The New Reform Temple of Berlin: Christian Music and Jewish Identity During the Haskalah
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THE NEW REFORM TEMPLE OF BERLIN: CHRISTIAN MUSIC AND JEWISH IDENTITY DURING THE HASKALAH Samuel Teeple A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC August 2018 Committee: Arne Spohr, Advisor Eftychia Papanikolaou © 2018 Samuel Teeple All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Arne Spohr, Advisor During the first decades of the nineteenth century, Israel Jacobson (1768-1828) created a radically new service that drew upon forms of worship most commonly associated with the Protestant faith. After finding inspiration as a student in the ideas of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, Jacobson became committed to revitalizing and modernizing Judaism. Musically, Jacobson’s service was characterized by its use of songs modeled after Lutheran chorales that were sung by the congregation, organ accompaniment, choral singing, and the elimination of the traditional music of the synagogue, a custom that had developed over more than a millennium. The music of the service worked in conjunction with Protestant-style sermons, the use of both German and Hebrew, and the church- and salon-like environments in which Jacobson’s services were held. The music, liturgy, and ceremonial of this new mode of worship demonstrated an affinity with German Protestantism and bourgeois cultural values while also maintaining Judaism’s core beliefs and morals. In this thesis, I argue that Jacobson’s musical agenda enabled a new realization of German-Jewish identity among wealthy, acculturated Jews. Drawing upon contemporary reports, letters, musical collections, and similar sources, I place the music of Reform within its wider historical, political, and social context within the well-documented services at the Jacobstempel in Seesen and the New Reform Temple in Berlin. Although much of this project discusses general practice rather than specific repertoire, I examine several works composed for these services: a canata by Johann August Günther Heinroth (1773-1843), a hymn by Jacobson, and the 1815 Hallelujah Cantatine by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first encountered the topic that would evolve into this thesis over a year and a half ago while reading Deborah Hertz’s How Jews Became Germans: The History of Conversion and Assimilation in Berlin, which featured a short section describing what would eventually become the third chapter of this book. The entire premise of this project is heavily indebted to Hertz’s theorization of German identity among the acculturated Jews of Berlin, in addition to the work of Michael A. Meyer, Abraham Z. Idelsohn, Tina Frühauf, and Ruth HaCohen. I am also beyond grateful to my advisor, Dr. Arne Spohr—he first lent me Deborah Hertz’s book after he happened upon it in a Detroit bookstore and thought that I would enjoy it. Beyond that first introduction, Dr. Spohr has been instrumental to my success in countless ways, but especially through his assistance in translating the many German sources required for this project. Dr. Eftychia Papanikolaou also offered invaluable support during this process through her detail-oriented revisions and advice on how best to structure my writing (her suggestion was usually to get to the point, a reminder that I often require). I am also thankful for the time donated by Dr. Samuel Adler in helping me find the musical sources most essential to the earliest stages of my research. On a more personal note, thank you to Bob and Mary Coffey, two friends and musicians who for many years sponsored my musical education with a generous scholarship. Lastly, I want to thank my mother, Sandra Smith, who has been my biggest supporter through 25 years and three degrees. After sending her the first complete draft the morning that I finished it, she called me that evening to tell me that she had read through the first five pages and loved what I had to say. I highly doubt that any other compliment will ever make me feel as accomplished. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF REFORM JUDAISM ............................ 5 Musical Components of Jewish Worship .................................................................. 5 The Music of the Second Temple and the Aftermath of its Destruction ................... 8 Synagogue Music and European Influence Among the Ashkenazim ........................ 11 Musical Innovations of the Hazzanim ........................................................................ 13 Synagogue Music in Berlin ........................................................................................ 18 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 21 CHAPTER II. ISRAEL JACOBSON'S AGENDA OF MUSICAL REFORM IN SEESEN 23 The Influence of the Haskalah ................................................................................... 23 Israel Jacobson: Educational and Religious Reform ................................................. 26 The Consecration of the Jacobstempel ...................................................................... 30 Johann August Günther Heinroth’s Cantata .............................................................. 34 Lutheran-Influenced Hymnals of Reform Judaism.................................................... 39 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 43 CHAPTER III. THE NEW REFORM TEMPLE OF BERLIN, 1815-1823......................... 45 Conversion Crisis among the Bildungsbürgertum ..................................................... 46 1815: First Iteration of the New Reform Temple ...................................................... 53 1816-1823: The New Reform Temple in the Beer Mansion ..................................... 57 Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Hallelujah Cantatine ............................................................. 62 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 70 vi CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 72 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................. 75 APPENDIX A: KOL NIDRE CHANT NOTATED BY AARON BEER (1739-1821) ....... 79 APPENDIX B: WENN ICH, O SCHÖPFER, NO. 1, JACOBSON HYMNAL ................... 81 vii LIST OF EXAMPLES Example Page 1.1 Excerpt from Hashirim asher lish’lomo, Canto Part Book ........................................ 15 2.1 Wenn ich, o Schöpfer, No. 1, 1810 Jacobson Hymnal ............................................... 40 3.1 Excerpt from Giacomo Meyerbeer, Hallelujah Cantatine, mm. 136-140 ................. 64 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1.1 Engraving of the Heidereutergasse Synagogue by A.M. Werner, ca. 1720 .............. 20 2.1 Wooden Model, Jacobstempel ................................................................................... 28 2.2 Interior of the Jacobstempel ....................................................................................... 28 2.3 Organ of the Jacobstempel, photographed in 1910 .................................................... 29 2.4 Text to Heilig ist der Herr, Gott Zebaoth, Johann August Günther Heinroth ........... 37 3.1 Converts in Berlin, 1800-1874 (number of cases: 4,635) .......................................... 51 3.2 Proportion of Berlin Jews Converting ....................................................................... 51 3.3 Sketch of the New Reform Temple in the Beer Mansion by Isaak Markus Jost ....... 60 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1 Labels from Jost’s Sketch in German and English .................................................... 60 1 INTRODUCTION The assertion that music plays a fundamental role in group identity formation is by no means a new idea. Many musicologists and ethnomusicologists have investigated the multifarious ways that music is deployed within a community: it can cement shared bonds, demarcate boundaries, communicate beliefs, and produce schisms, often all at the same time. The purpose of this project, which takes as its subject the first iteration of Reform Judaism, is deeply tied to my own curiosity about how ostensibly simple forms of music can express complex ideology and negotiate cultural boundaries. To that effect, this thesis will explore the adoption of Protestant-influenced music within new forms of German-Jewish worship at the turn of the nineteenth century. Through the course of my study, I will demonstrate that within the context of the Reformed Jewish service, the use of Christian music served to communicate a new possibility of German-Jewish identity. The problem that Reform Judaism arose to solve was that of Jewish subjugation. Throughout Europe, Jews were commonly considered to be cultural outsiders, a dispersed nation that was met with toleration at best and violent persecution at worst. Until the late eighteenth century,1 Jews were not recognized as citizens in any European state and lacked most rights and protections. Within society, the popular image of the Jew was overwhelmingly negative—not only in that its qualities were generally undesirable, but that these qualities were defined in 1 Following the French Revolution, France became