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Home , Aviv Geffen, Chava Alberstein, Mizrah, Mordecai Seter, Mordechai ben David, Music of Israel

Table of Contents From the Editors 3 From the President 3 From the Executive Director 5 The Sound Issue “Overtures” , the “” of Jewish Studies: Updated Readers’ Digest 6 Edwin Seroussi To Hear the World through Jewish Ears 9 Judah M. Cohen “The Sound of Music” The Birth and Demise of Vocal Communities 12 HaCohen Brass Bands, Jewish Youth, and the Sonorities of a Global Perspective 14 Maureen Jackson How to out of Here: Sounding Silence in the Jewish Cabaretesque 20 Philip V. Bohlman Listening Contrapuntally; or What Happened When I Went Bach to the Archives 22 Amy Lynn Wlodarski The Trouble with Jewish Musical Genres: The Orquesta Kef in the Americas 26 Lillian M. Wohl Singing a New 28 Joshua Jacobson “Sounds of a Nation” When Josef (Tal) Laughed; Notes on Musical (Mis)representations 34 Assaf Shelleg From “Ha-tikvah” to KISS; or, The Sounds of a Jewish Nation 36 Miryam Segal An Issue in Hebrew Poetic Rhythm: A Cognitive-Structuralist Approach 38 Reuven Tsur Words, Melodies, Hands, and Feet: Musical Sounds of a Kerala Jewish Women’s Dance 42 Barbara C. Johnson Sound and Imagined Border Transgressions in - 44 Figueroa The Siren’s Song: Sound, Conflict, and the Politics of Public Space in 46 Abigail Wood “Surround Sound” Sensory History, Deep Listening, and Field Recording 50 Kim Haines-Eitzen Remembering Sound 52 Alanna E. Cooper Some Things I Heard at the 54 Jonathan Boyarin The Questionnaire What are ways that you find most useful to incorporate sound, images, or other nontextual media into your Jewish Studies classrooms? 56

Read AJS Perspectives Online at perspectives.ajsnet.org AJS Perspectives: The Magazine of President Please direct correspondence to: the Association for Jewish Studies Pamela Nadell Association for Jewish Studies From the Editors perspectives.ajsnet.org American University Center for 15 West 16th Street Dear Colleagues, Vice President / Program , NY 10011 Editors Sounds surround us. There are sounds we seek out, by attending a to sound files in the web-based version of this magazine, available Jonathan M. Hess Christine Hayes Voice: (917) 606-8249 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Yale University symphony or placing a phone call. There are ambient sounds, at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. To be sure, the printed edition is Fax: (917) 606-8222 sometimes only noticed in their absence (when a motor clicks off and still a terrific stand-alone, but our intention is that the multimedia Laura Lieber Vice President / Membership E-Mail: [email protected] sudden silence reigns) or their unwelcome presence (is it supposed to elements of the online articles will be enriching for all our readers. Duke University Web Site: www.ajsnet.org and Outreach sound like that?). There are irritating sounds (the snapping of gum, a The topic of sound led us to consider the role of media more Jeffrey Veidlinger squeaking wheel), background sounds (the hum of the refrigerator, broadly in the classroom, and thus our questionnaire for this issue Editorial Board University of Michigan AJS Perspectives is published bi-annually Carol Bakhos by the Association for Jewish Studies. the click of the keyboard), and treasured sounds (a baby’s rough asks, What are ways that you find most useful to incorporate University of California, Los Angeles Vice President / Publications breathing, a yearned-for voice). Sounds can be musical and sounds sound, images, or other nontextual media into your Jewish Studies Zachary Braiterman Magda Teter The Association for Jewish Studies is an can grate. Sounds mark off daily routines (alarm clocks, kitchen classrooms? We are particularly gratified by the popularity of Syracuse University Fordham University affiliate of the Center for Jewish History. timers, car door chimes, and the dog demanding a walk), inform using essays from AJS Perspectives in classrooms; this issue, with its identity (the sounds of home and of not-home), and alert us to embedded sound files alongside accessible, inviting writing and Michael Brenner © Copyright 2016 Association for Secretary / Treasurer extraordinary events (sirens!). Sounds naturally punctuate our days, engaging visuals, may prove particularly useful in such contexts. University of Munich Zachary Baker Jewish Studies ISSN 1529-6423 but they can also be unnatural. For all of sound’s ubiquity, however, Once we begin to listen for it, sound is everywhere in the Alanna Cooper Stanford University Case Western Reserve University the visual—the textual—customarily holds pride of place in Jewish Jewish tradition, textual and beyond: in Sarah’s laughter and Leah’s Studies. The acoustic, though always present, constitutes a largely weeping; in the cries of the oppressed and the shouts of war; in the Lesleigh Cushing AJS Staff unacknowledged background noise. rustling of lulav and etrog and the smashing of the glass; Colgate University Rona Sheramy AJS Perspectives reserves the right With this issue of AJS Perspectives, we seek to highlight a few of in lofty melodies and wordless niggunim. In assembling this issue, Nathaniel Deutsch Executive Director to reject advertisements or other the myriad roles that sound, and the study of sound, can play within we found ourselves ever more attuned to the auditory richness University of California, Santa Cruz items not consonant with the goals Shira Moskovitz the world of Jewish Studies. Some authors approach sound through of our surroundings. Simply put, sounds are—and always have and purposes of the organization. Ken Koltun-Fromm Program and Membership Copy may be condensed or rejected a textual lens: the sound of poetry. Others attend to “intentional” been—everywhere. With this issue, we hope to reinterpret the Haverford College Coordinator; Manager, because of length or style. AJS sounds, notably music: its composition, performance, and implicit (and traditional imperative, “Hear, O Israel!” as an injunction to attend Distinguished Lectureship Program Adam Mendelsohn Perspectives disclaims responsibility explicit) complexities. Other authors, however, draw our attention to the world of Jewish sounds. We invite you to listen with us. University of Cape Town Ilana Abramovitch for statements made by advertisers to ambient sounds: the sounds of Jewish life and religious practice, Ophir Münz-Manor Conference Program Associate and contributors. domestic and communal. In these essays, through the authors’ written Jonathan M. Hess Open University of Israel Susan Sapiro words, we “hear” sounds lofty and lowly, banal and exotic, remote University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eva Mroczek Development Associate and immediate. It is our hope that as our readers engage with these University of California at Davis Heather Turk pieces, they will become newly aware of the presence and power of the Laura S. Lieber Devin Naar Event Strategist acoustic as an avenue for intellectual inquiry and a mode of pedagogy. Duke University University of Washington Amy Weiss As editors, we also hope to use this issue to highlight the online presence of AJS Perspectives. Where possible, we have included links Riv-Ellen Prell Grants and Communications University of Minnesota Coordinator Joshua Schreier Vassar College Jacqueline Vayntrub Brandeis University From the President Yael Zerubavel Rutgers University Dear Colleagues, Managing Editor I open my first president’s column with the sound of applause for AJS The sages instructed: “Provide yourself with a teacher” (Pirkei Karin Kugel Perspectives editors Jonathan Hess and Laura Lieber and our contributors Avot 1:6). If they were writing these words today, when business for urging us to think in new ways about Jewish soundscapes. administration sits atop the hierarchy of the most popular majors, Graphic Designer Naturally, many articles in “The Sound Issue” explicate the might have added “and a mentor.” In Sheryl Sandberg’s best Ellen Nygaard and song in different contexts. A few investigate the Jewish sonic realm seller, Lean In, an entire chapter considers the critical importance of Front, Back, and Inside Covers: in the cackle of the barnyard and the shrill of sirens. Interestingly, mentoring. Research in organizational behavior, applied psychology, Photos courtesy of Kim Haines-Eitzen. almost all bypass what we scholars hear most often when we are not and business management proves that those who are mentored

isolated in our studies and libraries, the sound of conversations. have greater career success and satisfaction. Not surprisingly, During our annual conference these sounds are, of course, the importance of mentoring has spilled over into the university. In ubiquitous. We go to conferences for the conversations. They occur in my home department all new faculty are assigned a faculty mentor, sessions, meetings, and the lobby; at the banquet and receptions; and something I certainly never had. Our own AJS Women’s Caucus helped inside every coffee shop within a mile radius. I even had one sitting launch the post-conference Paula E. Hyman Mentoring Workshop. on the hotel stairs. At last year’s conference AJS inaugurated a new Our new Mentor Space welcomed fifteen distinguished scholars opportunity for the sound of conversation, Mentor Space. from a variety of fields. I want to thank Jay Berkovitz, Michael Brenner,

2 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 3 Kimmy Caplan, Arnold Dashefsky, Jenna Weissman Joselit, Marion on mentoring emphasizes that it works best when there are elements Kaplan, Steven Kepnes, Joshua Lambert, Anita Norich, Meri-Jane of reciprocity. Wistfully reflecting on their own early careers, some From the Executive Director Rochelson, Shneer, Francesco Spagnolo, Michael Swartz, Steven mentors wished that they would have had such an opportunity when Weitzman, Beth Wenger, Azzan Yadin-Israel, and Carol Zemel for they were just starting out. They found it energizing to meet younger Dear Colleagues, carving time out of their conference schedules to meet with recent people in their field and encouraging to see a new generation moving Every few months, I receive an email or phone call from a member, programs and services we offer. This approach can sometimes be PhDs, junior faculty, and graduate students. forward on trajectories that they themselves had pioneered. Building asking for advice about a politically complicated campus issue. In difficult to uphold, in part because the vast majority of AJS leaders AJS Conference Program Associate Ilana Abramowitz handled on the success of this first experiment with a formal mentoring many cases, these matters relate to Israel; frequently, it pertains to a care deeply about domestic and foreign affairs, and have strong the logistics. The discussants set their own agendas. Some mentor- program, AJS will offer Mentor Space at the 48th Annual Conference speaker invited to campus, whom there is pressure to disinvite, or who opinions about them; in part, because the dividing line between mentees focused on writing dissertations and turning them into in San Diego. Are there ways AJS could offer mentoring opportunities has been treated disrespectfully, or who threatens to test the limits politics and academic affairs is not always a clear one; and for me, books. Others, including a few from outside the , sought throughout the year, or could we help guide you in building a of academic freedom through offensive language. In some cases, the personally, as someone who spends most of her work life building advice on the American job market. They chatted about career paths mentoring program at your own institution? Please share your ideas member just wants advice on how to handle the situation. Other times, programs that respond to member needs, it’s difficult not to address inside and outside academe, the grants process, tenure and promotion, and let us know. there is a request for AJS to issue a public statement about the matter. challenging issues facing academics on campus. But we have a teaching, and the administrative “stuff” that does not get taught in Year after year, more than half our membership turns out for our The question of whether AJS should take public stands on political diverse membership, with a range of views on all sorts of topics, and graduate school. annual conference. Here we visit with colleagues who have become issues, especially about Israel, is one that has taken up a good amount to engage matters outside the scope of higher education and Jewish The liveliness of the Mentor Space conversations, confirmed friends. In between conferences we sustain those friendships by of time at board meetings. The most intensive discussions occurred Studies risks cleaving what unites us—teaching and research. by a post-conference survey, revealed that the program was a terrific email and phone, and, for some of us, through social media. But, at in 2013, when the American Studies Association passed a pro-BDS AJS has not issued a resolution on academic boycotts or success. Some mentees, attending their first AJS conference, reported the conference, conversations flow from those first 7:30 am meetings resolution. Like other learned societies, AJS’s leadership struggled other matters since 2013. This is not to say we won’t; but given the that Mentor Space welcomed them in a way that conferences in their into late at night after the last reception has ended. I return from AJS with how to respond to a boycott movement that threatens Israeli extraordinary amount of time it takes to draft, redraft, and come larger fields have never done. Immediately they felt more a part of our exhausted from so much conversation and ready to retreat again to the academics, several of whom are members. On the one hand, there to agreement on such resolutions, and the very small staff we have community of scholars. They sensed that not only was AJS interested quiet spaces where I think and write. But the echoes of the sounds of was consensus on the board that academic boycotts violate principles to oversee such cases, we issue them carefully and selectively, on in them but that they had a future among us. These junior colleagues those conversations with colleagues and friends and between mentors of academic freedom, as laid out in the American Association of matters directly related to the profession, under circumstances where heard new insights and fresh perspectives about their projects. They and mentees carry us forward into the year ahead until next year’s University Professors’ (AAUP) statement opposing academic boycotts we feel we can have an impact (see for instance our “Statement talked about how to define themselves as scholars. Not only were the conference. (see http://aaup.org/news/aaup-statement-academic-boycotts). On on Hiring Practices,” issued with the American Academy for mentors helpful in thinking about careers, but they also spoke openly the other hand, there were diverse opinions on the board about Jewish Research, http://ajsnet.org/ajshiring.htm). Likewise, the of their own experiences with the tough issues of work-life balance. The Pamela S. Nadell Israel, and our own discussions at board meetings began to go down board may sign on to other learned societies’ resolutions, if they mentees voiced how much they appreciated having an hour of a senior American University a path that would have taken us far afield from Jewish Studies. meet the same standards of academic relevance and import. colleague’s undivided attention. They felt like they had gained allies. Ultimately, the concern was that getting involved in political This is not to say we can’t help when members phone or email The exuberance of the mentees is not surprising, but the mentors matters, domestic or foreign, could swallow up the work of AJS, and us. Quite the contrary, we are eager to. AJS leaders and I are available also enthused about the stimulating conversations. Research literature overtake our main priorities—to serve our members and the field. on an individual basis to guide members through difficult times, and We could all cite other societies that had morphed into advocacy help them navigate complicated situations on campus. I have learned organizations more so than academic associations, which had the effect much from watching our members maneuver through very choppy of alienating a good number of their members and diluting their impact waters. And if I or a board member can’t offer advice, then we can on scholarly matters. The board thus sought to steer AJS away from suggest someone else who can. So please reach out. This is just one such a path, while at the same time voicing its opposition to academic of the many ways our association seeks to support its members. The CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY boycotts. On December 20, 2013, AJS’s leadership passed a resolution, affirming the principles of academic freedom and endorsing the AAUP’s Rona Sheramy offers FELLOWSHIPS statement on academic boycotts (see http://ajsnet.org/press2013.htm). Association for Jewish Studies AJS makes a clear distinction between scholarship and advocacy in our publications and conference, and likewise in the

The Center for Jewish History offers fellowships to support scholars and students as they conduct groundbreaking research that illuminates Jewish history using the collections of its five partner organizations – American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research The Association for Jewish Studies wishes to thank the Center for Jewish History and its constituent organizations The Center funds original research in fields including Jewish studies, Russian and East European studies, American studies and Germanic studies, as well American Jewish Historical Society, as anthropology, history, linguistics, , philosophy and sociology. American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research If you are interested in becoming part of the Center’s vibrant community, visit fellowships.cjh.org. for providing the AJS with office space at the Center for Jewish History.

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4 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 5

The Sound Issue “Overtures” Music, the “Jew” of Jewish Studies: Updated Readers’ Digest Edwin Seroussi

n 2009 I wrote a very long essay with to individual and more localized voices. Sharp the above title. Commissioned by the binary divisions of repertoires based on gender Mayer Levi of Esslingen, Die Melodien für den israelitischen Gottesdienst, Tefillat shah . arit le-rosh ha-shanah, Mus. Add. 26, ca. 1857–1862, fol. 20, IWorld Union of Jewish Studies and obliterate overlaps between female and male Birnbaum Collection, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. published in volume 43 (pages 3–84) of sonic realms at different historical junctures. Jewish Studies, the article germinated from a Distinctions based on alleged authenticity as evaluation; copious annotated sources are casual conversation with a member of the opposed to inauthentic accretions disregard still utterly overlooked. For example, the World Union of Jewish Studies board who the constant construction of “tradition” (in magnificent Birnbaum Collection of Jewish said to me: “You make such a fuss about the the distant past as well as in the present) music at the Hebrew Union College in importance of music in Jewish Studies. Why through performance practice and innovation. Cincinnati that was made available to the don’t you tell us in writing what it is all Another fundamental tenet of my scholarly community in its fullness after its about?” To compress those 30,000 words to proposal was our massive ignorance of the modern cataloging in 1979 is hardly consulted. the 1,000 included here, I will immediately repositories of sound that are available to Perhaps the current project of digitization of state: Many times music tells a different story research. Academics (and stage performers this collection will stir more interest in it. than texts. Escaping the logocentric leaning of “Jewish music,” as well) keep recycling Even Jewish Studies scholars who find of Jewish Studies is the main objective of materials that were exhausted by previous the musical text intractable can address the proposed “musicology of the Jewish,” an generations of scholars instead of looking texts that illuminate how conceived approach to Jewish soundscapes that aims for fresh oral and archival resources. Just nonverbal sound, for example music as a to escape the cul-de-sac of “Jewish music.” as an ear opener: since 2009 when I wrote transformative force in religious experience. A sonic approach to the study of my original article, research in early Jewish “Musicologists” from the circles of Sefer can help illuminate, for example, discography has developed dramatically H. asidim or the delivered utterances on the elusive borderlines between Jewish and with the location of Jewish recordings in Z. Idelsohn, Sefer ha-shirim: Kovez. sound and music reflecting intellectual non-Jewish spaces that preoccupy so many shirim ‘ivrim ve-germanim le-ganei ha-yeladim, archives of major record companies (such interactions with the surrounding cultures. disciplines. “Sonic” refers to a comprehensive le-batei-sefer ‘amamiyim ve-tikhonim (: as EMI in ), academic institutions, Their ideas continued to resonate in the early Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden, 1912), no. 41. consideration and interpretation of all and private collections. The number of modern period and beyond, once their texts forms of nonverbal utterances, vocal and pre-World War II 78 rpm Jewish recordings were printed and widely circulated. Music was instrumental, transmitted orally, graphically, that survived the vicissitudes of time is a subject of inquiry for Abraham Ibn , Alexander Eliezer Neswizski, Ha-mitpalel: Yakhil rez itativim be‘ad [sic] h . azzanim u-ba‘alei tefillah breathtaking. Early twentieth-century . or electronically. Music constitutes but one in an ethnographic present, it can carry echoes , Menah . em di Lonzano, Leone de li-tfillot ha-yamim ha-nora’im. fol. 6b–7a, Vilna, 1903. category of humanly designed sound. Any of distant pasts that reappear in unexpected recordings are not “productions” in the sense Modena, Shneur Zalman of Liady, and Franz attentive listening to traditional Jewish rituals new locations. Historicizing Jewish oral of the modern recording industry but rather Kafka to mention a few. However, their discloses a rich palette of meaningful sonic traditions is therefore one of the daunting ethnographical snippets. Past practices that “musicology” is sporadic and has to be gleaned phenomena that should be the concern of tasks for researchers of sonic Judaism. And have disappeared can still be audible in spite from large textual repositories, requiring a mid-nineteenth-century southwest Germany; is of no concern for nonmusicologists. scholars. The new concept of “musicalization” because the natural habitat of music is in of the serious limitations of old technologies meticulous and at times Sisyphean task. the autoethnography of an early twentieth- Musicologists of the Jewish are avid describes the process whereas in modernity performance, performance studies should be a (of which the three-minute take is the most Finally, music is a field where Jewish century cantor (Alexander Eliezer Nezwisky) readers of most Jewish Studies disciplines. music has been gradually silencing other major concern to a musicology of the Jewish. notable). Who dreamed until recently of modernity displays its trials with distinctive from Pruzhany in the Grodno Governorate The time has come for the Jewish Studies significant Jewish sonic formations. Another essential concept of my hearing piyyutim from 1930s Bombay or intelligibility. The crisis of “tradition,” the of the ; and, around the same community to take Jewish soundscapes Sonic studies pose challenging proposed agenda is the avoidance of binaries. a theatre troupe from 1906–1910 challenges of nationality, the yearning for time, the Hebrew-centered musical agenda into thoughtful consideration. methodological demands. Orality has been For example, labeling music “Sephardic” or Lemberg/Lvov? But why look back to the lost places, the commodification of identity, of a fervent Zionist Jerusalemite (Abraham the hallmark of Jewish sonic memory until “Ashkenazic” erases the sonic nuances of past exclusively? Even present-day music in all can be heard or read through music. To Zvi Idelsohn), arguably the “father” of the Edwin Seroussi is the Emanuel Alexandre quite recently, and, in many contexts, remains place that are so meaningful to performers. Jewish communities of America, South illustrate: if writing music from right to very modern concept of “Jewish music.” Professor of Musicology and director of the so. Therefore, the “sonic text” is in constant Jewish places in the distant past as well as in Africa, and Australia is marginalized from left is a visual metaphor of musicking by One can listen to Judaism without Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew flux and needs to be frozen to be analyzed, the present are home to very different Jewish research by the hegemonic centers of Israel, modern (European) Jews as Jews and for Jews, necessarily commanding the jargon of University of . has published on challenging entrenched concepts of what sonic spaces. Speaking about “Jewish musical the United States, and western . we can locate it in unexpectedly disparate Musikwissenschaft. Music can be mystifying, North African and eastern Mediterranean constitutes a text. Although orally transmitted traditions,” then, is another methodological Not only do sound recordings from the contexts: the pedagogy of a rural instructor but one should not mystify music as an Jewish music, Judeo-Islamic relations in music, sound can only be experienced and registered mishap that should be revisited with attention distant past or the present await scholarly of liturgy (Mayer Levi of Esslingen) from intractable form of communication that and Israeli .

