Abras Uzziah Joshua, known as Pitze (1820, Brody [Berdychiv] – 25 November 1896, Odessa) – baritone singer, cantor, composer of religious music.

Abras started to perform as a member of various choirs ca. 1828, singing under such cantors as Model from the Great Suburban Synagogue in Lviv or Becalel Odesser, with whom he toured around various cities in southern Russia. For some time, he studied under the direction of Salomon Sulzer in Vienna and under Franz Liszt in Weimar [he claimed this himself]. In 1840–1842, he was a cantor at the Perl Synagogue in Ternopil. In 1842, he moved to Lviv. In the years 1844–1860, he was a cantor in the Templum Progressive Synagogue at the Old Market Square. He also taught singing at a Jewish-German school. In 1860, he moved to Odessa and became a cantor in the Municipal Synagogue. He published a piece titled Zimrat-Jah. Gottesdienstliche Gesänge der Israeliten (Vienna, 1874), written for the voice of a cantor accompanied by a choir.

Bibliography:

• Ajzensztadt D., Prager A., Algemainer muzik-leksikon, Warsaw 1936.
• Bałaban M., Historia lwowskiej synagogi postępowej, Lviv 1937.
• Brückmann H., Rock C. M., Judentum und Music. Mit ABC jüdischer und nicht arischer Musicbeflissener, 3. Aufl., München 1938. 
• Friedmann A., Lebensbilder berühmter Kantoren, Bd. 2, Berlin 1921.
• Idelsohn A. Z., Jewish Music in its Historical Development, New York 1992.
• Rozen A. H., Di geshichte fun chazanut, New York 1924.
• Ruch Muzyczny 1857, no. 18.
• Wininger S., Groβe Jüdische National Biographie, Bd. 1, Cernăuți 1925.
• Zaludkowski E., Kultur-treger fun der yiddisher liturgie, Warsaw 1930. 

L.T. Błaszczyk, “Żydzi w kulturze muzycznej działający na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku”, a book published with the support of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland.