 1988. At JTS, the collection was processed by cataloging unpublished music manuscripts as well as published music the Library did not possess, then arranging and describing the archival material. Some other materials, such as children's songbooks, anthologies, cantatas and photo slides, remain uncatalogued (Boxes 11-15; 17-19; 30-32). Four boxes of non-Judaica music reference books and six boxes of recordings were sold; two boxes of non-music-related administrative records were returned to the BJE at 520 8th Avenue; and one box of papers was returned to the American Society for Jewish Music at the Center for Jewish History.

Music scores are cataloged on the J.T.S. Library Catalog: http://catalog.jtsa.edu