6 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 7 AJS INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS 2015–2016 To Hear the World through Jewish Ears The Association for Jewish Studies is pleased to recognize the following Institutional Members: Judah M. Cohen

FULL INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS ASSOCIATE INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS o state the seemingly obvious: you attempts to capture those moments in writing don’t need to be a specialist to write or on recording reveals the stakes in creating Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Heksherim–Institute for Academy for Jewish Religion Jewish and Israel Literature and Culture* American University, Center for Israel Studies and Jewish Studies Tabout “Jewish” sound. Similarly but Jewish sonic cultures, and thus ideas of sonic University, Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies Program contrapuntally obvious: Too often, even after (or musical) “traditions.” In eras when Zionists Brandeis University Arizona State University, Center for Jewish Studies a lifetime of sonic experience, many Jewish sought to establish new musical conventions Columbia University, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies Barnard College, Jewish Studies Program Studies scholars still don’t feel comfortable for a Hebrew-speaking world, when liberal Cornell University, Jewish Studies Program Brown University, Program in Judaic Studies Duke University, Center for Jewish Studies California State University, Fresno, Jewish Studies Certificate writing about sound. Why this reticence? Jewish leaders attempted to spur Jewish Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies Program As trained musicologists, perhaps identification through a more noticeable Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion Chapman University, Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education my colleagues and I have been complicit “ethnic” , when cantors aimed Indiana University, Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Colby College, Center for Small Town Jewish Life and Jewish in cornering the field, building a wall of to assert their place in Jewish history by Studies Program Studies Program* Johns Hopkins University, Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Fordham University, Jewish Studies* specialized vocabulary and skills around creating parallels to singers, and when Jewish Studies Program Hebrew College sonic phenomena (, anyone?). explored ideas about Jewish music Lehigh University, Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Kent State University, Jewish Studies Program* But I think the matter goes far beyond to parallel other national sonic narratives, Jewish Studies Loyola Marymount University, Jewish Studies Program scholarly monopoly. Music and sound are sound’s fleeting/permanent dichotomy McGill University, Department of Jewish Studies Michigan State University, Jewish Studies Program New York University, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Northeastern University, Jewish Studies Program tough to pin down and hard to control and became an important component. Each group Judaic Studies Northwestern University, Crown Family Center for Jewish and this slipperiness can trouble an academic Jeff Klepper and at CAJE constructed an answer to the problematic Rutgers University, Department of Jewish Studies and The Allen Israel Studies field deeply (overly?) invested in the written (Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education), question “What is Jewish music?” that could and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life Old Dominion University, Institute for Jewish Studies & Interfaith word. Sound in this environment tends circa early 1980s. Courtesy of Jeff Klepper. meet emotional needs first, and intellectual Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership* Understanding Stanford University, Taube Center for Jewish Studies Portland State University, Harold Schnitzer Family Program in to receive awe or be regarded as novelty, needs through repetition and writing. The Jewish Theological Seminary, The Graduate School Judaic Studies though too often that means exclusion. Yet In doing so, each group included some The Ohio State University, Melton Center for Jewish Studies Princeton University, Program in Judaic Studies, Ronald O. Perelman without sound, are we really doing justice sounds as “Jewish,” and excluded others. Touro College, Graduate School of Jewish Studies Institute for Judaic Studies to the full subject of Jewish Studies? More significantly, these approaches University of Arizona, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Purdue University, Jewish Studies Program University of California, Berkeley, Center for Jewish Studies* Reconstructionist Rabbinical College It’s both illuminating and maddening. valorized specialized musical training as University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Jewish Studies Rice University, Program in Jewish Studies* We live in sounds. Sound accompanies every the necessary skill for discernment. Today, University of Florida, Center for Jewish Studies Temple University, Feinstein Center for American Jewish History* moment, every setting, every social situation, recognizing the idiosyncratic lacunae such University of Maryland, and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center The George Washington University, Program in Judaic Studies every act. It coordinates ears and skin (or efforts created, scholars of sound aim to for Jewish Studies The University of Scranton, Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute* University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Judaic and Near Eastern Towson University, Baltimore Hebrew Institute one or the other) and translates vibrations swing the pendulum back somewhat: to Studies Department University of Colorado, Boulder, Program in Jewish Studies into meaning. Barring a perfect vacuum, reopen productive dialogues with historians, University of Michigan, Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for University of Connecticut, Center for Judaic Studies and moreover, even the most soundless of silences cultural theorists, philosophers, theologians, Judaic Studies Contemporary Jewish Life is a conceit. Postwar John Cage and others in the world of Jewish Studies. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Center for University of Denver, Center for Jewish Studies Jewish Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Program in Jewish highlighted this idea in his performances, Aided by the many technologies we now University of Texas at Austin, Schusterman Center for Culture and Society most famously in his piece 4’33”: revealing have to preserve sound, including about Jewish Studies University of Kentucky, Jewish Studies how the unfulfilled expectation of a 1,400 years of , a century Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Jewish, Islamic, University of Minnesota, Center for Jewish Studies “performance” yields a more layered of media recordings, seventy years of “early- and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Norman and Bernice Harris Center Yale University, Program in Judaic Studies for Judaic Studies complexity of ambient sound. Humanity adopter” consumer-grade recordings, and at Yeshiva University, Bernard Revel School of Jewish Studies University of Oregon, Harold Schnitzer Family Program in operates by creating, regulating, and least a decade where audio/video collection York University, Israel and Golda Koschitzsky Centre for Judaic Studies responding to its own sounds, acknowledged is more convenient and immediate than Jewish Studies University of Pennsylvania, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced or unacknowledged, intentionally or writing itself, new explorations can perhaps Judaic Studies* University of Pittsburgh, Jewish Studies Program unintentionally. We can’t escape them, even rebalance sound as a normal and accessible *We are pleased to recognize our new University of Tennessee–Knoxville, The Fern and Manfred Steinfeld as they confound our ability to describe them. component of experience: continuous with 2015—2016 members! Program in Judaic Studies How people shape, interpret, and other written materials that have served as University of Toronto, Centre for Jewish Studies respond to those sounds presents a rich Cantor Alois Kaiser and Benjamin the backbone of our scholarly pursuits. University of Virginia, Jewish Studies Program and still-developing area, and a challenge Szold at the Oheb Shalom in To see how this process works, look to Institutional Members Benefits available University of Washington, The Samuel and Althea Stroum Jewish 1868. Courtesy of The Jewish Museum of to the current state of our field. As a the celebrated writing of my mentors and at http://www.ajsnet.org/institutions.htm! Studies Program Maryland, 1989.079.074. University of Wisconsin–Madison, Mosse/Weinstein Center for historian, I go searching for echoes in colleagues: Kay Shelemay on the Jewish Studies documents, memories, notation, recordings, populations; Mark Slobin on Yiddish theater University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Sam and Helen Stahl Center Fortunately, scholarship has largely for Jewish Studies ephemera, and musical instruments. As an and cantors; Edwin Seroussi on music of Jews Vanderbilt University, Jewish Studies Program ethnographer, I go where sounds happen, moved beyond the idea that “Jewish sound” of North African and central Asian heritage; Yiddish Book Center experiencing them when I can to see Jewish has a common origin and vocabulary. Mark Kligman on ; James Loeffler discursive patterns in action. They’re not Rather, we can view it as simultaneously on the late Russian Empire; Tamar Barzel If your program, department, foundation or institution is interested in becoming an AJS easy to avoid; and by listening carefully, we ephemeral and historical, reinforcing the on the downtown avant-garde institutional member, please contact Shira Moskovitz, AJS Program and Membership Coordinator, have an obligation to figure out how those ideas of a moment and then decaying quickly. scene; Evan Rapport on the Bukharian Jewish at [email protected] or 917.606.8249 sounds generate significance in context. Understanding that relationship and our ; Philip Bohlman on ;

SPRING 2016 9 Klara Moricz on the turn of the twentieth as liberal looked to elevate against each other in an existential battle for century; Tina Frühauf on the centrality of the sound as a component of spiritual authority. Jewish cultural primacy—and in each case organ; Lily Hirsch on Holocaust-era orchestras; While many know sound’s power as an reaching détente after decades of negotiation. The Love of God Amy Horowitz on Israeli popular music; aesthetic strategy for promoting identity- Sound in this context became a central Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, Josh Kun on American popular music; and based historical narratives—at concerts, criterion for understanding the dynamics a bevy of others. All bring sound to bear on say, or in the service of religious ritual— of liturgical practice: as such as and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism the intersection of history and identity using intimacy with the same sounds became Debbie Friedman and Ben Steinberg joined Jon D. Levenson increasing precision and depth, inclusively here a clarifying lens into an overlooked liturgists such as Benjamin Szold and Adolph integrating sonic materials into broader yet ever-present part of Jewish life. Huebsch as central figures in determining “This book is nothing less than a reformulation of the political, historical, and cultural frameworks. Sound opened up realms of popular the dynamics of religious communal life. whole idea of the love of God. Levenson offers a profound And sound, with its unique qualities, culture as well, expressions often cordoned Similarly, sound’s deep and longstanding rereading of the evidence, one that stresses the continuity has much to say. I spent three years learning, off by ornamental critiques of unseriousness integration into performance-based arts of Jewish thought from biblical times to the present. talking, and performing with cantorial or inappropriateness, or solely analyzed by such as theater offers opportunities for students at Hebrew Union College to . Cantorial schools, for example, faced new angles of understanding. Preconceived [A] landmark contribution to religious studies.” understand the role of sound in considering dilemmas in addressing liturgical music notions of musical theater’s so-called “light” —James L. Kugel, author of The Ladder of Jacob Reform Jewish life and history. Taking notes based in folk or rock styles that clashed with entertainment, to give one example, tend to and (authorized) recordings along the way, historical Jewish music narratives, even as obscure the vast landscape of experimentation “ A deep and splendid book.” I witnessed students combining artistic, they comprised the majority of congregational that “the musical” entails, especially when —Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks historical, and theological perspectives in sound. Attributed to major progenitors such as Broadway and its commercial implications intensive dialogue with mentor-cantors, Debbie Friedman and Jeff Klepper, the music’s cease to be the dominant point of reference. “This is biblical and theological scholarship at its finest.” rabbis, educators, voice teachers, and proliferation in the late twentieth century When, in presentations, I note that Anne musicologists. And the closer I came to the became a source of cantorial frustration and/ Frank’s diary has become the subject of —R. W. L. Moberly, Durham University sound, the more it became a complex entity or moral consternation, symptomizing the at least fifteen musical theater works, I of dynamic, moving strands. Looking at potential loss of Jewish musical identity. occasionally face pushback about musical Cloth $29.95 each strand, with the help of sources such as Approaching the topic through sound helped artists’ “commercial appropriation” of a Library of Jewish Ideas Cosponsored by the Tikvah Fund sheet music, course catalogs, and recordings, me to understand the deep-rootedness of this central Holocaust symbol. The picture looks illuminated a textured, twentieth-century debate as a centuries-long cyclical exercise different, however, when viewed from the history of musical definition and redefinition, of pitting of tradition and innovation perspective of the artists, some of whom have devoted decades to these works, have extensive training and facility with musical After One-Hundred-and-Twenty models and histories, choose every note for a reason, and treat their work as a living, Reflecting on Death, Mourning, dynamic thing that changes from audience and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition to audience. Their articulate responses

800-848-6224 speak to a wide range of composition and mediation, and show sound as both generative “ A most remarkable and beautifully written book. and responsive to human interaction. In all of these cases, sound becomes a Halkin elegantly weaves together illuminating scholarly mode of philosophy that constructs its own examinations of various Jewish ideas about death, worldview: defining the past and acting on mourning, and the afterlife. . . . After One-Hundred- the present, acknowledging in the process and-Twenty is in a class by itself.” the richness of the moment and its echoes — Leon R. Kass, author of The Beginning of Wisdom across Jewish life. Accessible—or rather, inescapable—sounds hardly require special talent or training to explore, only a willingness “ Hillel Halkin displays an impressive mastery of source to consider how the senses fill meaning. With material and writes with his customary flair and grace.” the state of digital humanities expanding — Allan Nadler, Drew University, author of The Faith rapidly, methods and colleagues available to of the Mithnagdim “A must read for anyone interested in the history consult, and broader openness among scholars to engage in arts-associated projects, the of Hasidic literature. Jonatan Meir masterfully Cloth $27.95 scholarly immediacy of sound may, hopefully, tells the story of late nineteenth-century eastern Library of Jewish Ideas become as natural to us as it is in real life. Cosponsored by the Tikvah Fund European Jewish scholarship through the bruising

CUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS battles, big ideas, and petty intrigues of Michael Judah M. Cohen is the Lou and Sybil Mervis Professor of and associate professor Levi Rodkinson.” of Musicology at Indiana University. His current —Eliyahu Stern, Yale University projects explore World War II-era narratives in See our E-Books at press.princeton.edu musical theater, nineteenth-century American

SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu SYR A Paper 978-0-8156-3447-8 ebook 978-0-8156-5371-4 synagogue music, and American Jewish singer/ songwriter/liturgist Debbie Friedman. DO NOT PRINT THIS INFORMATION AJS PERSPECTIVES SPRING 2016 16 054 10 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 11 4

that those vocal communities wrought in the course of a century of highly promising diasporic

life.

Such vocal communities were not confined, of course, solely to the synagogue. In

Germany, inspired by the various groups associated with the Wandervögel (lit., wandering birds)

The affective unity that such simultaneity — thesinging. prototype This of trend the youthbecame movement even stronger founded at theformed turn ofby the such twentieth shared vocal century lore, — beyond for “The Sound of Music” confers on the singing community— after the Nazis came to power, boasting the difference between datiyim and h . ofshiyim , Rosenzweig further maintains—bestows whomnew shared Liederbücher singing (songbooks)became a central that featured social practice, Hashomer various Jewish Hatzair youth or Haz organization . ofim (scouts).s Part on the text an existential longevity and a German, Jewish, and Hebrew-Zionist , of this lore was deeply musical, other parts The Birth and Demise of Vocal Communities shared validity that words alone apparently similarlyas in shaped the case their of the esprit Hawa de Naschira corps through (Let us group singing.less so; some This were trend movingly became evenperformed, stronger Ruth HaCohen lack. While he seemed to have overlooked sing) collection, published in 1935 in Leipzig others—in a peculiar “noisy” way. Differences the harmonizing effect of the chordal setting after andthe NazisHamburg. came Though to power, of a boastingclear Zionist new Liederbüchernotwithstanding, (songbooks) this that shared featured canon German, shaped of the melody, divided among the standard orientation, this collection hinges, as well, on a grand vocal church, or virtual synagogue, Jewish and Hebrew-Zionist songs, as in the case of the Hawa Naschira (“Let Us Sing”) n the absence of a developed concept four voices, his basic argument, related to the the beloved German lore of high and folkish of all such local and partisan communities. It of “vocal communities,” it is hard to power of synchronized vocalities, remains tunes and songs. The typical introduction to also affected the “real” in Palestine collection, published in 1935 in Leipzig and . Though of a clear Zionist orientation, this Iappreciate the formation, sustenance, intact. Vested in such musical attire, moreover, this motley musical and lingual compilation, (later Israel), whose Zionist aspect became less and decline of real and imaginary Jewish the various prayers enter the annual cycle collectionhowever, hinges stresses, as well that, on“communally the beloved sung German loreand of lesshigh affected and folkish by the tunes nineteenth-century and songs. The communities in the last two centuries. of holidays, he further argues, engraving song is an expression of shared sentiment,” middle-European “bel canto” synagogues. Assigning such a role to organized sound their specific festal flavor on the collective typicalin introductionwhich “Jewish to youth this motley increasingly musical excels.” and lingual (The compilation corresponding, however, development stresses thatin the must lead us into a certain history of emotional memory. This is especially the In the spirit of Jewish philosophers Hermann United States was considerably different.) perception and reception, performative case, one may add, when the verbal meaning "communallyCohen and sung his songdisciple is anRosenzweig, expression whom of shared sentiment,"True, inall which vocal communities—as"Jewish youth in the practices, propagated and less pronounced of the text is no longer accessible to those they cite, the editors (Joseph Jacobsen and case of other ritualistic groups—ever risk their ideas. Vocal communities, I propose, pronouncing it—a characteristic predicamentincreasingly Erwin Jospe, excels both." In composers the spirit of somethe Jewish of the philosophersprecipitation Herman inton Cohenthe abyss and of his routine disciple and constitute themselves through a shared sonic of many mid-European synagogue-goers numbers) wished to deepen the knowledge monotony. An informed renewal of repertory, phenomenology, embodied in listening, at the time. The alternation between the Rosenzweigof the sense whom of communitythey cite, the rooted editors in “our(Joseph Jacobsenworking and through Erwin Jospe the ethos, both or composers connotative of participatory vocalization, or both; the flow unified singing of the community and the music,” resorting, as well, to Maimonides’s value of imported or newly composed tunes some of the numbers) wished to deepen the knowledge of the sense of community rooted in "our of communal emotions, as well as collective cantorial elaboration of the congregations’ authority (who embraced poetry for its has recently become a designated goal of beliefs in the power of sound; and a cherished emissaries—h . azzanim and professional musicintrinsic,” resorting, value as rather well, than to Maimonides' for its national- authority (newlywho embraced formed minyanim poetry for in its Israel intrinsic and othervalue vocal corpus. A globally encompassing choruses—further deepened the sense religious association) to allow for a “foreign” . These predominantly egalitarian configuration, the social, religious, and of vocal community qua communitas. rathermusic. than for In comparisonits national- withreligious the widespread association ) to allowsynagogues for a "foreign" tend to adoptone. In“performative” comparison with ideological functions of vocal communities Louis Lewandowsky (1821–1894), who Was die Wandervögel singen of 1900, which rather than “performance” strategies have considerably grown in modern times. divided his musical oeuvres for the synagoguethe widespreadcould have Wasserved die as Wandervögel a model for their singen volume, of 1900, (or which participatory could have rather served than as theatrical a model for This is particularly the case in the Western between those intended for the professional one may find here a greater variety of styles, ones, to follow Michael Steinberg), while Jewish modern world. Across the Jewish Learning to sing in Giv‘at Shmuel, 1945. Gan Shmuel Archive via PikiWiki Israel. chorus (Todah ve-zimrah), and those proposedtheir butvolume in less, one sophisticated may find here settings, a greater maybe variety of styles,caring but for inthe less vocal sophisticate quality of thesettings, “singing Diaspora, premodern communities could for the use of the entire congregation (Kol reflecting the lack of a proper musical training body”—often carried by female voices. And construe themselves through a variety rinnah u-tefillah), would have probably maybeof reflectingthe purported the lackusers of of a this proper Liederbuch musical, trainingyet, of thewhile purported such communities users of th isbenefit Liederbuch from , of means and media—comprising texts, endorsed this appraisal. And so would his partially mimicking the monovocal shironim the contribution of first-rate scholars in partially mimicking the mono-vocal "shironim" circulated at the time in the . Like the rituals, learning, law, economic and familial whose architectural shape and sonic content his Lutheran proclivities and readopt the followers, up to the present day, spanning circulated at the time in the Yishuv. Like the traditional Jewish Studies, they often miss relations, customs, and memories. The vocal underwent far-reaching transformations Jewish faith; yet he would still write the between Reformist and ultra-Orthodox Jews—ZionistZionist halutizm h . aluz . (pioneers)im (pioneers),, even even the the most most radically secularizeda deeper understanding ones, they, too, of the found semiotics, the dimension, however important, was one of in an attempt to enhance its dignity and following regarding the singing community, those exposed, early on, to the synagogal radically secularized ones, they, too, found the aesthetics, and theology of the sonic realm, several modes whereby a community could rites. The process of molding a disciplined on its “eternal way” to redemption: treasures he bequeathed. Lewandowsky, treasurestreasures of Jewish of Jewish vocal vocal communities communities beyond beyond the Elbpertaininge – the potential to the synagogue of various and Hassidic beyond. cement itself as a social and historical entity. sonic space-time involved, primarily, however, was not the only one to supply the the Elbe—the potential of various Hasidic It is through the quest for such knowledge andand devotedthat a significant a vocal “togetherness” portion of their (à la volume Rosenzweig) to , (לעבעדיק ) Within the boundaries of the synagogal space, the assumption of control over modes of For it is music which raises that first burgeoning vocal communities, spreading inniggunim niggunim – of—of great great "lebendig" lebendig it was the men’s undertaking to uphold the participatory vocal production, whose intimate togetherness that is founded Europe between London and , with the devoted a significant portion of their volume may be creatively renewed, enabling new sonic realm in a form that wavered between best model was choral singing, prevalent in the mutual space and the mutual “tonal stuff their religious sentiments turned to these tunes, as did the even more renowned modes of spirituality and humaneness. cantorial recitation and heterophonic in the neighboring Lutheran churches. hearing of the word to the conscious and to be made of.” Viewed from this perspective, Schireh eretz jisrael, edited by Jacob Schönberg participation, sometimes perceived by Luther’s ingenious strategy for active intimate togetherness of all who the state-sponsored, coordinated onslaught (likewise published in Germany in 1935). Ruth HaCohen is the Artur Rubinstein Professor outsiders as noisy and unordered. establishing his Reformed church as a are assembled. The space first created by led by the Nazi authorities on November 9, It was, indeed, through such Zionist, of Musicology at the Hebrew University of This sonic condition has radically confederation of local congregations entailed, architecture is now really filled with the 1938, known as Kristallnacht, was meant semireligious handbooks, and the work of Jerusalem and the author of The Music Libel altered since the beginning of the nineteenth first and foremost, the creation of an embodied sounds of music. The chorale, filling the indeed to shatter what still remained of shlih . im (messengers) from Palestine who against the Jews (Yale University Press, 2011). century within major Jewish centers in theology of unmediated, synchronized, and space, sung mutually by all in mighty that hard-gained emotional solidarity and taught enthusiastic youngsters shirei ’Erez She is currently director of the Europe and, subsequently, in other continents. vernacular communal voices. Hence the unison, is the real foundation of the communal shareability that those vocal Yisra’, that communities of h . aluz . im Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social With the sociohistorical transition from a communities established were not only church deployment of music. . . . In the communities wrought in the course of a could crystallize while still in Europe, Sciences at the Hebrew University, as well Gemeinschaft to a Gesellschaft social structure, “imagined.” Through sound, shaped in chorale chorale, language, which otherwise has century of highly promising diasporic life. concomitantly bonding themselves to other as a member of the steering committee of the often paralleling the shift from community to form, they shared a physiology of breathing, to speak its own and particular word Such vocal communities were not such groups in an imagined confraternity. Balzan Research Project (“Towards a Global nation-state, indigenous Jewish communities intoning, and listening; they sensed together from the mouth of each individual, is confined, of course, solely to the synagogue. Indeed, one cannot conceive of the social ”) and the advisory committee lost their old moorings, while new ones the ebbs and flows of chorale melodies and the brought to silence. Not to that silence In Germany, inspired by the various groups cohesion and passion typical of that stage in of the Polyphony Foundation in Nazareth. established themselves in urban centers excitation of their amassment. Furthermore, which simply silently listens to the associated with the Wandervögel (lit., the history of the Zionist movement without hitherto inaccessible to Jews. Attaining however localized each community became read out word, but to the silence of his wandering birds)—the prototype of the the adhesive choral power fostered by the membership in a community became a matter over time, through a shared corpus and related peculiar nature in the unanimity of youth movement founded at the turn of ever-growing tonal corpus. All of us who still of choice, one among several affiliations common practices, each member could the choir. (Franz Rosenzweig, The Star the twentieth century—for whom shared grew up in Zionist youth movements, before an individual could assume within and still feel at home in any of them. Allegedly, of Redemption, trans. Barbara E. Galli singing became a central social practice, they became so strongly divided by means of without the Jewish world. Communal life a single synagogal experience, however [Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, various Jewish youth organizations similarly an imaginary political green (or rather red!) was concentrated mostly in the synagogue, traditional, led Franz Rosenzweig to relinquish 2005], 383, translation slightly altered.) shaped their esprit de corps through group line, experienced the yet-palpable connectivity

