Shabtai Petrushka, born 13 March, 1903 (as Siegmund Leo Petrushka) in Leipzig, Germany, died 14 December, 1997, in Jerusalem.

Israeli composer and conductor. Shabtai Petrushka grew up in an orthodox family and served as a young cantor at the daily prayers in his Jewish school. He studied piano, violoncello and theory in Leipzig. Between 1919 and 1922 he sang in the Gewandhaus Choir in Leipzig under the direction of Arthur Nikisch. In 1923 he moved to Berlin intending to study mechanical engineering. He started to study trumpet and contrabass and founded, together with Kurt Kaiser, the jazz ensemble "Sid Kay’s Fellows". He gave up the idea of becoming an engineer and devoted all his energy to the ensemble which, under his baton, accompanied various theatrical performances and performed in many places including Vienna, Budapest, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Munich. In 1933 the ensemble was disbanded and Petrushka founded a new one, while playing with The Orchestra of the Jewish Cultural Society and composing music for various plays (among them the Shalom Aleichem play ‘Amcha’). Using pseudonyms, to disguise his being a Jew, he worked as music arranger for the Deutsche Gramophone Gesellschaft and for UFA films, Berlin. In 1938 he immigrated to Palestine and joined the Palestine Broadcasting Service as composer, conductor and arranger of its orchestra. In the first decade of the independent State of Israel Petrushka served as Deputy director of the Music Programs Dept. of “Kol Yerushalaym” (“Voice of Jerusalem”) and in 1958 was appointed the Director of Music Section in “Kol Israel” ("Voice of Israel”) and held this post until his retirement. Petrushka served as a jury member in international competitions for composers as well as a representative of the Israeli Broadcast Authority in European forums . In the years 1969-1981, Petrushka was senior lecturer for orchestration at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem. His compositions are a clear indication of his attachment to the music of the Jewish communities in the Diaspora - both in the East and the West. Petrushka composed orchestral, chamber and solo music for instruments and vocal music for choir as well as arrangements to Jewish and Israeli songs and dances.

Among his works: