Joseph Cysner was born in 1912 in Bamberg, Germany. In 1937 he was granted a life contract to the Hamburg Temple, but was deported within the year to Zbaszyn, a detention site on the Polish-German border, where he performed as a cantor and taught music to the other prisoners. He was allowed to leave in 1939 when he was granted a position at Temple Emil in Manila, Philippines. He taught music at De La Salle College and Centro Escolar University and performed regularly on the radio and gave concerts for Philippine President Quezon. When the Japanese invaded, he was imprisoned in Santo Tomas Internment Camp for eight months and then released to care for his elderly mother on the condition that he wear an armband and be under constant scrutiny. Temple Emil and Cysner’s house were burned by the retreating Japanese and many of his books and manuscripts were lost. After the war, Cantor Cysner conducted services for the U.S. Armed Forces in The Philippines where thousands attended his Kol Nidre Service in Rizal Stadium in 1945. After immigrating to the U.S., he served as a cantor in San Francisco from 1946 to 1949 and married Sylvia Nagler. They had three daughters. His last appointment was at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego in 1951 where he remained until his sudden death in 1961. He was extremely prolific in his brief career and much loved. For those ten years in San Diego, besides his duties at Tifereth Israel, he sang at many venues, conducted several choirs, both secular and religious, and composed liturgical music. The Cysner Collection is JHSSD’s most requested collection. Dr. Bonnie Harris wrote her doctoral dissertation based on this collection and wrote a published book entitled “Philippine Sanctuary - A Holocaust Odyssey,” 2020.