12 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 13 Let us focus primarily on brass bands and palace and its professional performers to and an expanding public school network Brass Bands, Jewish Youth, and the Sonorities secondarily on choruses to explore a musical become a popular amateur youth activity under Abdülhamid II, and developed in slice of Jewish patriotic activity in the late in Ottoman urban centers across the multireligious communal institutions and of a Global Perspective . Loud and typically marching nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. missionary schools as well. By cultivating Maureen Jackson outdoors, Ottoman brass bands announced Early public schools in the empire— discipline, productivity, and patriotism in patriotic space within wide-ranging earshot, as Islahhanes (reformatories), which were first often impoverished youth, the bands sought they performed a range of music from military established in the Balkans to address the to fulfill needs for urban renewal, youth commemoratives and sultanic panegyrics refugee crisis after the Crimean War (1853– rehabilitation, and civic performance across to popular European art music. Children 56)—instituted bands to “uplift” orphaned Ottoman urban centers, benefiting from the typically filled the ranks of the bands, as they children by offering them a marketable skill often unpaid services of working pupils. did patriotic choruses, becoming educated while provisioning the state with working Did Jewish orphans or child workers, into imperial spirit by learning and producing bands for civic and state ceremonies. Musical like their counterparts elsewhere, fill the the music. It is a global perspective on brass models in the form of an amateur brass ranks of Ottoman Jewish bands? Possibly. bands that furthers our understanding of movement had developed in Britain by the Destitute Jewish locals and refugees from late how children—often homeless or destitute— mid-nineteenth century in the context of Ottoman wars, especially from the Balkans became an integral part of this phenomenon European discourses about the unsupervised to port cities like Salonica, Istanbul, Izmir, worldwide and by extension within the “dangerous child” and Victorian notions of and environs, would have provided ample empire and its multiethnic communities. “rational recreation.“ Introduced into British, numbers of child performers. Whether Typically understood in elite terms as European, and American reform schools and dispossessed or not, however, Jewish students Italian-led reformation of Ottoman military factories to rehabilitate destitute or laboring were trained for brass bands and children’s music at court, or in Jewish terms as French youth, brass bands showcased easy-to-learn choruses in state and missionary schools, to infusions into -sponsored Alliance instruments, soldiering-style uniforms, and which Jewish and Christian families, albeit Israélite schools of the empire, brass bands and marching formations that facilitated the aim a minority, sent their children. These public military marches in fact enjoyed far-reaching of instilling virtue rather than vice in vagrant schools, moreover, sometimes employed concentric circles of migration—from an youth and industrial workers. Extending to Jewish music teachers: for example, the intensifying movement in Victorian England other regions of the world through musical composer Santo S , ikar was on the faculty of . to Europe and its colonies, Asia, and the tours, world exhibitions, and colonial the Islahhane reform school in Izmir between I zmir Sanayi Mektebi Bandosu - Emre ARACI Archive. The school band of the Islahhane Americas. These circles more fully account activity, amateur brass bands rapidly became 1888 and 1893, teaching Ottoman aspects (or Sanayi Mektebi) of Izmir, c. 1909–10. Reproduced by permission from the personal for the growth of bands outside the imperial an integral part of Ottoman reformatories of his Euro-Ottoman musical expertise and collection of Emre Araci.

n 1859 the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid cities at the time. Soon after, in 1900 Kâmil message of marches and poems, while the visited the Aegean port of Salonica on a P as , a, the governor of the Aegean province entertainment value and colloquial language Home of the Imulticity tour of the realm. Brass bands, of Aydın, commemorated the arrival of the of the pieces would have increased receptivity Heschel Archive imperial guards, girls with bouquets, and British navy in the bay of Izmir by organizing in a diverse public. The music aimed to forge children from all local religious communities a banquet and ball in the government’s military-state-society relations through lined an avenue to perform for him. As quarters. The student band of the Société rousing open-air performance, especially LIBRARY FELLOWSHIPS: Rodrigue and Stein note in A Jewish Voice Musicales Israélites entertained guests with during Sultan Abdülhamid II’s administration Funded residencies of 1-3 from Ottoman Salonica, a group of seventy marches, and three Jewish master musicians, (1876–1909), when centralizing and young Jewish men reportedly sang as the Avram Karakas , , Hayim Alazraki, and Isak modernizing efforts grew in the context of weeks sultan passed by, while local Sa‘adi Algazi, provided intimate Ottoman art music. territorial losses and European economic Besalel a-Levi presented his compositions in What ties together these accounts of and military ascendancy. Performative Hebrew and Ladino for the occasion, as well late Ottoman Jewish music making, given media such as music and theatre arguably Applications accepted on a as conducted a Jewish children’s chorus and their distinct periods, locales, and musical exceeded the impact of other means of rolling basis parade. Nearly forty years later, in 1897, the particularities? They not only detail active communication, such as print media, on Ottoman state under Sultan Abdülhamid II, Jewish involvement in multiethnic imperial imperializing or nationalizing efforts in celebrating a rare military victory in a war ceremonials as well as versatility in the the Middle East, even as they interacted Home to the Heschel Archives, over Crete, commissioned a spate of patriotic areas of language (Hebrew, Ladino, Ottoman, with published texts. The brass bands and compositions. These included the march and spoken Turkish) and musical genres choruses featured in the above descriptions the Kanof Collection of Jewish A   Cenge Giderken (Going into battle), with (Ottoman art music and European-style exemplify such media in an imperial context. Art, Archaelogy & Symbolism, music by Santo S . ikar (d. 1920), a renowned marches). As Julia Phillips Cohen notes in By participating in a broader politicization L F Jewish musician from Izmir, and lyrics by Becoming Ottomans, youth brass bands and of Ottoman urban space through youth the Marshall T. Meyer Human Mehmet Emin Yurdakul (1869–1944), a choruses also weave through each historical bands and choruses, Jewish communities Rights Archive, and a growing poet remembered for his nationalist verse sketch, placing Jewish children with their extended their own patriotic image in the collection of Southern Judaica in simple Turkish. With no record of its Ottoman compatriots at the heart of public context of nineteenth-century reforms performance history, the march was likely patriotic music making. By showcasing toward multiethnic citizenship, even if played by young players in military-style Ottoman youth as guardians of the future, strategic silence on other occasions broadcast for more information: jewishstudies.duke.edu bands and choruses ubiquitous in Ottoman the bands sought to bolster the imperial loyalty as loudly as a or a drum.

14 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 15 working alongside band conductors. In a trend Just as such performative media enlarged and elsewhere would progressively adapt shared with Greek, Turkish, and Armenian state imperializing efforts, Ottoman Jewish their and drums to combos (as communities, Ottoman Jewish communities participation enabled their communities to discussed by Carole Woodall in “Awakening established their own bands, like the Société widely broadcast—and cultivate—their own a Horrible Monster”). Popular musical tastes, Thank You to Our Donors Musicales Israélites founded in 1891 in Izmir. political allegiances, when, by contrast, on wearied of war and militaristic marches, were Directed by Maestro Moroni, the band was specifically Jewish commemoratives leaders shifting, and the Istanbul press of the 1920s AJS is grateful to the following supporters who composed of about forty students and, active might encourage a low-decibel profile to would debate the sensuality and morality helped us launch the AJS@50 Annual Fund intermittently for two decades, was employed present a decorous image of its citizenry. of the new musical and danceable fad. Until in . New donors to the fund are updated to perform at a variety of civic events in Izmir, As official occasions cleared salutary space then, however, the case of Jewish youth 2015 including official commemorations, benefit for high-volume patriotic display, child bands and choruses in late empire sheds monthly at ajsnet.org. concerts, provincial balls, and banquets. performers in Jewish bands and choruses light on performative avenues open to the Like the Islahhane bands, this association projected the patriotic upbringing and leadership of a non-Muslim community, often at times provided avenues to musically potential of an entire future generation of seeking a low profile, to expand its patriotic inclined students for further training: in Ottoman Jews in a way that elder career image and shape its members’ loyalties Eliyana R. Adler David Gillis Luis Alberto Perez-Martinez 1913–14 it funded Albert Hemsi (1898–1975), musicians would not. Even as political winds through the relatively loud, accessible, Anonymous Ariela Katz Gugenheim Noam F. Pianko who eventually became a prominent music shifted across the Second Constitutional and entertaining public soundscapes of Anonymous Sara Halpern Annie Polland collector, conductor, and scholar, to attend period (beginning in 1908–09), the Balkan a broader imperializing enterprise. Joyce Antler Galit Hasan-Rokem Riv-Ellen Prell the Conservatory of Music in Milan and Wars (1912–13), and the lead-up to World Alan Appelbaum Joel Hecker Janet Rabinowitch return to conduct the band until 1923. War I (1914–18)—as panegyrics to sultans Audio examples are included in the online version Paula Eisenstein Baker Anne Golomb Hoffman Jehuda Reinharz Ottoman youth bands as a whole gave way to pan-Turkish cultural motifs set to of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. Zachary M. Baker Sara Horowitz E. M. Rose showcased modernly schooled children as the march tunes—young Jewish performers and Carol Bakhos Alfred L. Ivry Moshe Rosman voice of a sovereign and progressive empire, conscripts could still find themselves in the Maureen Jackson researches multiethnic musical Lawrence and Bonnie Baron Jewish Music Forum Marsha L. Rozenblit while the bands employed rhythmic marches poetry through the ethnicity-bending term cultures in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Murray and Sheila Willa M. Johnson Richard S. Sarason to educate children into imperial patriots “Turk,” glossed as “Ottoman,” and continue Republic as a lens for understanding cultural Baumgarten Robin E. Judd Jonathan D. Sarna and and heighten patriotic emotion in audiences. to display communal patriotism with their history in imperial and national contexts. She is Judith R. Baskin Michael Kagan Ruth Langer Youth choruses singing colloquial lyrics like non-Jewish peers, now representing vanguards the author of Mixing Musics: Turkish Jewry David Berger Jason Kalman and Dana Lawrence and Marlene “Cenge Giderken,” moreover, extended the of change breaking with a “benighted” and the Urban Landscape of a Sacred Song Yitzhak Berger Herman Schiffman impact of printed poetry by broadcasting their ancien régime. In the aftermath of the (Stanford University Press, 2013), winner of Ra’anan Shaul Boustan Lynn Kaye Shuly Schwartz accessible language in open-air space and devastating war a veritable cult of youth a Jewish National Book Award. She served as The Cahnman Foundation Shaul Kelner Marla entertaining the economically and ethnically would be constructed in the early Turkish a Harry Starr Fellow at Harvard University Robert Chazan Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Robert Seltzer diverse crowds at official public occasions. Republic, while brass band musicians there and is currently working on her second book. Steven M. Cohen Samuel Z. Klausner Cynthia Kaplan Shamash Kierra Mikaila Crago- Mark Loren Kligman Jeffrey Shandler Schneider Clifford and Robin Kulwin Hershel Shanks Arnold Dashefsky Gail Labovitz Suzanne Last Stone Hasia Diner Hartley Lachter Eric J. Sundquist “This book is an important revision to literary history, Marc Dollinger Laura Levitt Lance J. Sussman demonstrating how the beginnings of a viable prose style go back to the Lester Samuel Eckman Lital Levy Michael D. Swartz Carl S. Ehrlich & Michal Judit Bokser Liwerant Magda Teter early nineteenth century and translation played a crucial role” Shekel James Loeffler John T. Townsend —Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley Arnold M. Eisen Howard N. Lupovitch Jeffrey Veidlinger David Ellenson Tim Lutz Andrew Viterbi “Frieden cogently traces the path of making Hebrew a viable living lan- David Engel Natan M. Meir David J. Wasserstein Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi Morton J. Merowitz Robert Wexler guage to a coterie of writers who preceded Mendele by half a century.” Harriet Feinberg Michael Meyer L. Wiseman —Ruth Adler, professor of Jewish Studies and Comparative Literature at Baruch College Janice Wendi Fernheimer Deborah Dash Moore Stephen Garfinkel Leslie Morris David Wolpe “The stakes, the scope, and the thrust of this book are exemplary, explain- The Gelb Foundation of the David N. Myers James E. Young ing how travel literature exemplifies the acts of cultural transfer that are Scranton Area Foundation Pamela S. Nadell Carol Zemel Jane S. Gerber David Nimmer Wendy Zierler so much at the heart of Jewish literary modernity. . . . Frieden lays out in Elliot H. Gertel Aaron D. Panken Steven J. Zipperstein admirably clear detail the linguistic pieces of the puzzle.”

—Jeremy Dauber, director of the Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University

Cloth 978-0-8156-3457-7 Paper 978-0-8156-3441-6 ebook 978-0-8156-5364-6 Please support AJS, your intellectual home. Your contributions sustain a rich array of AJS programs, resources, and publications and help keep membership dues and conference fees affordable. For further information, please go to ajsnet.org or contact Susan Sapiro at Syracuse University Press [email protected] or 917.606.8249. SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu 800-848-6224

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For its 2017–2018 fellowship year, the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies seeks applications from scholars asking new questions about the 2017–2018 history of science, medicine and technology from the perspective of Jewish culture. This year will explore the theories, institutions, and paradigms that shaped how Jews have studied nature, and the ideas, applications, and cultural Utter Chaos and religious consequences that emerged from such study. Sammy Gronemann

The fellowship is open to scholars working on particular thinkers, texts or NATURE theories, as well as research projects that frame the subject in relation to Classical, Christian, Muslim, or secular approaches. This theme spans the entirety of Jewish history, and encompasses the history of science, the anthropology of between science, philosophy, philology, and environmental studies, among other potentially relevant fields. History and Memory This theme shall embrace an interdisciplinary and comparative approach and Jeremy Black encourages projects within fields of inquiry that bear on how Jews have SCIENCE

understood, interacted with, or sought to intervene into nature. This could 1915 Diary of S. An-sky include but is not limited to: astrology, magic and other esoteric forms of A Russian Jewish Writer at the knowledge, medieval and early modern natural philosophy, and its and Eastern Front impact on scientific and medical practice, contemporary research in genetics, as S. A. An-sky well as mathematics and technology. Among the larger questions that a Jewish Guide in the Holy Land fellowship application might address are: How Christian Pilgrims Made Me Israeli Jackie Feldman RELIGION o How have Jews conceived, studied, and talked about nature and the natural Taking Stock world in different historical periods? Cultures of Enumeration in o In what ways has Jewish scientific engagement in nature been shaped by Contemporary Jewish Life religious belief and practice? What is the relationship between science and Jewish Culture Edited by Michal Kravel-Tovi Halakhah, or between science and Jewish religious thought? and Deborah Dash Moore o What can be learned by reframing Jewish engagement in nature within a broader context? What insights can be gleaned by comparing Jewish and the Writing Jewish Culture scientific interest with Islamic, Christian, or modern secular science? To Paradoxes in Ethnography what extent has science or medicine served as a medium of interaction and Edited by Andreas Kilcher exchange with non-Jewish communities? Natural World and Gabriella Safran o What can one learn about Jewish engagement in science by attending to the Going to the People practices and institutions of scientific culture (e.g., universities, medical Jews and the Ethnographic Impulse schools) or by examining the social and discursive practices of science? To apply, please visit: Edited by Jeffrey Veidlinger o How has Zionism shaped Jewish medical and scientific activity or vice versa? katz.sas.upenn.edu Deciphering the New ELIGIBILITY, AWARDS & APPOINTMENTS Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld

The Katz Center invites applications from scholars in the humanities, social sciences, Levinas’s Ethical Politics and the arts at all levels, as well as outstanding graduate students in the final stages of Email: Carrie Love Michael L. Morgan writing their dissertations who will have received their Ph.D. before the start date of Fellowship Adminsitrator the fellowship. Fellowships are awarded either for a full academic year or one [email protected] semester (fall or spring). Stipend amounts are based on academic standing with a maximum of $60,000 for the academic year.

DEADLINE: OCTOBER 31, 2016 INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS iupress.indiana.edu PRESS

18 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 19 was sounded with a fullness that might as Jack Robin, enacting and envoicing the in the Lorelei cabaret in Billy Wilder’s 1948 How to Get out of Here: Sounding Silence seem to forestall the end of all things. struggle between Jewish tradition in A Foreign Affair. The historical arc from the Raphaelson’s The Day of Atonement. The jazz cabaret stage of the Blue Angel to that of the in the Jewish Cabaretesque Sounding Sight singer inhabits the multiple worlds of the Lorelei, from the eve of Nazism to the wake of Philip V. Bohlman Want to buy some illusions? cabaretesque—as Al Jolson / Jakie Rabinowitz the Shoah, once again is sounded as film music Slightly used, second-hand? / Jack Robin—turning each inside-out through from which Jewish cabaret is inseparable, They were lovely illusions, the transformation of speech (still silent in just as reality has collapsed into illusion. It is to cabaret’s ability to turn worlds inside- reaching high, built on sand. the film) into music. The jazz singer’s musical out that I here call “the cabaretesque,” a term They had a touch of paradise, transition from stage to film formed at the Falling Silence that extends Mikhail Bakhtin’s well-known a spell you can’t explain. confluence of real-life transitions for European So very gently concept of the carnivalesque. The cabaret stage For in this crazy paradise Jews at the beginning of the twentieth My heart longs depends on the inversion of inside and outside, you are in love in vain. century—migration from rural to urban To take the journey the ways in which a skit or song allows the , immigration from the Old World to Back home. . . . audience to experience themselves upon the Want to buy some illusions, the New—and of allegorical transitions—from stage without, however, entirely recognizing slightly used, just like new? religious Orthodoxy to modern secularism, To hear the music themselves. Audience members laugh at Such romantic inclusions, and from Diaspora to cosmopolitanism. As the Playing in my own home, their own foibles and follies. They encounter they’re all about you. old order of European empire collapsed in Just as it was sung themselves in a moment of self-reflection. I sell them all for a penny, they the wake of , the Jewish musical By Oscar Straus. The serious is made comic; the comic is made make a pretty souvenirs. traditions gathered new metaphors of serious. The irony of an evening of enjoyment, Take my lovely illusions, some modernity and , ripe for the tales (Leo Strauss, “Aus der Familie der as Leo Strauss invites us to experience, is for laughs, some for tears. migrating from the skits of the cabaret stage Sträusse” / “From the Strauss Family,” revealed in the difficulty of escaping that to the scenes filling the frames of sound film. Terezín ca. 1944) (Migdal 1986, 67–70) moment when sounded in the real world. (Friedrich Holländer, “Illusions,” from The Jazz Singer was followed five years Arnold Schoenberg (cello) at the time of his Brettl-Lieder/Cabaret Songs. The outer and inner worlds of the A Foreign Affair, dir. Billy Wilder, 1948) later in Berlin by Josef von Sternberg’s 1930 Listen to audio example online at cabaretesque collide in Hanns Eisler’s Der blaue Engel (The blue angel), the first http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. setting of Bertolt Brecht’s “The of Listen to audio example online at German-language synchronized sound film, The Silence of Jewish Modernity was vast, stretching across generations and the ‘Jewish Whore’ Marie Sanders.” Eisler http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. and once again modernity was sounded of Leo Strauss closes this essay again If you want to visit the coffeehouse, boundaries of every kind. Kurt Tucholsky, (1898–1962) captures the form and narrative on the cabaret stage. The Blue Angel of the as at the beginning, in both instances from If the cabaret might be your thing, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Kurt Gerron, even of broadside ballad—songs that detail the The power of Jewish cabaret and the film’s title (based on Heinrich Mann’s 1905 the final collections of cabaret songs he left If you’d like to see the Strauss Theodor Herzl in his Zionist writings and Leo politics of the day and circulate in printed cabaretesque to sound silence appears in novel, Professor Unrat) was itself a cabaret, in Terezín before his own deportation and Ensemble performing, Strauss’s own father, Oscar Straus, the great form on the streets of the city—to open a remarkable ways across the history of media and most of the music was filmed diegetically murder in Auschwitz. The search closure in Come on in, we’re at your service. composer and mentor of Arnold space for Marie Sanders to enter the public technology, particularly in the history of film. in the Blue Angel, performed by Marlene the closing epigraph—the sound of his own Schoenberg when he arrived in Berlin to sphere in which she is mocked and driven The history of sound film begins on a musical Dietrich and Friedrich Holländer’s jazz band, father’s voice, at home, not from the cabaret All your cares will disappear, perform and compose cabaret on the eve from the city because she has a Jewish lover. stage indebted to the long history of Jewish Weintraub’s Syncopators. Jewish cabaret stage—proved to be as inchoate as it was Here, in this beautiful little space— of his turn toward modernism—all were Sound in all its dimension—lyrics, genre, cabaret. In the first synchronized sound film, would sound historical silence again—and impossible. Closure, however, may never But you need to keep one thing in mind, cabaretistes. By 1944, cabaret spilled from intertextuality, of the score Alan Crosland’s 1927 The Jazz Singer, the title composed again by Friedrich Holländer (1896– be fully accomplished by the cabaretesque. Just how to get out of here. the stages of clubs, dance halls, theaters, for cabaret ensemble—unleashes its reality character, Jakie Rabinowitz, takes to the stage 1976) for performances by Marlene Dietrich The silence it would seem to secure is one and film, enveloping and envoicing the to locate it in the historical moment of that Jewish cabaret seeks instead to undo by (Leo Strauss, “Einladung/Invitation,” global soundscape of Jewish modernity. the Nuremberg Laws. In successive verses, insisting that silence must be sounded again Terezín ca. 1944) reality unfolds sonically as broadside and and again. It is with and through sound that Sites of Silence newsreel converge. Aesthetically, the hideous cabaret realizes the very Jewishness from ow charming this invitation from In Nuremberg they’ve passed a law, reality of prejudice and racism becomes which modern history is inseparable. the Leo Strauss Ensemble to join Giving women cause to weep, transcendent as a song of stunning beauty. Hit for an evening of cabaret! And Who had been sleeping with the Although Marie Sanders herself never Source for Leo Strauss lyrics: Migdal, how ironic, uncanny, and tragic to know wrong man. speaks in the song, we yearn to hear her voice. Ulrike, ed. Und die Musik spielt dazu: that most of those who joined them for “The price of meat’s going up in The serious work of cabaret resonates most Chansons und Satiren aus dem KZ the cabaret evenings they performed in the city shops, clearly through the sounding of silence. It Theresienstadt (Munich: Piper, 1986). the Terezín/Theresienstadt concentration The drums beat louder every day, was the possibility of reclaiming silence for camp never did “get out of here.” The Strauss God in heaven, if there’s something the marginalized that led to the spread of Philip V. Bohlman is Ludwig Rosenberger Ensemble offered a moment of sound in a you’ve not done, cabaret in the Jewish communities of the Distinguished Service Professor at the University world of silence, and in so doing the troupe Do it right away.” modern era, above all as they were forced of . Among his recent books are Hanns joined Leo Strauss (1897–1944) in sustaining to flee the traditions of an older world and Eisler – “In der Musik ist es anders,” with the historical tradition of cabaret to which (Hanns Eisler / Bertolt Brecht, “Die Ballade embark on exile into a new world. These Andrea F. Bohlman, (Hentrich & Hentrich, 2012) Jewish musicians, writers, and actors had so der ‘Judenhure’ Marie Sanders” [The ballad modern stories fueled the repertories of and Wie sängen wir Seinen Gesang auf dem richly contributed. Jewish cabaret formed of the ‘Jewish whore’ Marie Sanders]) the cabaretesque, which were transformed Boden der Fremde! (LIT Verlag, 2016). He is at the confluence of sound, with streams into the Yiddish theater, operetta, and the artistic director of the New Budapest Orpheum gathered from the sacred and the profane, Listen to audio example online at film music of modernity. There were new Society, whose As Dreams Fall Apart (Cedille mundane and political, vernacular and http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. voices and new songs to take up the cause of Records) received a 2016 Grammy Nomination. elite. The heritage of the Jewish cabaret denying finality. The silence of modernity Friedrich Holländer and Marlene Dietrich on the Lorelei stage in Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair (1948).

