B. was born in Berdichev, Ukraine. His father was the world-famous cantor Nissi Belzer, about whom various legends made its way across the Jewish communities of the former Russia. His eldest son, Alter, (who for two-and-a-half years was a chorister for Nisn), graduated with distinction from the Imperial Conservatory in Peterburg, but he died young.

Boris Thomashefsky details in his memoirs that "Yudele, R' Nisn's youngest son, was a very ideal child ..."

Sholem Perlmutter writes:

"Yudele greatly helped his father with the creations of his compositions. In particular, he had a very large share of influence in Nissi's last creations, although they still go under the father's name to this day. Apart from the innate compositional abilities that Yudele inherited from his great father, he attended the Vienna [Kaiser-Royal] Conservatory, which then was under the directorship of the famous composition-master Professor Johann Nepomuk Fuchs. The high musical education, the inherited talent and inherited traditions from his father made Yudele the unique worthy successor of the famous Nissi Belzer."

B. always was drawn to the theatre, and when Boris Thomashefsky wrote his first play in Berdichev as a boy, he "performed" it in the attic of R' Nissi's house. Thomashefsky dedicated himself to two extremes at the same time -- to the school and to the Yiddish theatre."

About this Sholem Perlmutter writes:

“Yudele transferred very many of Nissi's unforgettable compositions to the Yiddish theatre when he came to America and became the conductor of the "Windsor Theatre."You have to browse through the ... archives of Yiddish theatre scores to find certain compositions of Nissi Belzer, where they can be found. Who cares not that Nissi's "Avodah", "Zachkh Hih Umar," [sp] is found in Professor Horowitz's operetta 'Bit dovid,' he will not find "Avodah" anywhere? This is also the case with Nissi's and many other compositions that Yudele inserted into such former "historical" plays as "'Eretz Yisroel Libe,' 'Nakhes Tibah,' Shimeon and Louie Ahkhim,' 'Yafa tuar,' 'Blet haroshe,' 'Yekhezki hamlekh,' 'Di shpanishe korbones.' In the play 'Hadassah' the primadonna Regina Prager sang Nissi's entire compositions 'Umpni khtinu,' which Yudele adapted very finely and orchestrated for the Yiddish stage. These compositions made a great impression, and many of them helped popularize the play, 'Hadassah'."

Boris Thomashefsky expresses quite the opposite:

"Yudele hates (liturgical) music. He never tried to imitate anything from his father's wonderful compositions Yudele today is a gifted musician. He is connected yearlong to the Yiddish theatre as a composer and conductor. In the last years he took to cantorial music. The older readers still remember Yudele Belzer's heartfelt music that he had written for Yiddish theatre."

After the "Windsor Theatre" building in New York was torn down, B. settled in Philadelphia, where he lived year-long and was the conductor and composer in the local "Arch Street Theatre," and wrote music for, among others Anshel Schorr's plays, "Her First Love," "A Girl With Common Sense," "A Girl From Another World," "The Love of a Woman" (1910), and "Oyfn shlekhtn veg" by Moshe Schorr (music by B., Perlmutter and Wohl), which on 1 June 1916 was performed in New York's "National Theatre."

The last operetta that B. had written -- according to Sholem Perlmutter -- was the operetta "Shmendrik on Broadway," which Jacob Mestel directed in Philadelphia's "Arch Street Theatre."

B. later went over to Atlantic City, where he became the owner of the Hotel "Pinepoint," which became the collection point for cantors, conductors, composers and Yiddish artists.

On 26 January 1958 B. passed away in Atlantic City, and he came to his eternal rest in Mount Nebo [Cemetery].

Sholem Perlmutter characterized him this way:

"Yudele Belzer created Yiddish compositions with holiness. ... He knew from an essay in the Talmud in the verse from the Psalms "Zmirot hiu li khakich", where it is interpreted (Megilla Liv) that the one who reads the Bible (Tanakh), or learns the Talmud without a song, "takes out the beauty of what he learns"; music is sacred to him. His soulful music, the melodies, and recitatives in the theatre on each page express the central idea of piyyut, tefillah or selichot. His compositions mostly stick to their traditional character, but his greatness shows in his piyyutim [liturgical hymns]. where both the cantor and the composer shouldn't be slaves to tradition, where they can freely express man's joy and happiness."

M. Yardeni characterizes him as such:

"The first important Yiddish theatre composer in America on which I have focused here is in the "Arch Street Theatre" in Philadelphia, Yudele Belzer, a son of the world-famous cantor Nissi Belzer.

This was a great Jew and a graduate of the Vienna "Kaiser Imperial" Conservatory, a Talmud khokhem, who learned Shim and Puskim, and used to pray in front of the pillar on days of worship, accompanied by a large choir, which he himself used to study with and lead. I have seen him many times within both the "Arch Street Theatre" both stand and direct with the orchestra, as well as be a cantor with his pages. The serious approach of this man to both of his crafts surprised me ...

It is difficult to say which made Yudele Belzer feel better: Was it when he stood in the theatre and conducted with an orchestra, or when he stood by his pages and prayed? It was also not easy to guess when he felt better: whether while he was writing music for the theatre, or when he had composed music for the ... prayers.

One thing is for sure: the nusakh of his famous masses is poured out in both kinds of music: the tener of the father's "Impni khtinu," "Yelhs" or "Uchkh Hih umr"[sp]  from the Yom Kippur "Avodah" and from still many others of his father's compositions." One could not easily listen to just one of his operettas that he wrote for the Yiddish theatre. His father's talent of dressing words in music didn't just come out of the son, but it did through the son's talent, with the proper academic erudition ...

Actors who have sung both his music and under his conductorship, as well as those who played in his orchestra, didn't have an easy life. He was exceptionally strict with everyone and very serious."

Sh.E. from Gedalye Sheinfeld and from Mordechai Yardeni.

·         Boris Thomashefsky -- "Mayn lebens bukh," "Forward," N.Y., Nov. 28-9, 1935.

·         Boris Thomashefsky -- "Mayn lebens-geshikhte," New York, 1937, pp. 42-43.

·         Sholom Perlmutter -- "Yidishe dramaturgn un teater-kompozitors," New York, 1952, pp. 338-341.

·         M. Yardeni -- Kompozitors baym yidishn teater in amerike, "Ikuf almanakh," New York, 1967, pp. 314-315.