An extraordinary signed association copy of the Columbia Masterworks  ML 5621 LP of this important work, boldly inscribed and signed on the front of the jacket to the widow of the composer who had died just 2 year earlier: "For Mrs. Ernest Bloch with every good and deep wish / Leonard Bernstein / March, 1961". Chipping and light wear around the edges, original record inside but untested. 

Ask the question “Who is the greatest Jewish composer?” and many will say Ernest Bloch. The Swiss-born Jew, who became an important figure on the American scene, composed a host of works connected to his Jewish identity and the liturgy. Ask what Bloch’s most important Jewish work is, and most will answer Sacred Service (Avodat Hakodesh). The present recording with famed baritone Robert Merrill is widely regarded as the definitive recording of the work.

Ernest Bloch married the German piano student Margarethe "Marguerite" Schneider in 1904. She was born in 1881 and passed away in 1963. They lived together for over 55 years, residing in Agate Beach, Oregon, in their later years.