20 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 21 self-expression in the ghetto. Materials the atrocity into our historical imaginations, musical Terezín, an aspect that I recognize Listening Contrapuntally; or What Happened related to the ghetto’s most celebrated but historian Shirli Gilbert argues that its with some shame in my first interview composers—Pavel Haas, Petr Kien, roots awkwardly lay in German Romanticism with Henry—a testimony punctuated with When I Went Bach to the Archives Klein, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann—as and its nineteenth-century teleological interruptions, assumptions, and leading Amy Lynn Wlodarski well as interviews with amateur performers construct of music as a redemptive if not redirections on my part. And thus, it was spoke of the myriad musical activities that prophetic language. Romanticism, she argues, with no false sense of superiority and a the Jewish prisoners mounted during their “conceived of music as the paradigm of artistic great deal of humility that I listened to the remember the first time I heard a Bach time in the ghetto. Among these accounts expression, and the ultimate language of the archive recording of Karas in which he fugue—the Prelude and Fugue in A was a postwar interview with Greta, emotions,” qualities that have been mapped described how he had handled contrapuntal IMinor, BWV 543—in a another child survivor of Terezín, who had onto musical life in Terezín. As Joseph Toltz or contradictory memories in his own oral class at Middlebury College. It was a time played the lead role of Aninka in Brundibár. describes, Terezín is valued as an emotional histories: “I could show you on the tapes in my life when I identified as a singer, one “Music! Music was life!” she exclaimed “counterpoint to [the] factual reportage again, [how] I was talking to survivors and I whose ears were predominantly tuned to her interviewer—a remark that I had and witness bearing” often associated was correcting them, because after the years towards the lyricism and phraseology of encountered before. Karas uses the vibrancy with more traditional modes of history. they forgot and things changed in their melodies. In this context, the figuration of of her words to close Music in Terezín, arguing Toltz’s fugal characterization of mind, and I found documents which prove this Bach fugue presented a challenge for that participation in the Freizeitgestaltungen spiritual resistance had a resonance for me that I am right and the people who did that me. Its angular sequencing and instrumental allowed the inmates of Terezín to “devote as well—that of Edward Said’s Culture and particular thing, they were wrong about counterpoint were difficult to sing, and I all [their] energy to [a] chosen field” and Imperialism, in which he called for researchers [it].” It wasn’t a surprising admission, but it promptly dismissed it as mathematical and experience “exciting feelings [that] could to return to the cultural archive and “begin made me think long and hard about what mechanical (as the young are wont to do). not be dampened by the unpleasantness to reread it not univocally but contrapuntally, may had been lost in the resulting silences. Later, a listening exam forced me to return and difficulties of . . . life in the ghetto.” with a simultaneous awareness both of In his biography of Mozart, the to the score (as exams are wont to do), and To be honest, this is what I had been the [dominant] history that is narrated musicologist Maynard referred to I set about memorizing it by my standard expecting—and, if I am to be honest with and of those other histories against which silence as “a state that calls for sound to be method: singing along. As I did, I discovered myself, emotionally seeking—when I made (and together with which) the dominating brought into being.” Perhaps he had been the depth of associations within the work, the journey to Terezín. Such empowering discourse acts.” While Said’s call to action reading Proust, who noted that the “work how its Hauptstimmen (main voices) and narratives about the Freizeitgestaltungen evolves from his postcolonial critique of of art is the child of silence.” Regardless, it is Nebenstimmen (secondary voices) ultimately appear regularly in scholarly literature, history, it is just as influenced by his deep certain that Said was reading both of them create textures that generate new resultant performance series, and memorial projects. love of and his own training when he posited the sound artist John Cage melodies that were not written in the score Celebrated productions of Brundibár or the in contrapuntal listening: the process of as an unlikely prophet of postwar classical but were apparent to my ears. In short, by Defiant Requiem promote the Terezín repertory locating the Haupt- and Nebenstimmen within music. In “From Silence to Sound and Back ignoring certain notes in the score, I found as what one prominent theater historian a fugal texture and identifying the variety Again: Music, Literature, and History,” not only a version for my own voice but refers to as a “tribute to the indomitable spirit of species—that is, the types or degrees of Said praises Cage for rescuing silence also a more holistic understanding of the . . . which somehow flowered in a sinkhole relationships—in which they operate. from the periphery of the soundscape and artwork. And maybe that is why I have of horror.” And yet, as I sifted through the And thus I went back to the archives recognizing it as “an essential component always chosen to begin my music survey silent archival documents sitting before me, armed with a new set of texts and questions— of art [that] symbolizes the difficulty but course with this Bach fugue, where it begins alternative musical narratives arose from the with different eyes and ears—to the Fortunoff also the opportunity offered by the realm of an intellectual journey that will ultimately pages—the voices of ear witnesses whose Video Archive for Holocaust Testimony at the aesthetic.” Within the realm of musical conclude with John Cage’s silent postmodern stories did not neatly fit into what historian Yale University. When I explained to one witness, our challenge is to aesthetically masterpiece 4’33”. It represents a piece Wolfgang Benz describes as the “legend of curator that my focus was on traumatic return to the archive, as I once returned to the that has gone from silence to sound and Terezín.” In the midst of these alternative recollections about music in Terezín, she Bach fugue with new ears: to hear the previous back again in the arenas of my own life. representations of musical performance, I cautioned that such research might not be silences as sounding bodies and the new sites The notion of counterpoint has become Folio from Johann Sebastian Bach, Prelude and Fugue in A Minor (J.P. Kellner, was suddenly reminded of a marginal aside fruitful and attempted to redirect me to of musicological insight and inquiry—to theoretically central to my work as a scribe. Berlin, 1725). D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 288, Faszikel 13, Staatsbibliothek in my conversation with Henry that I had testimonies of music in Auschwitz. Even move, as Said put it once, contrapuntally from musicologist studying Holocaust witness. zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, via Bach Digital. CC BY-NC 4.0. disregarded at the time due to my own belief the finding aids at the archive held a bias silence to sound and repeatedly back again. Indeed, the process of testimonial witness in the positive humanism of musical Terezín. in that those testimonies that appeared evokes a series of contrapuntal relationships: He had described for me how he navigated the under the search terms “music and Terezín” Some material in this article cited with between history and memory; between local production of a work that would feature surroundings. As I was leaving the building, dying bodies lying the street in order to get produced witnesses with redemptive stories permission from Joza K. Holocaust Testimony present and past; between survivor and Henry’s testimony as part of its dramaturgical Henry presented me with Joža Karas’s book, to rehearsals on time: “You just ignored it. . . . about the Freizeitgestaltungen, despite the (T-327), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust interviewer; between various transnational rendering. As we sat in the local JCC, Henry Music in Terezín, which he pressed into my You just stepped over them and kept going.” fact that testimonies without a “music” Studies, Yale University Library. and exilic identities; between what gets recounted his memories of Brundibár from hands with the following words: “It’s the Similarly, traumatic memories of music designation also contained telling narratives said and what remains unspoken. To be 1943, noting that “every kid knew the songs real story, with the facts to prove it.” in Terezín have been traditionally side about music that were more traumatic or Amy Lynn Wlodarski’s research focuses on the certain, none of this was in my mind when or whistled the songs . . . I think that every Two years later, Karas’s book would stepped—or at the very least marginalized negative in tone. I started to wonder: how interplay between music, memory, and trauma I conducted my first interview with Henry, child knew it in and out.” With obvious accompany me on my first research trip to from cultural accounts of spiritual resistance had the archivists listened thematically to in postwar Holocaust representations. She is the a child survivor of Ghetto Theresienstadt delight, he recalled his group of friends from the Czech Republic, where I sifted through that feature the Terezín repertory. Spiritual these testimonies? What metanarratives author of Musical Witness and Holocaust. (Terezín) who had performed in the the barracks—the “Fivers,” as they called documents at the on-site archives of Ghetto resistance is a thorny historiographical about Terezín were conditioning our hearing Representation (Cambridge University Press, celebrated performances of the children’s themselves—and how rehearsals provided Terezín. Among its sketches and scores, vine to follow. In Admitting the Holocaust, of these witnesses and their stories? 2015) and coeditor, with Elaine Kelly, of Art opera Brundibár. I was a first-year graduate them with a collective musical experience testimonies and diaries, I found confirmation Lawrence Langer asserts that our cultural Further structural problems in interview Outside the Lines: New Perspectives on GDR student in musicology, untrained in the from which they constructed memorable of Karas’s thesis: that music had been a predilection for redemptive tropes stems formats and techniques have also impacted Art Culture (Rodopi, 2011). She is associate nuances of oral history, and involved in a childhoods, despite the circumstances of their source of spiritual resistance and Jewish from our own postwar difficulty assimilating the collection of testimonial narratives about professor of Music at Dickinson College.

22 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 23 NEW FROM ACADEMIC STUDIES PRESS

Attuned Learning Modern Orthodoxy in Rabbinic Texts on Habits of the Heart in American Judaism Learning Interactions The Era of Rabbi Leo Jung

ELIE HOLZER AXINE ACOBSON Fellowship Opportunity M J

Series: Jewish Identities in Post-Modern Society Series: Studies in 2016 | 9781618114808 | 192 pp. | Cloth | $69.00 2016 | 9781618114372 | 262 pp.; 10 illus. | Cloth | $75.00

Practice-oriented educational philosopher Elie Holzer This work presents the issues of Modern Orthodox invites readers to grow as teachers, students, or Judaism in America, from the decades of the twenties co-learners through “attuned learning,” a new to the sixties, by looking at the activities of one of its Theme 2017–2018 paradigm of mindfulness. Groundbreaking leaders, Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung. Modern Orthodoxy went interpretations of classical rabbinic texts sharpen from being a threatened entity on the American scene attention to our own mental, emotional, and physical to a well-recognized and respected force in Judaism. Jews and the Material in Antiquity workings as well as awareness of others within the This is the story of the renaissance of American complexities of learning interactions. Modern Orthodoxy, the story of invigoration and change.

The Frankel Institute’s 2017–2018 theme year will ask how Jews in the ancient world The Image of Jews in Prayer After the Death of God Contemporary China A Phenomenological Study of

related both to matter itself and to issues of materiality. How did ancient Jews sense, understand, Edited by JAMES ROSS & SONG LIHONG AVI SAGI and even construct material entities such as artifacts, bodies, environments, and so on? How did Series: Jewish Identities in Post-Modern Society Series: Emunot: and 2016 | 9781618114204 | 256 pp. | Cloth | $79.00 2016 | 9781618115034 | 300 pp. | Cloth | $89.00 those who were not Jewish perceive or represent the relationships between Jews and matter? This edited volume critically examines the image of The widespread view is that prayer is the center of Jews from the contemporary perspective of ordinary religious existence and that understanding the Finally, how has the history of Jews and matter been reconstructed in modern scholarship and Chinese citizens. It includes chapters on Chinese meaning of prayer requires that we assume God is its Jewish Studies programs, popular Chinese books and sole destination. This book challenges this assumption how might scholars approach the nexus of Jews and the material more productively? blogs about Jews, China’s relations with Israel, and and, through a phenomenological analysis of the innovative examinations of the ancient Jewish meaning of prayer in modern Hebrew literature, The challenge of addressing these questions necessitates a comparative perspective in community of Kaifeng. shows that prayer does not depend at all on the which Jewish experience is firmly situated within its various historical contexts. In recent years, addressee—humans are praying beings. scholars have come to emphasize the religious formations that existed within the wider cultural landscape of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. Jewish communities and lives The Impact of Culture and Cultures To Our Children: were inextricably intertwined with other social and religious formations in the urban landscapes Upon Jewish Customs and Rituals Memoirs of Displacement Collected Essays A Jewish Journey of Hope and Survival in and built environments of the ancient world. The focus on the material dimension of Jewish Twentieth-Century Poland and Beyond SIMCHA FISHBANE WŁODZIMIERZ SZER antiquity calls for an integrative approach to ancient Jewish studies and to a comparative and Series: Judaism and Jewish Life 2016 | 9781618114914 | 280 pp. | Cloth | $89.00 Series: Jews of Poland collaborative approach to antiquity more broadly.

2016 | 9781618114785 | 234 pp.; 20 illus. | Cloth | $69.00 This book discusses the development of practices associated with customs and artifacts used in Jewish This book takes the reader through Dr. Włodzimierz Applications are encouraged by scholars working on topics related to Jews and ceremonies when viewed from the vantage of Szer’s childhood in Yiddish prewar , anthropological studies. It can also function as a guide adolescence and imprisonment in wartime , to materiality in antiquity. Topics can include, but are not limited to, sacrificial discourse, to practical halakhah. The author examines topics the brutal reality of immediate postwar Poland, and such as Scrolls, ceremonial use of fire, the years of the socialist regime. The book provides a Jewish liturgy, Jewish spatial and architectural practices, the relationship between divinity and customs, the festival of , magic and historically and intellectually compelling analysis of the materiality or immateriality, sensory regimes, ritual artifacts, religious law related to property, superstition social and political situation in Poland and Soviet Russia from the early 1930s to 1967. performance of gender and the history of the Jewish body, and conceptions of matter and cosmogony. Applications from scholars of antiquity whose work is not strictly in Jewish studies Jewish City or Inferno ALSO FORTHCOMING: of Russian Israel? are particularly welcomed, including those working on relevant topics in early Christianity, A History of the Jews in Kiev before February 1917 The Unique Judicial Vision of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk VICTORIA KHITERER Selected Discourses in Meshekh Hokhmah and Or Sameah or religions in the Roman and Sasanian empires. The Frankel Institute also encourages joint

Series: Jews of Russia and and Their Legacy YITSHAK COHEN applications from pairs or teams of scholars working on collaborative projects. Applicants 2016 | 9781618114761 | 492 pp.; 33 illus.; 3 maps | Cloth | $89.00 Translated by MESHULAM GOTLIEB | Edited by HERBERT BASSER

This book illuminates the major processes and events Touro College Press should work broadly in the Mediterranean basin or western Asia from the Hellenistic to the in Kievan Jewish history from the tenth century to the 2016 | 9781618114891 | 196 pp. | Cloth | $79.00 February 1917 Revolution, including the creation of early Islamic eras. the Jewish community, the expulsions of Jews from A Red Rose in the Dark the city, government persecution and Jewish , Self-Constitution through the Poetic Language of Zelda, Amichai, Kosman, and Adaf

the Beilis Affair, the participation of Jews in the DORIT LEMBERGER | Translated by EDWARD LEVIN Applications Due October 7, 2016 political, economic, and cultural life of Kiev, and their Series: Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah contribution to the development of the city. 2016 | 9781618114938 | 430 pp. | Cloth | $120.00 For more information, or for application materials, email [email protected] or call 734.763.9047. Academic Studies Press Distributed by: www.academicstudiespress.com www.lsa.umich.edu/judaic

24 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 25 began an exploration into Jewish musical history and diversity, experimenting with the

repertory of the New York revivalists that had made its way to . While noting that a

lack of bands in created a significant opportunity to find steady sewing together a fragmented Jewish musical Alberto Mirchuk (vocalist), Gastón Mohadeb, work playing at celebrations and parties, the Orquesta Kef emerged in the early 2000s to perform immigration reform. Although the approval of The Trouble with Jewish Musical Genres: past in Argentina to create a contemporary and Rafael Surijón make up the “first the visa was merely a symbolic gesture at that a musical labor—that of sewing togethermusical a fragmented aesthetic relevant Jewish musicalto the band’s past Latinin Argentina generation” to create of Kef—the founding members point, the decision was accompanied by a full The Orquesta Kef in the Americas American publics. For Rafael and Gastón, who established the band’s now iconic, clarification and reconceptualization of the Lillian M. Wohl a contemporary musical aesthetic relevantthe rhythms, to the band’s songs, Latinand melodies American that publics. they For energetic,Rafael and up-tempo sound, embellished by definition of cultural uniqueness. Adjustments encountered also provided them with a brassy horns and woodwind solos, driven by to the law expanded the definition of cultural Gastón, the rhythms, songs, and melodiessense that of familial they encountered continuity—a also heritage provided them withbouncy a sense bass lines, and heavy on percussion. uniqueness such that it was “not limited to reimagined though music. As Rafael told Toward the end of our interview, I finally traditional art forms, but may include artistic of familial continuity—a heritage reimaginedme: “We takethough Jewish music. culture As Rafaeland music told as me: an “We askedtake Jewish Gastón about the band’s involvement as expression that is deemed to be a hybrid or expression of art. We put a strong emphasis on the catalyst for US immigration and cultural fusion of more than one culture or region” culture and music as an expression ofentertainment art. We put a strongin order emphasis to reach peopleon entertainment who policy in order reform. to What happened was this: In and “may apply to beneficiaries whose unique are not so close to or religion. 2009, at the invitation of Jordan Peimer, then artistic expression crosses regional, ethnic, reach people who are not so close to Jewish identity or religion. In that way, we try to provide In that way, we try to provide content from Director of Programming , at the Skirball or other boundaries.” According to Gastón, a place of enjoyment and entertainment, Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the Orquesta when the band first received the news of the content from a place of enjoyment and entertainment, yes, based on Jewish traditions, that yes, based on Jewish traditions, that respects Kef agreed to play at the 2010 Fiesta Hanukah original denial, the Skirball Cultural Center respects the things that are written in thethe thingsTorah .”that are written in the Torah.” Party. Thrilled to perform in the United States, canceled the tour immediately. Following The Orquesta Kef plays Jewish music the band organized a full North American the Wall Street Journal article, the band was The Orquesta Kef plays Jewishin musicBuenos in Aires, Buenos touring Aires, throughout touring throughout Latin Latintour, America lining up a variety of performance events, permitted to travel to the United States; America and performing regularly in their including an appearance during an NBA however, it was too late to reschedule the tour. meaningmeaning “joy” orhalftime “fun,” is show and gigs in and Central By endorsing so-called “hybrid” or ,,(כייף) and performing regularly in their hometownhometown.. The The word word “kef” kef “joy” or “fun,” is Hebrew slang borrowed from America. A few weeks before the concert, “fusion” forms of cultural expression, this Hebrew slang borrowed from ,Arabic, and the and moniker the moniker aptly summarizesaptly summarizes the band’s musicaland much to the dismay of the band and the ruling addressed the limitations of the implied the band’s musical project. Much of the music concert organizers, the P-3 nonimmigrant definition of culturally unique by replacing project. Much of the music that the Orquestathat the OrquestaKef performs Kef performs is “party is music,” “party a categoryartists and entertainers visas filed on behalf an emphasis from aesthetic categorization to music,” a category ethnomusicologist Evan of the band were denied. The Orquesta Kef personal and social embodiment. In the case of ethnomusicologist Evan Rapport usesRapport to refer uses to “light” to refer mus to “light”ic, which music, captures which cosmopoli was deemedtan and to fail to meet the evidentiary the Orquesta Kef, to argue that their music and captures cosmopolitan and multicultural standard of “culturally unique,” according to performance style “crosses regional, ethnic, multicultural attitudes while showcasing the range of skills of professional musicians. The attitudes while showcasing the range of section 101(a)(15)(P)(iii) of the Immigration or other boundaries” is to deny the musicians band’s repertory includes the 1980s rockskills ballad of professional-style of Mordechai musicians. BenThe band’sDavid (Mordechaiand Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(P) their ability to be Jewish Argentines—to repertory includes the 1980s rock-ballad (iii) (2006), because they performed a “hybrid ignore the ways in which these racial and Werdyger), the world famous Hassidicstyle singer of Mordechai, Israeli pop, Ben rock, David and (Mordechai liturgical music composersor fusion style of music” not considered to be ethnic categories are not exclusive, but rather, Werdyger), the world famous Hasidic singer, “culturally unique to one particular country, mutually constitutive and representative of like Uzi Chitman, klezmer revival rhythmsIsraeli andpop, melodies, rock, and liturgicaland also Yiddishmusic by folksongs nation,. However, society, class, ethnicity, religion, tribe the longer history of Jews in Latin America. composers like Uzi Chitman, klezmer revival or other group of persons.” The Orquesta In spite of the rapid movement and exchange they also rely on Latin American popularrhythms and andother melodies, American and popular also Yiddish musics such asKef’s , experience navigating the P-3 visa of music on the internet, the Orquesta Kef’s folksongs. However, they also rely on Latin application and adjudication procedures not experience being denied P-3 visas reminds American and other American popular only called into question the possibility for us that musicians themselves do not always musics such as funk, reggae, ska, cumbia, Jewish music to occupy a place in the Latin cross borders as easily, and that the ability Gastón Mohadeb, Rafael Surijón and Juan Sevlever perform with other members of the Orquesta Kef at the 5776/2015 Rosh Hashana Urbano festivities in and Argentine folkloric music to define their American cultural imaginary, and Latin for Jewish music to highlight Jewishness the Plaza República Oriental del Uruguay. Courtesy of SherBamate Productora. sound. The repertory that they perform is America in Jewish music, it also highlighted remains tied to Jewish embodiment. While the mainly in Spanish, Hebrew, and Yiddish. the problem2 of defining the standard of Orquesta Kef is perhaps unique in the world The Orquesta Kef is actually just one “culturally unique” in the United States. of Jewish Argentine musical performance, its he office of the Orquesta Kef is just a center and mutual aid society), a Hanukah Jewish wedding bands playing special events. band among many performing groups In a Wall Street Journal article appearing struggles to establish its “cultural uniqueness” small apartment, really, a few blocks party sponsored by Chabad Lubavitch, and After conversations with his Aunt Sarita, operated by the Sherbamate Productora— on December 11, 2009, journalist Miriam highlight the unresolved question of the Tnorth of the Estación Lacroze, the a , which I attended as a guest friends more connected to religious circles, the production company run by Gastón Jordan reported on the incident, spotlighting cultural intelligibility of circulations of busy train station linking Buenos Aires’s of the band. No stranger to journalists and other friends working as DJs, he realized and Rafael. In many cases, the musicians the Orquesta Kef’s experience with the P-3 Jewish sound and musicians across national suburban neighborhoods to the Ciudad after much success in the past few years that besides a few duos (namely Lerner and working for Sherbamate Productora perform visa application process, while criticizing the boundaries in the twenty-first century. Autónoma—Argentina’s autonomous capital (though perhaps still to ethnographers), Moguilevsky), no wedding bands played live with more than one of the Sherbamate adjudication procedures for nonimmigrant city. Framed press photos and covers Gastón handed me a packet of newspaper Jewish music. As such, he and a few friends— groups: the Orquesta Kef (a big band Jewish artists and entertainer applicants. With Lillian M. Wohl completed her PhD in decorate the walls of the offices where Rafael clippings and CDs to look at as we talked. the founding members of the Orquesta Kef— music ensemble), Der Faier (klezmer and this issue in the public spotlight, the US at the University of Chicago Surijón, the bassist and cofounder of the big That afternoon in March 2013, in the began an exploration into Jewish musical Yiddish folksong), Fiesta de Pueblos (folk Department of Homeland Security, the US in 2015. In 2013–2014, she was a Maurice and band Jewish Argentine musical ensemble, offices of the Orquesta Kef, Gastón told history and diversity, experimenting with the and popular from around the Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Marilyn Cohen Doctoral Dissertation Fellow with greets me; Gastón Mohadeb, the front man, me that the band was founded less as a klezmer repertory of the New York revivalists world), La Gipsy (Balkan and klezmer), the Administrative Appeals Office set a new the Foundation for Jewish Culture and in 2015 held percussionist, and other cofounder, is giving conceptual or academic project and more as that had made its way to Argentina. While and Goy Friendly (a musical stand-up precedent, eventually offering a surprising a Lapidus Summer Fellowship at the Center for me a tour of the space. I had met these two an opportunity to provide a musical service noting that a lack of Jewish wedding bands in comedy show), among others. The founding decision on May 15, 2012, more than two Jewish History. She currently teaches at Hebrew musicians on various occasions—at the Puro that was scarce in the Jewish community Buenos Aires created a significant opportunity members, Lionel Mohadeb (percussion), Ariel and a half years after the incident. In short, Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, NYC as Purim (Pure Purim) concert, a street of Buenos Aires in the late 1990s. While to find steady work playing at celebrations and Liberczuck (keyboards and ), they officially overturned the original visa a visiting assistant professor of Jewish Musicology. party sponsored by the Asociación Mutual performing in a series of high school rock and parties, the Orquesta Kef emerged in the early Iván Barenboim (clarinet and saxophone), denial, forever tying the musical legacy of Israelita Argentina (the AMIA, a community funk bands, Gastón realized that there were no 2000s to perform a musical labor—that of Cristián Martinelli (trumpet and trombone), the Orquesta Kef to US cultural policy and

26 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 27 egalitarian and communal sentiments of Singing a New Song the French Revolution, “Liberté, Egalité, Joshua Jacobson Fraternité,” and of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, made famous by Beethoven, “Alle Menschen werden Brüder.” These musical maskilim were Zamru ’ah . im zamru! An amateur musician by the name style, in the bright key of A major, in a joyous dedicated to the idea that music had the U-va-zimrah ne‘orer ‘am. of Hartenstein was appointed the choir’s tempo, with sharply chiseled rhythms and power to inspire people, to create a sense of Sing, brethren, sing! conductor, but after a few rehearsals it rising melodic lines. (To hear a recording, go community and to change their lives for Then with song we will rouse became apparent that someone with more to http://perspectives.ajsnet.org.) The lyrics by the better. the people. professional expertise would be needed. David Frischman reflected (as well as inspired) (David Frischman) It was at this point that the eighteen-year- an identity shift among the Jews of eastern The anthem continues, old Joseph Rumshinksy was engaged to Europe: Jewishness could be expressed more U-va-‘am ne‘orer libot, owards the end of my senior year become the first permanent conductor of comfortably as a nationality than as a religion. U-va-libot regesh ram. in college I received a phone call the chorus. Rumshinsky later recalled of Va-kam ha-‘am ve-ne’or Tfrom Stanley Sperber. Stanley had that first rehearsal in his autobiography, Zamru ’ah . im zamru! Ve-h . ayim be-h . ayim yamir. been my music counselor at Camp Yavneh “When we stood up and started to sing, a U-va-zimrah ne‘orer ‘am. Then we will awaken the in the early 1960s, and was responsible holy musical fire was kindled by the first Sing, brethren, sing! hearts of the nation for my transition from a guitar-playing Jewish choral ensemble in the world.” Then with song we will rouse the people. And in their hearts an exalted sentiment. folkie to a student of classical music and The _Lódóz choir known as Ha-zamir (or And the people will awaken an aspiring choral conductor. A few years Hazomir) became very successful, and soon The opening lines of the anthem reveal a and be enlightened, earlier Stanley had started a youth chorus inspired branches in other major cities of secularization of the well-known verse from And will exchange old life for new. in Manhattan, dedicated to the performance eastern Europe. In the nineteenth century Psalm 47. Image of . Courtesy of the author. of Israeli and Jewish music. Eventually choral singing had become more and more Here again Frischman is riffing off a biblical they gave their chorus a name: Zamir. popular throughout Europe. Enthusiastic Zamru le-’elohim zameru, base. The idea of wakening the Jewish Stanley was phoning to invite me to amateurs were creating and joining a type of Zamru le-malkenu zameru. nation from its slumber and seeing the start a Zamir Chorale in Boston. And so, with ensemble that had never existed before: the Sing to God, Sing! light is found several times in Isaiah. increased, Yiddish and Zionist choruses foremost Jewish choral ensemble.” And naïve enthusiasm and youthful determination, secular community chorus. Some of these Sing to our King, sing! began to appear all across the United States. the New York Zamir Foundation hosts a I accepted and dived right in. In October choruses were civic organizations, dedicated (Psalm 47:7) Ha-‘am ha-holekhim ba-h . oshekh Among them were the Boston Jewish Folk Jewish Choral Festival every summer that of 1969 some forty students gathered for to performances of the great oratorios. ra’u ’or gadol. Chorus (1924) directed by Misha Cefkin, attracts hundreds of singers from all across what would be the first of thousands of Some were connected to a workplace The song is no longer directed to God, the The people that walked in darkness the New Haven Jewish Folk Chorus, the the content, and has initiated a successful rehearsals of the Zamir Chorale of Boston. or to a professional union. Others, like Heavenly King. Now it is a call to social have seen a great light. (Isa. 9:1) Philadelphia Jewish Folk Chorus (1923) franchise of choruses for Jewish teenagers. Neither Stanley nor I was aware that Ha-zamir, were devoted to the expression action—it is song that will awaken the Jewish and the Detroit Jewish Folk Chorus (1924), On March 15, 1941, in the Nazi-enforced we were actually carrying on a choral of nationalist sentiments through music. people from its “dark ages” and into the The mystical sixteenth-century rabbi Shlomo both directed by Harvey Schreibman, the ghetto, the _Lódóz Ha-zamir gave what was tradition. We had assumed that we were Ha-zamir’s anthem was composed circa enlightenment. The appeal to “brothers” Alkabetz picked up on this idea in his Los Angeles Jewish Folk Chorus directed by probably their last concert. I often think of bold innovators, creating a new form of 1903 by the Warsaw Ha-zamir conductor, evokes the ideals of the European beautiful poem Lekha Dodi (itself inspired by Arthur Atkins, the American-Jewish Choral those men and women, of what the act of expression for our generation—Jewish Leo Low. The music is in a rousing patriotic Enlightenment, echoing the well-known Isaiah 60:1 and 51:9): Society of Los Angeles directed by Miriam singing under such circumstances meant cultural identification independent of Brada, the New York 92nd St. Y Choral for them. In 1999, to mark the centenary the Jewish establishment. But we were Kumi ’ori ki va’orekh Society (1917) directed by A. W. Binder, the of the founding of Zamir, I took my wrong. A few years later I discovered ‘Uri, ‘uri, shir daberi New York Workmen’s Circle Choir (1925) chorus on a tribute concert tour to _Lódóz, that we were not the first Zamirs. Arise, shine for your light as dawned! directed by Lazar Weiner, the New York where we were welcomed by the mayor. In 1899 a Polish attorney, N. Shapiro, Awake, awake, sing a song! Jewish Philharmonic Chorus directed by Go to http://youtu.be/IKItPkJVFq8 to see petitioned the governor of _Lódóz for Max Helfman, the Miami Jewish Folk Chorus a video of the Zamir Chorale of Boston permission to establish a Jewish choral But while Alkabetz was singing to the (1943) directed by Bernard Briskin, the Newark performing the Ha-zamir anthem in the organization. Anticipating the hostile God of Israel, Frischman’s sentiments were Jewish Folk Chorus (1928) directed by Samuel _Lódóz Town Hall and Hall of Culture. reaction with which government officials directed to the resuscitation of the Jews as a Goldman, and the San Francisco Jewish Folk greeted any gathering that smacked of modern nation. Chorus (1933) directed by Zari Gottfried. Audio and video examples are included political sedition, Shapiro asserted that his But by the middle of the twentieth in the online version of this article at organization would serve patriotic aims by Havu ’ah . im zamru. century, after the tapering of immigration http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. keeping the young people of _Lódóz away Heyey ve-ha-h . ayey, ha-zamir. and with the assimilation of Jews into the from the revolutionary and antigovernment Brothers, let us sing. cultural fabric of American life, one by one Joshua Jacobson is professor of Music and assemblies that were poisoning their minds. Viva Ha-Zamir, Give life! the Yiddish Folk Choruses began to die director of choral activities at Northeastern He ended his petition with the words, “Let out. So in the 1960s, even though we were University and senior consultant at Hebrew these young kids amuse themselves with The Ha-zamir movement even spread across proudly singing Leo Low’s Ha-zamir anthem, College’s School of Jewish Music. He is founder choral singing, then there will be none of that the Atlantic. In 1914 the first Jewish choirs Stanley and I and our singers were totally and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston. revolutionary foolishness on their minds.” in the United States were founded: the ignorant of the Ha-zamir phenomenon His publications include books, articles, Not only did the governor grant the petition, Chicago Jewish Folk Chorus, directed by that we were inadvertently reviving. compositions, and arrangements. Jacobson he instructed the police not to interfere with Jacob Schaefer, and the Paterson (New Jersey) Today the Zamir movement continues holds degrees from Harvard College, New the choir’s rehearsals or to interrupt them Jewish Folk Chorus, directed by Jacob Beimel. to flourish. The American Record Guide England Conservatory, and University in any way from their “patriotic” work. Image of Zamir Chorale in _Lódóz ghetto, 1941. Courtesy of the author. As immigration of Jews from eastern Europe dubbed the Boston branch, “America’s of Cincinnati.

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Rebecca Winer, Villanova University Ronit Irshai, Bar-Ilan University Robin Judd, The Ohio State University Rivkah Lubitch, Center for Women’s Justice Laura Leibman, Reed College Ayelet Libson, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Rachel Gordan, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, SIR, Fall 2015 Pnina Abir-Am, WSRC, Brandeis University Melissa Klapper, Rowan University Diana Groó, University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest Geraldine Gudefin, Brandeis University Rona Yefman, Columbia University Benjamin Steiner, Brandeis University Ellen Cassedy, Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellowship Sonia Gollance, University of Pennsylvania Linda Zisquit, Bar-Ilan University Lilach Rosenberg, Bar-Ilan University Sarah Swartz, Independent This new multimedia eBook delves into the Matan Boord, Joy Ladin, Yeshiva University Golan Moskowitz, Brandeis University Helène Aylon, Independent lives of fi fteen young writers, featuring: Rachel Bernstein, Brandeis University Katka Reszke, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, SIR, Fall 2015 • Original diary pages • Survivor video testimonies Shana Strauch Schick, University • Family photographs • Glossary terms

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30 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 31

AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RESEARCH

Congratulations AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RESEARCH Special Initiatives Grant Recipients Congratulations The American Academy for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the winners of its Special Initiatives Grant. Graduate Student Summer Funding Recipients AAJR provides grants for no more than $5,000 to faculty at North American universities to, 1) encourage projects of academic collaboration between Jewish studies programs and colleagues between two or more institutions, Or, 2) enable The American Academy for Jewish Research is pleased to announce the scholarly endeavors that would not otherwise receive funding. winners of its grant for graduate student summer research funding.

Isaac Bleaman, New York University; Ayala Fader, Fordham University AAJR provides stipends for no more than $4,000 to graduate students New York Working Group on Jewish Orthodoxies in any field of Jewish Studies at a North American university who have submitted their prospectus and have a need to travel to collections to Federica Francesconi, College of Idaho; Rena Lauer, Oregon State University conduct research. Jews, Gender, and the Premodern Mediterranean: Building a Pacific Northwest Network

Jesse Abelman, Yeshiva University Rebecca Kobrin, Columbia University Voices of the Russian- in Germany Violence among Jews in Christian Europe during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Erica Lehrer, Concordia University Curating Polish- in a Kraków's Ethnographic Museum Ofira Fuchs, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign Reforming the State: Orthodoxy and Change in Jewish Religious Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California Activism in Israel California Working Group on Jews in the Maghrib and the Middle East (Cal JeMM)

Anya Quilitzsch, Indiana University; Marc Smith, Purdue University Devora Geller, Graduate Center of CUNY Jewish Studies Graduate Student Workshops Joseph Rumshinsky’s Mamele: A Reconstruction and Analysis

Alex Ramos, University of Pennsylvania; Jillian Stinchcomb, University of Pennsylvania; Annette Yoshiko Reed, Stefanie Halpern, Jewish Theological Seminary University of Pennsylvania Crossing Over from the Yiddish Rialto to the American Stage Ancient Judaism Regional Seminar

Ira Robinson, Concordia University Mia Laufer, Washington University in Saint Louis Jews and the Urban Experience Le Goût Sémite: Art Collecting, Identity, and Antisemitism in Early Third Republic Paris, 1870-1914 Krista Dalton, Columbia University; Simcha Gross, Yale University; Nathan Schumer, Columbia University The Ancient Jew Review Chaim Elly Moseson, Boston University

From Spoken Word to the Discourse of the Academy: Reading the Francesca Bregoli, CUNY- College; Elisheva Carlebach, Columbia University; Debra Glasberg, Columbia University; Joshua Teplitsky, SUNY-Stony Brook; Magda Teter, Fordham University Sources for the Teachings of the Besht Early Modern Workshop Chris Silver, University of California, Los Angeles Giddon Ticotsky, Stanford University Of Harmony and Discord: Jews and North African Music in the Hebrew Literature Colloquium Twentieth Century

Joshua Furman, Rice University; Claire Katz, Texas A & M University; Chad Spigel, Trinity University; Melissa Weininger, Rice University Aaron Welt, New York University South Texas Jewish Studies Faculty Consortium The Shtarkers of Progressive Era New York; Labor, Crime and Capitalism in an Age of Mass Migration; 1900 – 1930 Tzvi Novick, University of Notre Dame; Jordan Rosenblum, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Devorah Schoenfeld, Loyola University-Chicago; Abraham Winitzer, University of Notre Dame; Rebecca Scharbach The American Academy for Jewish Research (www.aajr.org) is the Wollenberg, University of Michigan oldest professional organization of Judaica scholars in North America. Beyond the Book: Thinking Biblically Without the Bible Its membership represents the most senior figures in the field.

The American Academy for Jewish Research (www.aajr.org) is the oldest professional organization of Judaica scholars in North America. Its membership represents the most senior figures in the field.

32 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 33 a postcolonial lens), it is important that developed the chapter on modern Israel in two works aside, we are left with his syntactic “Sounds of a Nation” we recall how Gradenwitz characterized the 1949 book. The sonata could have been innovations and the way they commented Tal’s music in 1949—presemantic absolute perfect for a methodology focused on the on the constructs of Israeli culture. When Josef (Tal) Laughed; Notes on Musical music indistinguishable from its syntax, “representational” while endowing it with And so sometime in late 1949, or and self-referential compositional aesthetics a national function, yet the musical syntax perhaps the early 1950s, when Tal read (Mis)representations incapable of absorbing even a “little influence must have rung too unusual for the rather what Gradenwitz had written about him of Palestinian or General Oriental character.” conservative way in which folksongs or non- he laughed hard. By that time he had added Assaf Shelleg Put differently, Tal’s music lacked the ability Western liturgical citations featured in Israeli to his list of compositions not only the to “represent” and as such could not audibly art music. This generalization was all the previously mentioned Sonata but ometime in late 1949 Peter was therefore set; immediate project ideas pertaining to the nation. No more true, since Tal’s atonality did manage also a miniature for cello and harp titled Emanuel Gradenwitz, a German symbolism communicated wonder that Gradenwitz focused on two to harmonically recontextualize the quoted . This was the most unusual hora SJewish musicologist who had through exotic devices managed works Tal had penned in the 1940s that he song while alienating some of the semantics ever penned in the country that had just been living in Tel Aviv since 1936, to create national portrayals could present within the context of the Zionist composers had perceived back then as celebrated its independence. Set in triple published an ambitious study titled while modernist formulations allegory: the choreographic poem “Exodus” “Mediterranean.” Paradoxically, both Tal and rather than a double meter, the hora was The . Covering 5,000 years using atonal clusters seemingly (1946/47), whose topos of deliverance was an Gradenwitz had known that such signifiers forced to limp and resist the complementing of music from biblical times to the failed to do so. Tonal music, allegory to the modern homecoming to the were mere constructs; for the latter, however, choreographed gestures; and it was atonal newly born State of Israel, Gradenwitz of course, does not have to be , and the symphonic cantata narrative rerouting was too complicated as rather than tonal, and thereby avoided the was probably the first musicologist to considered under the purview of The Mother Rejoices (1948–9; http://youtu it could violate the formerly constructed musical syntax that activated this folkdance. construct a redemptive and teleological nationalism to prove that features .be/ydPF5SdX0yM), which was based on redemptive story of The Music of Israel. Tongue in cheek, no doubt, yet as if this were narrative that climaxed with the music such as limited macroharmony the story from 2 Maccabees 7 (popularized Scholars of later decades who adopted not enough, Tal had left a short comment of the Third Jewish Commonwealth: (the relatively small collection of in later version as the story of Hannah and this framework either credited Tal’s works for in his own copy of Gradenwitz’s book: left “After almost two thousand years of notes heard over moderate spans her seven sons) that Gradenwitz conveyed “nationalist” qualities they found in works of the paragraph he wrote, “Ha Ha Ha . . .” dispersion,” he wrote, “the Jews have of musical time) and acoustic as the realization of the exalted spirit of the such as The Mother Rejoices or the Piano Sonata We cannot afford to ignore what Tal begun to create a new national and consonances produce powerful bereaved mother and her martyr sons. or pigeonholed him as a “modernist” or “avant- sensed in 1949. The paraphernalia around Josef Tal (center) with the Palestine Conservatoire of Music and cultural center on the very same spot psychological consequences. Both compositions offered a redemptive gardist” (and this usually meant very little in which the discourse on national Hebrew or Dramatic Art Orchestra, Jerusalem, 1939. that once saw their most splendid Gradenwitz’s annals, however, narrative. “Exodus” moved from slavery in a discourse clinging still to a metaphorical Israeli music had revolved cannot suffice achievements in national life, science, and art. set the tone, as it were, for disciplined to the jubilant chanting of the Song register). Under the radar, however, far more with exoticism and the asymmetries it They have brought Occidental civilization to representational paradigms rather than of the Sea. The Mother Rejoices progressed important developments would take place. accommodates. In our discussions we should their Oriental brethren.” Colonialist language the nondifferential proliferation of from the execution of the children to their By the 1950s Tal was part of a cohort of listen to the way a Persian Jewish dirge is of this sort was inseparable from a narrative compositional approaches. While glossing angelic recitation of Psalm 92:2–3 (“It is good composers who had grown disillusioned with rearticulated in his Second Piano Concerto that duplicated both the literalist way in over those who had been willingly trying to acclaim the Lord and to hymn to Your Western musical metaphors of the East and (1953; http://youtu.be/zXcqIGaP0bQ), how which the Bible had been read in Zionist to transcend Orientalist formulae he also Name, Most High; To tell in the morning Your turned towards the melodic and harmonic the textures of a congregational prayer culture (stripped of hermeneutical layers of passed down a taxonomy that would stiffen kindness, Your faithfulness in the nights”), properties they found in the oral musical animates Mark Kopytman’s piano quartet lore and law that have swathed the traditional into generational groupings based mainly after which a full-cast apotheosic “Hallelujah” traditions of North African and Middle Eastern About an Old Tune (1977; http://youtu.be text) and the redemptive trajectory that ran on chronological criteria and devoid of the followed. These examples indicate that Tal Jews living in Israel. Allowing these properties /YiPS7T1V2zI), or how Seter parallel to Zionist rhetoric on the move from elasticity needed to map what had been (and had never been deaf to such topoi in Zionist to percolate into their musical syntaxes, absorbed transcriptions of Babylonian, destruction to exile to political independence. still is) a musical habitat that refuses policing. discourse; but Gradenwitz focused on textual composers were no longer attempting to write Samaritan, and Bukharan Jewish music to Such a narrative rendered modern Jewish art The repercussions of such methodology elements with which he could narrate music that sounded exotic, Semitic, or Jewish. write his Motets (1940–1951; http://youtu. Josef Tal, Jerusalem, February 25, 2003. Photo music a precursor of Hebrew culture unable credit: Etan Tal. would soon color subsequent research in the Tal’s music and he was thereby limited to Rather than correct musical imports according be/TsFtRPfkR68). All of these examples to fully develop given the lack of national field, which for the most part developed by metaphors in commenting on his musical to Western paradigms, they activated their and dozens of others display formulations territory. Indeed, while the Swiss German to his neighbors.” His yardstick for measuring force of inertia without resisting the larger style. With metaphors Gradenwitz could do music according to the melodic behavior and that step beyond the audibly visible modes composer Ernest Bloch was hailed as one of such success was the ability to ring the bells inherited frameworks, and in turn migrated very little and so he ignored seminal works musical textures of Arab Jewish oral musical of “representation”; they point to a place the most important creators of a “Hebraic and whistles of the Zionist project: citations to Israel Studies classes (whenever such by Tal dating from the late 1930s and early traditions practiced in Israel—free of the where nationalist constructs collapse, idiom,” a “happy and sublime expression” was of folksongs, of non-Western liturgical music, instances include music that is neither folk 1940s, works that not only demonstrated stipulations of Hebrew culture. Members where Jewishness and modernism do not unreachable without a land Bloch could call and other projections of exotic paraphernalia nor popular). Music composed in the Yishuv Tal’s atonality but also showed how he used of this cohort no longer attempted to write stand as separate evolutionary stages, and his own. The redemptive and the teleological that communicated the “return to Zion” and/ and the State of Israel was reduced in these this syntax to destabilize musical constructs in a style that communicated the national, where a dense network features similar were wholly entwined with the territorial. or the “gathering of exiles.” Omitted from this discourses to exotic markers that could be that had been perceived as national (and but rather sought a common syntactic space hybridizations in other sister arts. Would Within his survey of compositional prescription were those whose musical syntax easily deciphered as Zionist, Hebrew, Israeli, hence desirable). Tal’s oeuvre (until 1949) in which modernist practices and non- you further complicate your syllabi by attitudes of fellow émigrés who similarly was too modernist and hence too dissonant or Jewish by outsiders (and usually with showed that he learned the kibbutz repertoire Western Jewish musics could interact with including some of these formations? facilitated the institutionalization of art music to immediately transmit such tropes. no discussion on the archeology of these (through the composer Yehudah Sharett, a minimum of Western asymmetries. As a in Palestine/Israel, Gradenwitz disclosed Subsequently, if the music of the German- labels). And so a Yemenite wedding dance whose compositions he edited). He even set result, music that imbibed from these musical Video examples are included in the online version a predilection for those who were at once born Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim tended tune “corrected” to match the Western three poems by Rachel Bluwstein for four- traditions consumed the liturgical source of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. aesthetically conservative but nevertheless towards the bucolic and the rustic, absorbing musical infrastructure that modernized it, part women’s choir in 1936, despite the fact and thereby ceased to objectify it in the name successful in “sounding” the nation. (in Gradenwitz’s words) the “influence of the or a hora dance in a symphonic garb would that his Hebrew was fairly broken. And then of the nation. Gone were most redemptive Assaf Shelleg is the author of Jewish Contiguities Gradenwitz expected the immigrant composer rural, pastoral atmosphere of the countryside,” become more efficient for the performance there was the Piano Sonata (1949; http:// narratives alongside easily deciphered and the Soundtrack of Israeli History (Oxford to build “the idea of Palestinian music . . . out the works of Israeli composer Josef Tal of nativeness than the hybrids that evade youtu.be/_WPP75GiuZQ) in which Tal both exoticist projections. Soon Tal would realize University Press, 2014). He is the 2015 Engel Prize of a background of knowledge of centuries (then Grünthal) were portrayed as “absolute such distinct music signifiers. While a lot cited and defamiliarized a song by Yehuda how uncharacteristic the redemptive recipient and was recently appointed to the of European music,” while conquering “the music” with “little influence of Palestinian or could be said about the making of such Sharett. Gradenwitz ignored that piece in an trajectory that animated both “Exodus” and faculty of the Musicology Department at the spirit of the language in which he will speak General Oriental character.” An opposition music (and especially if looked at through ensuing publication from 1952 in which he The Mother Rejoices had been. Leaving these Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

34 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 35 own culture. This alone, however, does not of Iranian-Jewish heritage, “Ha-tikvah” Ashkenazic poetic Hebrew. The bird comes From “Ha-tikvah” to KISS; or, The Sounds account for the number of times that, after preserves an older nationalist aspiration. from Palestine and the poet questions her hearing the subject of my research, my Israeli Precisely by entertaining both the Ashkenazic throughout, asking after the inhabitants of a Jewish Nation interlocutors responded in verse. To be precise, past and, in its consonants, the Israeli of Zion, and she never says a word. Miryam Segal they quoted an early poem by the national present, the sounds of “Ha-tikvah” echo a But what would the bird sound like if poet H. ayim Nah . man Bialik, “To the Bird”: romantic story of Ashkenazic nationalist she did respond to the speaker’s questions? longing inscribed in the anthem’s lyrics: In the retrospect of Bialik’s visit to n December 2001, on a visit home to the Sholom rov shuvekh, Tsiporoh neh . me des, Palestine in 1907, and his realization that United States, and having been deprived me-’ar z. os ha-h . om ’el h . a loni— U-l-fa’atei . kadimah his own Hebrew pronunciation might be Iof easy access to American radio for ’el kolekh ki ‘orev mah nafshi kholosoh, ‘ le-z . iyon z. ofiyah extinct within a few years, one is tempted over a year while living in Israel, I took ba-h . o ref bi-‘ozvekh me‘oni. And onwards, to the eastern corners to chide the poet: if only he had let her have advantage of the break from my research Welcome upon your return, lovely bird, An eye looks towards Zion (lines 3–4) her say, he might have learned a thing or on Hebrew and Israeli culture to catch From the hot lands to my window— two about the new pronunciation. Even as up on all things American. I tuned in to a How my soul has yearned for Many have understandably criticized its Bialik’s Hebrew was replaced by a pseudo- local New York satellite of National Public your voice so sweet, In the winter exclusion of . The story and sounds Sephardic dialect, his poetry retained pride Radio to find no less a popular cultural when you leave my dwelling. of “Ha-tikvah,” however, also exclude the of place in the national poetic canon. The icon than the former lead singer of KISS Jews of the Middle East who would have bird-muse had in the meantime opened her correcting the interviewer’s Hebrew: In short, they responded with the only work turned west to face Zion—and pronounced mouth, becoming the new citizen of the whose Askenazic Hebrew is consistently the hope ha-tikvah, not ha-tikvah. Hebrew-speaking nation, subjected to the : Oh, thank you so much preserved in the literature curriculum of Although Ashkenazic is more commonly babble of a hopelessly exilic Jew. What upon [for the introduction] and since this Israeli schools. By mentioning the transition heard among of Ashkenazic publication expressed the nationalism of Jews is National Public Radio and it prides to new-accent Hebrew I made speakers recall descent than among , communities of Russia and eastern Europe, of their longing itself on accurate information—most an artifact of an older Modern Hebrew— identifying as “liberal” or “Zionist” or for the land of their forefathers, now marks of it sounded good—I stand guilty one of a very few reminders that Hebrew “Modern Orthodox” most often adopt an the difference of the Diaspora even more, as charged and proud to say that I’m speech in the Land of Israel in modern times Israeli accent as an expression of their offering an impression of the exilic Jew from a mama’s boy. However, point one was ever ruled by different protocols for religious-ethnic-political identity, peppered the bird’s-eye view of the nation. The bird

is you mispronounced my Hebrew pronunciation than it is today. To be more with American intonations. When Imber visits the speaker on her annual migration name. It’s not H. ayim, which is the precise, my Israeli interlocutors offered a composed “Our Hope” in 1878, and Bialik from Palestine and stays for the duration of sort of sniveling please-don’t-beat- partial rendering of an Ashkenazic Hebrew. composed “To the Bird” in 1891, however, the poem, just long enough to spur a new me-up Ashkenazi European way . . . Not inappropriately for accentual-syllabic the traditional Ashkenazic dialects were cycle of longing for the bird’s return and for Leonard Lopate: Which is Gene Simmons performing at Azkena Rock Festival, 2010. Photo credit: Alberto Cabello, via Flickr Commons. poetry, they preserved the rhythm of the still predominant among Ashkenazic Jews the Land of Israel itself. Her silence represents what I grew up in . . . penultimate stress—if also somewhat in Europe and Palestine and the United the poet’s distance from the homeland and his Gene Simmons: Which is—hey, imperfectly as the speaker’s habitual dialect States. Ben-Yehuda’s and others’ attempts unfulfilled nationalist desire; it memorializes that’s why you get beaten up. I don’t. words or public statements in favor of the associated with Yiddish and the memory fought this overriding of the rules of Israeli to adopt and teach a Sephardicized Hebrew the desire for a Zion that is always just out of The sefaradit way is the correct Sephardic stress system. Simmons, a.k.a. of Jewish eastern Europe; the penultimate Hebrew (Neh . ama maintains a penultimate in Palestine were just beginning. reach. The national anthem’s sound likewise way. It’s H. ayim, emphasis on the Chaim Witz, waged one of the longest-lasting stress is sometimes used even for names stress pattern consistently—while vowels Thanks to Bialik’s and Shaul puts Israel’s citizens in Bialik’s proverbial second vowel, like the Israelis do. teenage rebellions in American history, usually pronounced with a terminal stress.) and consonants conform to standard Tchernichovsky’s prosodic innovations, by shoes, marking the distance from—and and made a career of rejecting the attitudes As with all , Simmons’s Israeli [http://youtu.be/RtQGufxepjg]). the end of the twentieth century there were thereby the longing for—the homeland. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a major figure in the his short-lived education in a objection to H. ayim is a sign of the status and A compromised rendering of Ashkenazic Hebrew poems with the accentual-syllabic language revival movement, and one of the yeshiva would have tried to instill in him. associations of a particular mode of speech. Hebrew can also be heard in the recitation sounds of European poetry (English, German, Video examples are included in the online version early Ashkenazic promoters of the “sefaradit The rejection of what Leonard Lopate “grew Simmons was born in Haifa a year after the of a poem far more well known the world Russian, Yiddish) in which the regular of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. way.” To further his revivalist goals, he taught up in” jibes with an Israeli sense of a new founding of the State of Israel. He immigrated over than anything Bialik ever wrote, recurrence of stressed syllables generates Hebrew in Jewish schools in Palestine and Jewishness, one with which Simmons seems with his mother to the United States when he composed by a poet far less celebrated. rhythm. Unfortunately for Bialik, the stress Miryam Segal is associate professor and chair supported the inculcation of a so-called to identify. In matters of Hebrew diction was eight years old. Despite his ignorance of With each performance of the national system in which he spoke and wrote was of the Department of Classical, Middle Eastern, Sephardic accent. His magnum opus was a Simmons would have made Ben-Yehuda “the way Israelis do” and do not pronounce anthem—“Ha-tikvah” (The hope), based on not the one that would become the standard and Asian Languages and Cultures at Queens comprehensive Hebrew dictionary, and he is proud, for his passion if not his expertise. his name, he is in tune with a cultural ’s “Our Hope”—Israelis for spoken Hebrew. In 1892, Bialik’s poetic College and is on the Middle Eastern Studies known for having fashioned new words out of As it happens, Lopate did pronounce phenomenon that preceded the founding utilize an Ashkenazic, penultimate stress persona could sing to the bird melodiously faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center. ancient roots to name phenomena of modern Simmons’s name as an Israeli would. In of the state and was continually reinforced system with an admixture of terminal stress in an Ashkenazic Hebrew from the pages life, and for his practice of sending his young Hebrew, the word h. ayim means “life,” and with the institutionalization of Hebrew as the at the ends of lines. The State of Israel’s of The Orchard. By 1894 Bialik regretted son outside to declaim these neologisms and when used as a common noun is pronounced official language of the Jewish settlement in official anthem is distinct among national the “distorted” Hebrew in which he would their definitions. It is hard to imagine a less with the stress on the final syllable. Names, Palestine and of the State of Israel. The accent anthems: it was neither composed nor is it nevertheless continue to compose. He likely heir to Ben-Yehuda, mythical “Father however, are an exception to the rule— system he invokes is indeed associated with recited in the standard national language. expressed this sentiment again thirteen years of Modern Hebrew,” than the lead singer even the Israelis do not say them “like the a masculine, nationalist Jewish persona— Whether sung by Al Jolson (http:// later while in Palestine. He had heard the of KISS. Yet Simmons spends the opening Israelis do.” They invariably pronounce the especially when contrasted with what from youtu.be/tqB8kZjxOCI), Barbara Streisand future of Hebrew and it was not his. When moments of his interview rehearsing what name with the stress on the penultimate an Israeli perspective is an outdated Hebrew. (http://youtu.be/aLB_mtoEZWY?list=RDaLB_ children read his poetry, they might even are by now clichés of Modern Hebrew—a syllable, in this case the first, as . H ayim, A commonplace among Americans mtoEZWY), the Israeli pop singer of wonder at Bialik’s reputation: where was diatribe that reached more listeners in a what he calls the “please-don’t-beat-me-up who take an interest in Hebrew culture is Moroccan-Jewish descent, Maya Bouskilla the beauty, the rhythm? It is perhaps this few moments than a year’s worth of Ben- Ashkenazi European way.” (For Israelis, that poetry occupies a more central place (http://youtu.be/1AZDp84q5Mc), or Rita additional context that makes sense of his Yehuda’s public pronouncements of new this pronunciation is a gesture of intimacy in the Israeli consciousness than in our (http://youtu.be/U9h63FTppwo), a singer poem’s current position as the paradigm of

36 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 37

occur, there is license to demote the middle stress, to gain regularity. In reading poetry,

however, the majority of leading British actors don’t take advantage of this license to secure

regular rhythm in, for instance the iambic meter. Instead, they have recourse to grouping and

over-articulation to save mental processing space, so as to make it possible to perceive

concurrently the vocalized linguistic pattern and the suppressed versification pattern merely

reverberating in short-term memory. Thus we can see how one actor, with one voice, can

convey three concurring patterns: he vocalizes the linguistic pattern; in his performance he occur, there is license to demote the middle stress, to gain regularity. In reading poetry, has recourse to grouping and over-articulation, so as to save mental processing space, however, the majority of leading British actors don’t take advantage of this license to secure enabling the perception of the versification pattern merely reverberating in short-term regular rhythm in, for instance the iambic meter. Instead, they have recourse to grouping and memory. I strongly suspectrhythmical that Yossi but Banay rhetorical over purposes.-articulates This, the words “zɛ“z ”lo and tov” “lo” not there for is no measurable pause. proportional timing, which would apply to An Issue in Hebrew Poetic Rhythm: A Cognitive- over-articulation to save mental processinghowever, space, so does as to not make detract it possible from the to rhythmicperceive The sense of discontinuity is generated by a only one of them, if at all. What is more, a rhythmical but rhetoricaleffect purposes. of these This, vocal however, manipulations. does not detract fromlong-falling the rhythmic intonation effect contour on l. It would pause before a stop midword is perceived as Structuralist Approach concurrently the vocalized linguistic pattern andAs the I marked suppressed the meter versification of this verse pattern line merely appear, then, that in indicating discontinuity the overarticulation of the stop rather than Reuven Tsur of these vocal manipulations.on the paper, it is the iambic tetrameter. there is a trade-off between two acoustic cues: a period of silence; here, since it occurs in reverberating in short-term memory. Thus Everywe can even see metricalhow one position actor, with is stressed, one voice, can a pause and a long-falling intonation contour. mid-phrase, between two monosyllables, it As I marked the meter of this verse line on the paper, it is the iambic tetrameter. Every every odd position unstressed, and there are The fact that this intonation contour is on l is perceived as a period of silence as well. his article applies in a nutshell my is some immediately observable, measurable pattern. The two patternsconvey were three assigned concurring patterns: he vocalizes the linguistic pattern; in his performance he even metrical position iseight stressed, positions every all odd in all. position On this unstressed, level, then, and thereand are not eight before positions it suggests that, in spite of all, I believe that equal or proportional research on English poetic rhythm time periods that recur. According to the independently of each other. Thus, they there is regular periodicity. As performed has recourse to grouping and over-articulation, so as to save mental processing space, the two words are tightly grouped together. time periods are, at best, properties of casual Tto one line from Modern Hebrew structuralist-cognitive approach proposed show up where the stressed and unstressedall in all. On this level, bythen, Yossi there Banay, is regular the seventh periodicity. (weak) As position, performed by YossiIt is Banay, widely theaccepted today that the performances, for which it is difficult to syllables coincide with strong and weak poetry. It is widely recognized that all rhythm here, it is an abstract pattern of weak enabling the perception of the versificationhowever, pattern merely is occupied reverberating by a stressed in short syllable.-term human cognitive system has limited channel find an example. I, at least, haven’t yet is based on some repetition or periodicity. and strong positions, not immediately positions, respectively, and where they seventh (weak) position,Three however, features is occupied are conspicuous by a stressed in this syllable. Threecapacity, features which are cannot be extended by encountered one. According to the definition of the iambic observable, that alternate regularly. As deviate. In English andmemory. Hebrew linguisticI strongly suspect that Yossi Banayperformance. over-articulates The three the words words “zɛ“z lo tov”tov” not for training, only by recoding the processed pentameter, for instance, a verse line should to the assumption of recurring equal or prosody, when three consecutive equally conspicuous in this performance.are equally The stressed, three theywords are “zɛ perceived lo tov” asare equallystuff stressed, in a more they parsimoniousare way. Grouping An audio example is included in the online version consist of feet containing an unstressed and proportional time periods, it has been time stressed syllables occur,rhythmical there is license but rhetorical to purposes. This, however,one phrase, does but not are detract perceived from as the sharply rhythmic effectand discontinuity (overarticulation) are of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. a stressed syllable, and five of them should and again refuted by electronic equipment demote the middle stress in order to gain perceived as one phrase,separated but are perceived from one another:as sharply their separated boundaries from onesuch another: recoding their devices. They save mental recur in a verse line (that is, ten syllables). since the early twentieth century. Despite regularity. In reading poetry,of these however, vocal manipulations. the appear to be overarticulated by longish processing space needed for hearing the Reuven Tsur is professor emeritus of Hebrew boundaries appear to be over-articulated by longish pauses. For the equal timers this is However, in the first 165 lines of Paradise accumulating evidence to the contrary, belief majority of leading British actors don’t take pauses. For the equal timers this is evidence vocalized linguistic stuff, and perceive, at Literature and Literary Theory at Tel Aviv Lost there are no more than two such lines. in equal timing persists. The purpose of this advantage of this license toAs secure I marked regular the meter of this verse line on the paper, it is the iambic tetrameter. Every evidence that there is regularthat there alteration is regular between alteration overstressed between linguistic stuffthe sameand period time, thes of acoustically suspended University. According to Literary Theory: Nevertheless, Milton is considered one of articleoccur, is to there produce is license evidence to demote to support the middle stress,rhythm to gain in, for regularity. instance, In the reading iambic poetry, meter. even metrical position is stressed, every oddoverstressed position unstressed, linguistic stuffand thereand periods are eight positionsversification pattern reverberating for An Oxford Guide, he is one of the founding the most musical poets in English. Much the structuralist-cognitive approach. Instead, they have recourse to grouping however, the majority of leading British actors don’t take advantage of this license to secure of silence, reinforcing the iambic (but not a short time in short-term memory fathers of the cognitive approach to literature. He metric research is devoted to the question of Let us consider at some length the and overarticulation toall save in all.mental On this level, then, there is regularthe periodicity. tetrameter) As pattern. performed When, by however, Yossi Banay, the (what Chatman calls “metrical set”). applied his theory to rhyme, sound symbolism, what rules govern poetic rhythm in English. followingregular verserhythm line in, by for Nathan instance Alterman: the iambic meter.processing Instead, space,they have so as recourse to make to it groupingpossible and we have a look at the output of the speech The foregoing example suggests, then, poetic rhythm, metaphor, genre, period style, During the past decades I have propounded to perceive concurrentlyseventh the vocalized (weak) position, however, is occupiedprocessor, by a stressed we have syllable. a small surprise Three features in store. are that what is important here is the articulating poetry, and altered states of consciousness. yet another theory of English poetic rhythm. over-articulation to save mental processing space,linguistic so as topattern make andit possible the suppressed to perceive The word “tov” is separated from “lo” (discontinuity) effect of the two acoustic I have adopted from René Wellek and Austin versification pattern conspicuousmerely reverberating in this performance. The threeby words a considerable “zɛ lo tov” pause. are equally However, stressed, between they are cues rather than the possibility of equal or Warren a structuralist conception, according concurrently the vocalized linguistic pattern andin theshort-term suppressed memory. versification Thus we pattern can see merely to which one may account for poetic rhythm how one actor, with oneperceived voice, can as conveyone phrase, but are perceived as sharply separated from one another: their by three concurrent patterns: an abstract reverberating in short-term memory. Thus we canthree see concurring how one actor,patterns: with he one vocalizes voice, canthe boundaries appear to be over-articulated by longish pauses. For the equal timers this is versification pattern, a linguistic pattern, and I thought: — This [is] not good linguistic pattern; in his performance he has convey three concurring patterns: he vocalizes the linguistic pattern; in his performance he a pattern of performance. The sixty-thousand- recourse to grouping and overarticulation, evidence that there is regular alteration between overstressed linguistic stuff and periods of dollar question is, how can one convey with Above the Hebrew original and the phonetic so as to save mental processing space, has recourse to grouping and over-articulation, so as to save mental processing space, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON one voice three concurrent patterns? transcription small strokes mark linguistically enabling the perception of the versification MOSSE/WEINSTEIN CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES Linguistic patterns deviate (in baroque stressedenabling syllables. the perception Under the of text, the theversification regularly patternpattern merely merely reverberating reverberating in short in short-term-term and romantic poets more, in classicist poets alternating /w/ and /s/ letters mark weak memory. I strongly suspect that Yossi Banay The Mosse/Weinstein Center for less) from the regular versification pattern, andmemory. strong positions I strongly of suspectthe versification that Yossi Banay overoverarticulates-articulates the wordswords “zɛ“z lo tov” notnot forfor Jewish Studies offers students and but at certain crucial points they have Committed to an interdisciplinary, comparative, scholars a vibrant, interdisciplinary coinciding downbeats. When regularity rhythmical but rhetorical purposes. This, however, does not detract from the rhythmic effect approach to the study of Jewish and theoretical approach to Jewish Studies civilization and a thriving intellectual is suspended in the linguistic dimension, the regular alternation in the versification of these vocal manipulations. • 35 Faculty Members • and cultural community at one of the pattern may reverberate for a very short best public universities in the world. As I marked the meter of this verse line on the paper, it is the iambic tetrameter. Every • Over 60 Courses • time in short-term memory. Aoccur, rhythmical there is license to demote the middle stress, to gain regularity. In reading poetry, • 25 exceptional faculty specializing performance is one that accommodates • Ph.D. Certificates in Jewish Culture and Society & Holocaust, however, the majority ofeven leading metrical British position actors is don’t stressed, take everyadvantage odd position of this license unstressed, to secure and there are eight positions in Jewish history, languages, the conflicting linguistic and versification Genocide, and Memory Studies • literature, social sciences, and patterns such that both can beregular perceived rhythm in, for instanceall in all. the On iambic this level, meter. then, Instead, there theyis regular have recourseperiodicity. to groupingAs performed and by Yossi Banay, the • Jewish Studies Major through Department of Religion • the arts simultaneously. To enable this, mental • BA and undergraduate certificate processing space must be saved by grouping seventh (weak) position, however, is occupied by a stressed syllable. Three features are • Jewish Studies Minor • programs in Jewish Studies over-articulation to save mental processing space, so as to make it possible to perceive and clear-cut articulation of phonemes, word 4223 Mosse Humanities • Over $30,000 in graduate and • Visiting Israeli Writers Program • undergraduate scholarships endings, phrase endings, and concurrentlyline endings. the vocalizedconspicuous linguistic in pattern this performance. and the suppressed The three versification words “zɛ patternlo tov” merelyare equally stressed, they are Building • Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies • 455 N. Park Street offered annually I don’t intend to present in this article all • Home to the Conney Project reverberating in short-termperceived memory. as one Thus phrase, we can but see are how perceived one actor, as sharply with one separated voice, can from one another: their Madison, WI 53706 the metrical theories that tried, in the course • Jewish Studies Workshop • on Jewish Arts and Greenfield 608-265-4763 of the twentieth century, to solve the riddle of Summer Institute boundaries appear to be over-articulated by longish pauses. For the equal timers this is [email protected] poetic rhythm. I only want toconvey briefly threeconfront concurring patterns: he vocalizes the linguistic pattern; in his performance he the approach advocated here with an approach Learn more at has recourse to groupingevidence and over that-articulation, there is regular so as alterationto save mental between processing overstressed space, linguistic stuff and periods of jewishstudies.wisc.edu that lately became fashionable again, that of www.jewishculture.illinois.edu equal or proportional timing.enabling The question the perception is, of the versification pattern merely reverberating in short-term what is it that recurs with some regularity? According to the equal-timers’memory. approach, I strongly it suspectWave plot that and Yossi intonation Banay contour over- ofarticulates the line “ani the h . wordsašavti — “zɛ z lo tov”tov” in not Yossi for Banay’s reading.

rhythmical but rhetorical purposes. This, however, does not detract from the rhythmic effect

38 AJS Perspectives of these vocal manipulations. SPRING 2016 39

As I marked the meter of this verse line on the paper, it is the iambic tetrameter. Every

even metrical position is stressed, every odd position unstressed, and there are eight positions

all in all. On this level, then, there is regular periodicity. As performed by Yossi Banay, the

seventh (weak) position, however, is occupied by a stressed syllable. Three features are

conspicuous in this performance. The three words “zɛ lo tov” are equally stressed, they are

perceived as one phrase, but are perceived as sharply separated from one another: their

boundaries appear to be over-articulated by longish pauses. For the equal timers this is

evidence that there is regular alteration between overstressed linguistic stuff and periods of AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowships BERMAN FOUNDATION EARLY CAREER FELLOWSHIPS The Association for Jewish Studies congratulates recipients of the 2016 The Association for Jewish Studies congratulates recipients of the 2016 Berman Foundation Early Career Fellowships in Support of Research in the Social Scientific Study of the AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowships. This program is generously Contemporary American Jewish Community:

supported through a grant from Legacy Heritage Fund. EVELYN DEAN-OLMSTED, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Puerto Rico, Rió Piedras To Be Mexican, Jewish, and Arab: Language and Laughter in Mexico City FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS AJS ALSO RECOGNIZES THE FOLLOWING FINALISTS: JOSHUA FRIEDMAN, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Brooklyn College AVIV BEN-OR, Department of Near Eastern Yiddish Returns: Language, Intergenerational Gifts, and Jewish Devotion and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University MAX BAUMGARTEN, Department of History, The Possibilities of an Arab-Jewish Poetics: University of California, Los Angeles JESSICA RODA, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Ethnographic Research in the Aftermath of Violence, A Study of the Arabic and Hebrew Fiction of From Watts to Rodney King: Peoplehood, Politics, Concordia University Shimon Ballas and Sami Michael and Citizenship in Jewish Los Angeles, 1965–1992 Ruptures and Reconstruction of Kinship Ties among OTD () Communities: Gender, Sexualities, and Personhood in SARAH GARIBOVA, Department of History, MARC HERMAN, Department of Religious The Berman Early Career Fellowships aim to support the development and expansion of the field of the social scientific University of Michigan Studies, University of Pennsylvania study of the North American Jewish community; enhance funding opportunities for early career scholars in the social Enumeration of the Commandments in the Memories for A Blessing: Jewish Mourning sciences; encourage scholars in sociology, social psychology, social anthropology, demography, social work, economics, Practices and Commemorative Activities in Judeo-Arabic World: Approaches to Medieval and political science to expand their research to include the study of the North American Jewish community; and nurture Postwar Belarus and , 1945–1991 Rabbanite Jurisprudence a new generation of scholars in this critical area of research. Fellowship recipients are eligible for up to $8,000 in funding. Support for this program is generously provided by the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation. BRENDAN GOLDMAN, Department of History, CONSTANZE KOLBE, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University Indiana University Jews in the Latin : Conquest, Continuity, Trans-Imperial Networks: Jewish Merchant and Adaptation in the Medieval Mediterranean Mobility Across and Beyond the Mediterranean in the Nineteenth Century SONIA GOLLANCE, Department of BERMAN FOUNDATION DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIPS Germanic Languages and Literatures, JAMES REDFIELD, Department of Religious University of Pennsylvania Studies, Stanford University The Association for Jewish Studies congratulates recipients of the 2016 Berman Foundation Harmonious Instability: (Mixed) Dancing The Sages and the World: Categorizing Culture Dissertation Fellowships in Support of Research in the Social Scientific Study of the and Partner Choice in German-Jewish and in Early Rabbinic Law Contemporary American Jewish Community: MATTHEW BERKMAN, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania SIMCHA GROSS, Department of Religious Recipients of the AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowships Ethnic Institutional Development and Political Mobilization in the United States: A Comparison of Jewish, receive a $20,000 stipend, as well as professional Studies, Yale University Cuban, and African American Experiences Empire and Neighbors: Babylonian Rabbinic development opportunities, through a mid-year workshop Identity in Its Imperial and Local Contexts and ongoing contact with mentors during the fellowship MIJAL BITTON, Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions, New York University year. Particular attention will be dedicated to training the Syrian Jews in America: In Search of Community fellows to speak publicly, in an accessible fashion, about YAEL LANDMAN, Department of Bible, their work. Yeshiva University AJS ALSO RECOGNIZES THE FOLLOWING FINALIST: The Biblical Law of Bailment in Its Ancient Near Information about the 2017 AJS Dissertation Completion Eastern Contexts Fellowship competition will be available on the AJS MIRA NICULESCU, Department of Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales website in Fall 2016. After the Jewish Buddhists: Reconstructing Jewish Spirituality in a Global Age JASON LUSTIG, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles The Berman Fellowships—two awards of $16,000 each—aim to support the development and expansion of the field ‘A Time to Gather’: A History of Jewish Archives of the social scientific study of Jewish Americans and the contemporary Jewish-American experience; enhance funding in the Twentieth Century opportunities for up-and-coming scholars in the midst of institutional cutbacks in higher education; and encourage graduate students in sociology, social psychology, social anthropology, demography, social work, economics, and political science to expand their research to include the study of North American Jewry.

40 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 41 The association of the Jewish circle dance Words, Melodies, Hands, and Feet: Musical Sounds with Hanukah may be related to the shared centrality of lighted lamps. In the Hindu and of a Kerala Jewish Women’s Dance Christian circle dances, women move in a Barbara C. Johnson circle around a tall ritual lamp lit with coconut oil. The Jewish ninnukal . i began only after the brass Hanukah lamps had been lit and placed oday only a few of the oldest Jewish of “ ’Elohim H. a i,” the well-known near the window of each Jewish home, and the women from Kerala, South , can fourteenth-century Hebrew , which honored place in the center of the ninnukal . i Tpersonally remember the traditional appears in the extensive Kochini repertoire circle was held by older women experts women’s circle dance that highlighted of Hebrew songs (which are sung together leading the songs. the Hanukah parties of their youth. It by women and men). It is followed by In addition to providing valuable was performed by their mothers, aunties, another devotional song, uniquely Indian information about the dance itself, the 1981 grandmothers, and neighbors, moving with its reference to a woman so caught video shows the Taoz community’s effort to around a circle in a coordinated pattern of up in “worldly delusions” that she gets place the ninnukal . iin its traditional Indian hand clapping, foot stamping, and turns, lost in the mundane task of counting chili context—a community party for women, men, while singing traditional Jewish songs in Women’s song notebook from Ruby ’s peppers rather than counting her spiritual and children featuring typical Kerala snacks the Malayalam language of the land. family, c. 1850, Photo by the author. treasures. Then comes the popular “Parrot and the ritual lighting of Hanukah candles Imagine the joyful sounds of laughter, Song” conveying an allegory of community (replacing the coconut oil lamps of Kerala). Nirit Singers. Photo by the author. talk, song, and dance associated with these origin in Kerala, then three lively wedding We see that some women have set aside their parties! It’s easy to hear them on a warm songs, and four biblical narratives. everyday Israeli clothing and dressed up in Kerala night, through windows open to the Shirley Isenberg (1918–2000) and I first At first glance, the dance steps and saris for the occasion, adding long-sleeved of a relative to watch a family copy of the request from outside, it was also for their own narrow Jewish street in the city of Kochi began to make audio recordings and collect clapping may appear simple, but the dancers sweaters to ward off the December chill in the 1981 Herzog video, in which Simh . a’s mother enjoyment, as an approximate recreation of (Cochin). The sounds echo from a crowded handwritten song notebooks from Kerala move skillfully in transitions between hills west of Jerusalem, far from the warmth of Rachel Nehemiah had been the lead singer. a well-remembered Kerala Hanukah party. front room in a not very large house described Jewish women in India and in Israel, we were four different patterns of clapping, foot tropical Kerala. Though the video stops before Carefully studying the dancers’ steps and In contrast, members of the Nirit Singers by Ruby Daniel (1912–2001) in her memoir told about the Hanukah parties and circle movements, and gestures. A straightforward the end of the dancing, the audio captures its gestures, they then taught them to the other grew up in families from five different Kerala Ruby of Cochin: A Jewish Woman Remembers: dances that used to be associated with just clapped beat with steps toward and away conclusion—the loud, joyous sound of kurava, Nirit Singers. An excerpt from their 2006 Jewish communities, and by the early twenty- one of the eight synagogue-based Jewish from the seated singers punctuates the the celebratory ritual ululation performed performance at the Van Leer Institute can be first century they lived in widely scattered Every night during H . anukkah . . . people communities in and near the city of Kochi. graceful melody of a marriage song, capturing by women on festive occasions throughout viewed with the online version of this article Israeli towns and cities. As articulated by - would join together and have a party This was the Kadavumbha gam community the rhythm of a bridegroom bending “this South Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. retired social worker Galia Hacco, organizer in one house or another in the Town, in Kochi, whose colorful synagogue interior way and that way” as he walks through the Now let me jump ahead to an unexpected In contrast to the 1981 video, Nirit and leader of the group, their commitment a different house every night. People would be transported from India, restored, Jewish street in his wedding procession. twenty-first-century development—a Singers’ performances were detached from to a rigorous schedule of group meetings, shared the expenses and made some and reconstructed inside the Performance of a song about how Aaron performance revival of Malayalam Jewish the Hanukah context. Some were held rehearsals, and performances reflected a desire snacks—such as a small roasted fish in Jerusalem in 1995. Alongside the physical helped to receive the Torah combines songs by a group of older Kochini women on an elevated stage, with singers facing to preserve and pass on something of their stuffed with onions and chilies—and structure of their synagogue, their traditional a simpler and more repetitious tune with in Israel, for whom the 1981 video provided a physically separate audience including Kerala culture for future generations of Israeli toddy [alcohol from fermented coconut circle dance, called ninnukal . i (standing a more complex pattern of clapping and some inspiration. Eight of the ten dance non-Kochini strangers. They wore colorful Kochinim, as well as proudly share that culture palm sap] and other things too. This play) was also preserved for posterity, in gestures. A third rhythmic pattern involves songs recorded that evening in Taoz were matching costumes made for the occasion, with other Israelis. When they produced a CD was the time the ladies would sing and the form of a 1981 video recording. combining hand claps and foot stamps among the thirty-two excerpted in a 2004 patterned after an old-fashioned style of Kerala of their own, it was accompanied by a booklet dance around in a circle clapping hands After , many immigrants from with a growing escalation of tempo, CD produced by the JMRC: Oh! Lovely Parrot: women’s dress. Their entrances, exits, and with the Malayalam song texts transliterated - and keeping time with their feet. Kadavumbha gam-Kochi settled in Moshav accompanying “Golden Palanquin,” a riddle Jewish Women’s Songs from Kerala. The process transitions were carefully choreographed into Hebrew script for that new audience. And Taoz near Jerusalem, where Isenberg song about a bride and her mother. of producing this CD also involved studio and rehearsed. The brief ninnukal . i number thanks to the 1981 Taoz recording, they were Most women who remember these parties became acquainted with older women who This 1981 video can be viewed in re-recordings by five Kochini women. From was adjusted to fit the spatial constraints also able to include in their performances a remembered the dance. As a result, a special were teenagers or young women when they terms of its two cultural contexts—Indian their initial meeting emerged a performing of the stage, with two lead singers standing small sound-glimpse of the ninnukal . ,i which migrated to Israel, in the group aliyah of Hanukah party was arranged for Avigdor and Israeli. Ancestors of today’s Israeli group calling themselves the Nirit Singers. to the side and the dancers circling around may never again be performed in its entirety. most Kerala Jews during the early 1950s. Herzog from the Jewish Music Research Kochinim lived for well over a thousand During the next few years they gave a one seated member of the chorus. The Hanukah dances were not continued Center (JMRC) at Hebrew University to film years in peace and security on the lush variety of public performances—not only Much had changed in Israel during Video examples are included in the online version after that time—not in India, where only a the dance. His video recording from that green Kerala coast of southwest India. They for Kochini gatherings but also at Hebrew the twenty-five years between these two of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. few dancers remained, nor in Israel, where party, on December 23, 1981, in Taoz, is the were loyal and observant Jews who also University for the launching of the CD; at dance performances. In 1981, though no the Malayalam language and songs of the only existing record of a complete Kerala identified proudly with the wider culture a municipal auditorium in Rishon LeZion; longer living on one Jewish street in India, Barbara C. Johnson is professor emerita Jewish circle dance. Digitized in the National past were gradually set aside by immigrants of Kerala, enjoying good relationships with for a scholarly audience at the Van Leer where the ninnukal . ihad been an integral of Anthropology at Ithaca College. She is and their descendants (more than 5,000 Sound Archives of the JMRC, it is a rich Hindu, Muslim, and Christian neighbors. Institute in Jerusalem; and for an Indian part of the surrounding Kerala culture, the coauthor of Ruby of Cochin: A Jewish now identify as “Kochinim” in Israel). resource for analysis of the dance form. Their Hanukah dance was a Jewish version Independence Day celebration at the Tel older women of the immigrant generation Woman Remembers (Jewish Publication But fortunately the old songs were not The Taoz performance included the of the women’s circle dance genre known Aviv home of the Indian ambassador. were still grounded in that culture. They Society, 1995) and editor of the CD/booklet Oh, completely lost in the pressures of adjusting singing of ten songs with accompanying in the Malayalam language as kaikot. t . ikali A standard feature of their repertoire was lived in an Israeli community of families Lovely Parrot! Jewish Women’s Songs from to a new life. Beginning in the late 1970s, dances, which display considerable variety in (hand-clapping play), traditionally and the song “Oh! Lovely Parrot,” performed as a originating from the Kadavumbha- gam-Kochi Kerala (2004) and a forthcoming companion themes, melodies, rhythm, and tempo. As in more than 300 Malayalam Jewish women’s currently performed throughout the area ninnukal . .i Venus (Tzipporah) Lane recalled community. They spoke Hebrew with other book of seventy-nine Malayalam Jewish songs were salvaged through cooperation most traditional Indian dance performances, by members of all four religious traditions: for me how they all learned to do the dance, Israelis, including the researchers, but still songs with English translations, notes, and between older Kochini women and outside the opening number is an invocation—in this Margamkal . i by , O p p a n . a by which most of them had never seen. She went spoke Malayalam with each other. Although musical transcriptions (Jewish Music Research - scholars. When the late Israeli anthropologist case a poetic rendering in Jewish Malayalam , and Tiruva tirakal . i by Hindus. with her friend Simh . a Yosef to the apartment they initiated this event in response to a Centre, Hebrew University, Jerusalem).

42 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 43 country in 1968. As in other emergent socialist Sound and Imagined Border Transgressions democracies in the Middle East and Europe, the state broadcasting agency maintained in Israel/Palestine absolute control of radio programming and Michael Figueroa content, and Kol Yisra’el was the exclusive Israeli station until the establishment of Reshet in 1960, Galei Tzahal in 1973, and Reshet Gimmel in 1976. Each of these stations עכשיו בין יד חנה לבין טולכרם השכנה Now, between Yad Hana and nearby Tulkarm remained under the Israel Broadcasting מואזין בוכה בראש מסגד גבוה A muezzin cries atop a tall mosque Authority except Galei Tzahal, which was לילה עכשיו בין לבדה יד חנה מאחורי לבין זכוכית טולכרם כבדה השכנה Layla is alone, behind heavy glass עכשיו בין יד חנה לבין טולכרם השכנה run by the army. Together, these stations מואזין משוטט אבלבוכה אי בראש אפשר מסגד לשמוע גבוה Wandering around but it’s impossible to hear מואזין בוכה בראש מסגד גבוה dominated the sonic sphere of Israeli cultural לילה לבדהברדיו ! אולי מאחורי היא זכוכית קוראת כבדהלי Layla’s on the radio! Maybe she’s calling me לילה לבדה מאחורי זכוכית כבדה life until the 1990s, when the entrance אני רקמשוטט אבלזוכר אי שדה אפשר בוער לשמועותופת מלמעלה I only remember a burning field and bombs overhead משוטט אבל אי אפשר לשמוע of satellite television and private media חום לילה ברדיו בעיניים,! אולי פתאום היא אני כאן קוראת בלילי אף חבר Heat in my eyes, suddenly I’m friendless here לילה ברדיו ! אולי היא קוראת לי conglomerates brought globalized media אני חדר רק לבן זוכרעלי שדה סוגר, בוער חושך ותופת הלילה מלמעלה .A white room closes on me. I am alone tonight אני רק זוכר שדה בוער ותופת מלמעלה .to the country at an unprecedented pace חום לילה ,לילה בעיניים,, לילה ,פתאום לילהאני ,כאן לילה ,בלי אףלילה . חבר . . . Layla, Layla חום בעיניים, פתאום אני כאן בלי אף חבר Radio’s media specificity meant that חדר לבן עלי סוגר, חושך הלילה חדר לבן עלי סוגר, חושך הלילה its reach had little correlation with the רדיולילה ,לילה ,רמאללה לילה ,לילה לילה ,ולילה לילה ,לילה . [:Refrain] לילה ,לילה ,לילה ,לילה ,לילה ,לילה . transmutable political boundaries that were זה קולה המלחשש מקשקש וכובש 1965

subject to redrawing after the various wars רדיו רמאללה לילה ולילה Radio Ramallah, Layla and night רדיו מטשטש אותירמאללה לילה ולילה .fought between Israel and its neighbors זה קולה המלחשש מקשקש וכובש It’s her whispering voice chattering and conquering 1965 1965 .Tuning in” to radio created a unidirectional Palestine Broadcasting Authority towers at Ramallah during the late 1930s“ זה רדיו קולה רמאללה המלחשש לילה ולילה מקשקש וכובש 1965 .Photo credit: The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem, via 972 Magazine יום מטשטשיבוא אותי נפגש, ניזכר נתרגש ;relation between transmitter and receiver מטשטש אותי Confounding me איךרדיו היה ב65,רמאללה לילהלילה, לילהולילה this relation consisted of invisible, radiating רדיו רמאללה לילה ולילה Radio Ramallah, Layla and night waves of electromagnetic energy modulated יום יבוא נפגש, ניזכר נתרגש One day we’ll meet, reminisce, and be excited יום יבוא נפגש, ניזכר נתרגש either by amplitude (AM) or frequency (FM) old transmitter at 667 kHz. In contrast to compositions that would form the backbone איך וככה היה אני ב65, מבזבז לילה, לילהאפשרויות About how it was in ’65, Layla, Layla איך היה ב65, לילה, לילה .and measured in figures that we use to signify Kol Yisra’el, whose explicit agenda was to of over the next decade מדמיין את מה שהיה ואת מה שהיה יכול להיות.

,specific stations. For example, today Reshet facilitate the assimilation of immigrants This early rock movement, in fact וככה זיכרונותאני מבזבז מתערבבים אפשרויות בגעגועים And this is how I waste opportunities וככה אני מבזבז אפשרויות Bet’s wave frequency modulates at 95.5 and pedagogical practices that would provided the foundations for מדמיין ושורפים, את כמומה מלח שהיה על ואת מה הפצעים שהיה יכול להיות. Imagining what was and what could’ve been מדמיין את מה שהיה ואת מה שהיה יכול להיות. megahertz (95.5Hz x 106) and so is called FM serve the Israeli nation-building project, to develop his own rock and muzikah yam זיכרונות מתערבבים בגעגועים Memories mixed with nostalgia זיכרונות מתערבבים בגעגועים As they travel through space, radio waves Radio Ramallah’s programming eschewed tikhonit (Mediterranean) style that we hear in .95.5 רעש ושורפים, מכונה כמו בין מלח שדה על מוקשים הפצעים לשדה כותנה And burning like salt in wounds ושורפים, כמו מלח על הפצעים ,are indifferent to national borders; thus, from nationalist politics and was centered on “Radio Ramallah,” with its distorted guitar מפלח את הקשר שביננו

,a political perspective they are inherently musical cosmopolitanism. Thus, while backbeat drum, Greek bouzouki, synthesizers רעשלילה לא מכונה עונה,בין אבל שדה עוד יש מוקשים בי לשדה אמונה כותנה Machine noise between cotton and mine fields רעש מכונה בין שדה מוקשים לשדה כותנה Courtesy of the author. transgressive and cover whatever territory Kol Yisra’el transmitted material such as and reverb-drenched, melismatic voice, which מפלח אלוהים את גדול הקשר הוא בטח שביננו לצידנו Severing the connection between us European classical music, with its pretensions מפלח את הקשר שביננו their physical waveforms allow. What this together evince clear stylistic connections לילה לא ברדיו, עונה, אולי אבל רק עוד נדמהיש ליבי אמונה Layla doesn’t answer, but I still have faith -to civilization, and Hebrew national song to both Mediterranean Arab and Anglo לילה לא עונה, אבל עוד יש בי אמונה has meant in Israel is that people living אני אלוהים מחפש גדול אותה הוא ואין בטח כלום לצידנועל הסקאלה G-d is great and is probably on our side on both sides of the Green Line separating (in addition to news programs and radio American popular music, as noted by Amy אלוהים גדול הוא בטח לצידנו לילילהלה ברדיו,שותקת , אולי רדיו רק נדמה ליטרנזיסטור מנגן Layla’s on the radio, or maybe it’s just my imagination Israel proper from the West Bank and other dramas), Radio Ramallah specialized in Horowitz in Mediterranean Israeli Music. The לילה ברדיו, אולי רק נדמה לי לו אני רק מחפש יכולתי אותה לטלפןואין אל כלום לילהעל הלילה הסקאלה I search for her but there’s nothing on the dial territories could tune in and listen to the Western and Arab popular music. lyrics, as we have seen, insist on a “memory אני מחפש אותה ואין כלום על הסקאלה לילהלילה , לילה, שותקת, לילה,רדיו לילה, טרנזיסטורלילה , מנגן לילה. Layla’s silent, a transistor radio plays Other’s—the so-called enemy’s—mediascape. For many Israelis, Radio Ramallah was the mixed with nostalgia” for a time during לילה שותקת, רדיו טרנזיסטור מנגן לו רק יכולתי לטלפן אל לילה הלילה If only I could call her on the phone tonight Since 1948, Jordanians and primary portal through which to experience which hearing the Other was an affordance לו רק יכולתי לטלפן אל לילה הלילה לילה, לילה, לילה, לילה, לילה, לילה. could readily tune in to Kol Yisra’el and, later, the outside world sonically from the comfort made possible by the nature, and exclusive לילה, לילה, לילה, לילה, לילה, לילה. Layla, Layla . . . Reshet Bet and Reshet Gimmel. For those of home. It is difficult to imagine, furthermore, dominion, of radio technology, before the living on the Israeli side, the primary carrier the emergence of Israeli rock, which since political and technological developments [Refrain] of the voice of the Other between 1948 and the mid-1960s has been a powerful force in that would shape post-1967 Israel. In the 1967 was Radio Ramallah, the subject and the cultural sphere, without Israeli musicians history signified by this song, we might title of Yehuda Poliker’s song about tuning having had access to the American, British, observe how listening to Others has helped n this popular 1988 song, “Radio the woman, if she is an actual woman, is a it can be difficult to imagine the altogether in to the radio during his military service. and continental European records transmitted to breed connections, even if only in the Ramallah,” by the Israeli rock musician Palestinian Arab. Why is her voice missing? foreign media paradigm of pretelevision Israel. As the station’s name indicates, Radio over Radio Ramallah’s airwaves. The sounds imagination. Without such connections, IYehuda Poliker, the narrator decries a lost In the final stanza, her voice shudders like Radio broadcasting in Ramallah was based in the Palestinian they heard informed the small, bourgeoning the singer feels “friendless” and “alone.” voice—the voice of a woman named Layla. a phantom limb, perhaps imagined but also began under the auspices of the British, city of Ramallah, located 20 km north of rock scene in mid-1960s Ramla, a mixed Who is Layla? What can we know about viscerally real. And where does this voice who established the Palestine Broadcasting Jerusalem, and this is where the British Jewish-Arab city that sits in central Israel Michael A. Figueroa is assistant professor of Music her from the song’s narrative, in which—by exist? The answer is complicated: the voice Agency (PBA) in 1936. In 1948, the newly Mandate’s Palestine Broadcasting Agency due south of Ben-Gurion Airport. Early rock at the University of North Carolina at Chapel virtue of an intersemitic homophone—an is embodied in Palestine and resonates established State of Israel inherited the PBA was headquartered before its 1948 relocation bands collectively called lehakot ha-kez . ev (lit., Hill, where he teaches Middle Eastern, Jewish, Arabic female name sounds interchangeable sonically in Israel. The medium bridging this and rebranded it as Kol Yisra’el, the “Voice to Jerusalem and renaming as Kol Yisra’el. rhythm bands) performed a repertory that and African American music. His current book with the word for “night” in both Hebrew schizophonia—this apparent divide between of Israel.” Radio was unquestionably the Out of the ashes of the PBA in Ramallah consisted mainly of covers of English-language project examines music and political consciousness and Arabic: laylah. The geographical marker the physical and aural domains—is the radio. hegemonic media form of the early state, even rose Radio Ramallah, a Jordanian-run rock songs they heard on Radio Ramallah, in Israel/Palestine, with a focus on musical in the song’s title drives the point home: From a twenty-first-century perspective, after the introduction of television to the station that broadcasted through the PBA’s along with some original Hebrew-language renderings of territory, narrative, and violence.

44 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 45 David Adom changed the siren of ambulances following the regular ebb and flow of of missiles penetrated individual homes The Siren’s Song: Sound, Conflict, and the to an alternating high-low pattern to avoid fear rippling their surface, punctuated by in a way that mirrored the penetration of confusion. Discursive echoes of sirens filled outbreaks of outright hysteria.” Recent national space by the missiles themselves. Politics of Public Space in Tel Aviv conversations (“did you hear that?” “what were research on the soundscapes of violent The sounds of sirens and explosive Abigail Wood you doing when . . . ?”) and public discourse. conflict has generally focused on the booms—and the dark humor generated in These sounds took the place of others that intense experiences of the front lines of their wake during the weeks of the conflict— were less easy to talk about, if equally part battle, whether of civilians seeking shelter came to an abrupt halt as ceasefires were of the daily soundscape during these periods or fighters playing heavy metal music to reached in both periods of conflict, and ovember 15, 2012: “I was sure that it of heightened conflict: the loud engines of pump themselves up before a mission, or on for most residents of Israel, life returned was a new song by , warplanes flying south, the dull thuds of symbolic uses of music outside the immediate to normal. Yet their echoes remained but it turned out to be a siren,” N shots being fired during police clashes with conflict zone. Yet the auditory experiences in the bodily habitus of Israeli civilians tweeted Israeli rock star . At first Palestinian protestors in East Jerusalem, of civilians in the hinterlands of active who still found themselves starting at the glance, this tweet was part of an ongoing, and the eerie silence of late-night military conflict help equally to shed light on the lived sound of ambulance sirens, an embodied good-natured banter between Geffen and funerals. In turn, the wartime soundscape dynamics of modern asymmetric warfare. reminder of the ability of the soundworld fellow musician and reality TV judge, Shlomi also exacerbated other sonic tensions in While the experiences of most civilians living of military conflict to seep into, and to Shabat. This particular jibe was neatly placed, society. Far-right Jewish youth dressed in in Israel’s central regions during the 2012 and color, everyday auditory experiences. comparing the rising and falling wail of the t-shirts of the Lehava organization patrolled 2014 military operations were very far from siren used in Israel to warn of an incoming the streets of central Jerusalem for some the physical destruction that civilians in Gaza Audio examples are included in the online version rocket attack to the soaring sounds of Shabat’s weeks, listening out for Arab accents; some experienced at that time, the soundscape of of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. voice, whose high, nasal production and Palestinians in East Jerusalem celebrated the war touches on the ripples of fear that melismatic slides serve as a markers of the Hamas rocket fire with loud fireworks. armed conflict causes in the stable surface of Abigail Wood lectures in Ethnomusicology genre of muzikah mizrahit (eastern music), . . Meanwhile, during the summer of 2014 the state. The frequent sounds of the sirens at the University of Haifa, where she is contrasting with Geffen’s rough rock tones. Israeli and IDF spokespeople used the sound reinscribed the politics of public spaces at the also head of the Music Department. She is On this day, however, Geffen’s tweet of the siren as a central part of hasbarah center of Israel’s civic life, at once articulating coeditor of Ethnomusicology Forum. Her indexed a significant change in Tel Aviv’s (propaganda) speeches and video clips seeking both the state’s efforts to protect its civilians research focuses primarily on urban musics public soundscape. For the first time since to persuade the international community of from harm, and its failure, in the form of an and soundscapes; she is the author of a book the Gulf War, sirens sounded across the the legitimacy of Israel’s offensive operation. incoming missile, to ensure security. These on contemporary Yiddish song and several city warning residents to take shelter from “A history of modern nation-states,” sounds fused public and private spaces: articles on the soundscape of Jerusalem’s Old an incoming missile. The sounds of the writes Brian Massumi, “could be written the sounds of the sirens and the explosions City. (With thanks to Moshe Morad.) sirens themselves were familiar—the same Tel Aviv skyline. Photo credit: Ron Shoshani, via Flickr Commons. sirens are sounded on a continuous note on Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day and national Memorial Day, and are periodically Someone on Rothschild quickly updated of everyday listening (“I listen to podcasts sounded for tests and drills—and were that the rocket fell “at Herzl-Yigal Alon”; with one earphone only in case there is a perhaps even expected: sirens had sounded only after long minutes did the correction siren”) and a growing intimacy with the sporadically in the south of the country come that there is no such street. After sounds peculiar to this upsurge of conflict during the previous year, warning of rockets that it was said that the rocket fell on (“the siren sort of coughs before it begins”). fired from Gaza, and the Israeli military the Tayelet, and then among the sands of Israeli national media joined the network of operation Pillar of Defense had begun the , in the south, in the southeast. sonic warning: popular songs on the radio previous day, marking an escalation in the were frequently punctuated by a newscaster’s immediate level of conflict. Nevertheless, Light hearted as it might be, the Haaretz voice reading alerts of sirens in different the warning sound caused a stir in Tel Aviv, report captures the centrality of sound to parts of the country. While not predictable which was reported with some humor later the experience of civilians in Israel during by time or place, the sirens produced a in the evening by the Haaretz news site: the recent rounds of military conflict with kind of rhythm to the war, both on a short Hamas militants in Gaza (November 2012, timescale, as civilians waited for the “boom” One siren at 6:38 PM was enough to summer 2014). Sounds not only warned of a predictable number of seconds after the paralyze the most important oxygen line an imminent threat; they became a defining siren sounded, and marking waves of tension of Tel Aviv: the cellular phone networks. experience of “being there” during the conflict and catharsis on a larger scale. The presence Calls did not connect . . . The tables in and a source of up-to-date information, or absence of sirens enabled civilians to popular Café Landwer in the middle giving auditory confirmation that a speculate on diplomatic matters, judging of the boulevard emptied fast. Half of rocket had indeed exploded and allowing the success or failure of ceasefire efforts. the clientele ran for shelter shouting civilians to judge (or at least to speculate The sirens did not only demand active “Imaleh!” [Mama!] and the other half on) locations of rocket impacts, which listening—they also disciplined the body, filmed on their cellphones. Very quickly were generally not reported in the press. calling for immediate action. Primed to the guessing game began: “where did the While the sirens themselves lasted listen for rising and falling sounds, increased rocket fall?” Tel Aviv is spread over 54 only a few minutes at a time, their existence auditory sensibilities led many Israelis to square kilometers, but miraculously— in the wartime soundscape prompted new experience “false alarms” upon hearing everyone heard the boom. From the regimes of auditory attentiveness. Friends ambulance sirens or passing motorcycles: south, from the north, from the sea. and colleagues reported changed practices during the summer of 2014 Israel’s Magen

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48 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 49 illuminate the study of ancient texts. The the words of the gospel (“go sell everything who torment him with his own sounds of “Surround Sound” first comes from the Wisdom of Solomon, and come follow me”) read in church and chanting and prayer. Sound is relational. a work probably composed by a Hellenistic decides to take this literally, selling his If there is a late ancient Near Eastern Sensory History, Deep Listening, and Field Recording Jew from Alexandria in the first century possessions and going into the far reaches of counterpart to the Native American BCE. It is in some sense a “classic” work of the desert to live as a hermit. One of themes Naalagiagvik, the “Place Where You Go Kim Haines-Eitzen wisdom literature as it exhorts readers to implied by the story is that he will also face to Listen,” it is surely the mountain, the righteousness and condemns the ungodly fewer distractions in the desert, especially wilderness, and, above all, the desert. and, above all, praises wisdom: “Wisdom acoustic distractions. But what happens is The desert reverberates in biblical and his fall I tried something new in my But what about recording modern is radiant and unfading, and she is easily precisely the opposite: in fact, Athanasius postbiblical Jewish and Christian literatures advanced seminar “Sound, Silence, soundscapes in conjunction with a historical discerned by those who love her” (6:12). tells the story of a cacophonous desert: “the as a place of revelation, temptation, and at Tand the Sacred,” premised on Jonathan project, I asked them? Truth be told, it is a Within a set of chapters on “uninstructed [demons] when it was nighttime made such a once a site of alienation and belonging. Far Sterne’s claim that “the history of sound question I have asked myself ever since I souls” and “lawless people”—an extended crashing noise that that whole place seemed from empty, static, and silent wastelands, implies a history of the body” and Brandon began making field recordings as part of a foray into the differences between Egyptians to be shaken by a quake. . . . and altogether deserts are endlessly productive for the LaBelle’s argument that “sound is intrinsically historical project (http://kimhaineseitzen and Israelites—we find the following passage: the sounds of all the creatures that appeared religious imagination—their undulating and unignorably relational: it emanates, .wordpress.com) on desert sounds and the were terrible, and their ragings were fierce” sands, ever shifting with wind, become propagates, communicates, vibrates, and religious imagination in late antiquity. Several For whether they were farmers or (Life of Antony 9). Throughout this text cacophonous landscapes of discovery and agitates; it leaves a body and enters others; years ago I became convinced that in order shepherds or workers who toiled in the demons make “obnoxious noises;” they transformation. They reveal themselves it binds and unhinges, harmonizes and to understand the sonic imagination of late wilderness (eremos), they were seized, and clap, hiss, crash, and shake Antony’s ascetic as social and cultural products; they are traumatizes; it sends the body moving, the ancient Christian monastic texts from Egypt endured the inescapable fate; for with one resolve. It would be too simple to dismiss not “inactive and at rest” (to quote Edward mind dreaming, the air oscillating.” Each and Palestine, I needed to record the sounds chain of darkness they all were bound. such passages as fanciful imagination, and a Casey) but rather dynamic and powerfully week I asked the students to make a recording of modern desert environments. Over the Whether there came a whistling wind, or a modern recording forces us to reconsider. The evocative. And the practice of listening (of any sound or soundscape) and to write a course of several years, I travelled multiple melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading language here used to describe the sounds of to them returns us time and time again reflection paper about what they discovered times to the four deserts of North America branches, or the rhythm of violently rushing demons—crashing like thunder, and shaking to our place within their sound worlds. at the intersection of their recording and and to the Negev and Judean deserts in Israel/ water, or the harsh crash of rocks hurled like earthquakes, hissing like snakes—are the readings for the week. My goal was to Palestine. My recordings are not intended, down, or the unseen running of leaping some of the most dynamic sounds one hears Audio examples are included in the online version pursue two lines of inquiry into the world of course, as transparent records of what animals, or the sound of the most savage when recording in desert environments. of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. of sound: the first was to think through how the ancients heard when they went to the roaring beasts, or an echo thrown back The crashing of thunder (listen on http:// sound, place, and identity are intimately desert any more than, say, a photograph of from a hollow of the mountains, it perspectives.ajsnet.org) is, indeed, a nearly Kim Haines-Eitzen is a professor of Religion interwoven in a web that is both ephemeral an archaeological site could conjure up lived paralyzed them with terror. For the whole surreal surround sound in a mountainous in Late Antiquity in the Department of Near and transformational; the second was to experience; to my mind, field recordings of world was illumined with brilliant light, desert that reverberates all the more in a dark Eastern Studies at Cornell University. Her explore how the practice of making recordings Courtesy of the author. wind, water, birds, insects, and so forth were and went about its work unhindered, deserted wilderness. But there is a weapon one previous books have treated early Christian might in fact shape our understanding of both a necessary evocation—an instance of while over those people alone heavy can use against the din of demons: Antony, scribal practices and the role of women in sound both in the contemporary world and a place “calling out” its signature sounds— night was spread, an image of the in fact, partly becomes a monk by way of an ancient book culture. She is currently writing a in history. Recording sounds is an embodied in a place that was altogether new; still others and crucial instruction for how to read, darkness that was destined to receive acoustic exchange or, an acoustic ecology, book, A Sacred and Sonorous Desert, about experience, I have found, and thus it provides spoke to the challenge of describing sounds in imagine, and hear an acoustic register mostly them; but still heavier than darkness if you will: he wards off the noisy demons desert sounds and the religious imagination. tremendous affective insight into sound, even words and classifying sounds into categories obscured by mostly silent texts. The sayings were they to themselves (17:17–21). historical sounds. The seminar’s capstone like “noise” and “silence.” Above all, the and lives of the desert fathers, the writings project was the creation of a website for results of their work showed us how varied, of Athanasius, Besa, and John Climacus, and The “wilderness” here is the eremos, the which I gave my students only the faintest rich, and dynamic our soundscapes are and others—were not so silent after all, I found. desert, and the casting of night sounds suggestion—a Cornell Sound Map (http:// how even the most mundane and common Barren mountain canyons echo with the as terrifying—whistling, violent, harsh, cornellsoundmap.wordpress.com) sounds (ceiling fans, air vents, elevators, the croaks of ravens, wind howls around rocks savage—is hardly coincidental. Those perhaps?—where they now offer listeners chatter around a table, and so forth) can be and through crevices, birds set up their home who are able to see (the Israelites) have a veritable auditory feast of campus and heard in new ways if we only take the time territories each spring with their voice, and little reason to fear while those who only community sounds as well as an aural record to listen. Composer Pauline Oliveros (http:// the sound of water is especially striking in hear (the Egyptians) are doomed to terror. of their work. It also provides them with deeplistening.org/site/content/about) has arid landscapes—no wonder, then, it features Sounds place identities. Now try reading the the ability to be transported back to the called what we were doing “deep listening”: through biblical and postbiblical literatures passage while listening to desert night winds moment they made the recording, to remind “[G]oing below the surface of what is heard in richly paradoxical form: rushing waters (listen on http://perspectives.ajsnet.org), themselves of where and who they were at and also expanding to the whole field of can be the sound of God’s voice or the imagining scorpions underfoot, a pitch-black that time. Sound is intimately interwoven sound. . . . unlocking layer after layer of sound of terrifying beasts and demons. In darkness, and the terror of indiscriminate or with memory, the body, and imagination. imagination, meaning, and memory down fact, these stories of desert saints betray a unidentifiable sounds. The affective force of On the last day of class, I asked my to the cellular level of human experience.” dynamic repertoire of sounds through which hearing (but not seeing) people to places— students how the experience of making Perhaps the best lesson for all of us was to understand Brandon LaBelle’s “acoustic here, the desert, a place that is closely tied to recordings shaped their experience and that recording both demands and informs territories,” to rethink how identities are memory, fear, and the sensory imagination. understanding of our surround-sound world: heightened listening skills, requiring us to fashioned through sensory experiences Consider another example, here taken some argued that recording provided them recognize relations between ourselves and the of place, and to enliven an embodied from the Life of Antony, the paradigmatic with a “sound sensitivity” they had never places we inhabit, the embodied experience experience of a sacred and sonorous desert. story of an Egyptian Christian hermit told experienced before; others said that recording of sensory landscapes and buildings, and the I hope to suggest by way of two very by the fourth-century Alexandrian bishop gave them a sense of presence and immersion acoustic cues that inform our sense of identity. brief examples how modern recordings can Athanasius: as the story begins, Antony hears Courtesy of the author.

50 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 51 call attention to the contours of the local Remembering Sound economy, to communal change in the post- Alanna E. Cooper Soviet years, and to the cycle of life itself. As the chickens in Nina’s compound had a set of sounds, the many people who lived loud ring. “Allo, Allo.” Some muffled My situation was different. My room was there did too. Ours was complicated because words, then Nina rustling across the tucked in a corner, with a small window that we spoke so many languages. Adding to the Ahouse. She opens the heavy door to looked onto the courtyard’s dark entryway. complexity were our halts and stammers my bedroom. It is 4 a.m. I am now awake. The From here, I missed the spectacle of the as we crossed linguistic boundaries. call is for me. It is my brother from New York. hens running away from the large rooster, Nina was studying Hebrew. Before the Those noises—which interrupted and his triumphant jumping on them. Soviet Union dissolved, she could not read my sleep one winter night in 1997—are That’s how the eggs got fertilized, Shmuly or speak the language. Now, though, with among the few sounds I remember from told me. The sounds of these activities ease of travel to the region, and an influx of the period I spent doing research in must have carried across the courtyard. representatives from international Jewish Samarkand, Uzbekistan. I was a disciplined But I was clearly not paying attention. organizations, Hebrew could be heard all doctoral student back then. I spent my Early one morning, Nina came into my over the town. Sharp witted and industrious, days at the Jewish institutions in town Courtesy of the author. room and surprised me, holding something Nina understood that the language could and visiting people in their homes, unexpected up to my face. It was an egg connect her to travelers—like myself—who conversing and interviews. that a chicken had just laid, warm against might come to her for room and board. By Each night, I stayed awake at my computer, But there is more to be said about sound. my cheek. Sometimes the breakfast she the time I met her, Nina had rudimentary recording what I had learned that day. One needs no expertise to notice and describe prepared for us included fresh eggs like skills, which she was working to improve. Today, my notes from those months feet shuffling, electricity humming, water this one. Other times, she sold or bartered I tutored her, poring over her Hebrew fill a row of binders that line my office in running. Such sounds are ever present. Yet the eggs. Once, she showed me a colorful textbook, she reading in a Russian Bukharian Cleveland, Ohio. I took time to read through they are often ignored, left unmentioned second-hand dress, which her neighbor accent, and me with American tones. them while preparing to write for this volume and undescribed. Maybe a phone ringing had given her in exchange for a few. Mostly, though, when the two of us on Jewish Studies and sound. I confess that or a door opening in Samarkand does At Passover time, a whole different were together I worked on my Russian. I found little related to the topic. Not only not sound much different than it does in group of chickens was brought into Nina’s She told me about her childhood, her is an auditory description of that 4 a.m. Cleveland. Unremarkable, perhaps it is not courtyard. They came to be slaughtered at marriage, and her relatives who had Courtesy of the author. call missing; I have almost no reference to worth writing about. Or maybe the human the hands of Levi Forta, another Chabad emigrated, speaking deliberately so I could sound at all. This essay explores why sound sense of sound is relatively undiscerning, emissary, who had flown in from Maine transcribe her stories. When she used is often left out of ethnographic description, and our vocabulary about the topic thin, for the holiday. By this time—a few years words I did not know, she repeated them, He was Nina’s son, who was longing for quality. When the lone rang, it and what might be gained by including it. so it seems there is little to convey. after the dissolution of the Soviet Union— and I added them to my vocabulary list. romance. He knew some English, and used could be heard across the courtyard. Was Before beginning, though, I should But descriptions that include sound can Samarkand’s Jewish population had been I also needed help with Bukharian. This it as swag. “You are beautiful,” he told Lolita, it for me? I wondered each time. Was it a clarify that when I use the term “sound” make a difference. Articulating the whirring drastically reduced as a result of mass Persian language (often referred to as Tajik) sounding like a Russian Humphrey Bogart. family member with whom I could speak here, I do not mean the same thing as music. of daily life in words allows us to capture the migration. Among those who left were all had been the Jews’ native tongue prior to “I love you,” he continued. Serious, and fluidly, in the effortless language of home? While I was doing research among central atmosphere of a place at a particular moment the city’s rituals slaughterers. On occasion, a the nineteenth century, when the region traditionally minded, Lolita had no interest Often such a call would come in Asia’s Jews (both in Uzbekistan and in their in time. Below is a portrayal of Jewish life in ritual slaughterer who lived in another part came under Russian control. Sometimes in Misha’s antics. She asked that we move the middle of the night, as friends and immigrant homes in the United States and Uzbekistan during the years after the fall of of the country traveled to Samarkand to help Nina and her husband spoke to one another to a separate room to work in quiet. relatives miscalculated the time difference Israel), I attended community celebrations, the Soviet Union, created by remembering out. But for the holidays, when the demand in Bukharian to discuss household logistics. The country’s national language between them and us, so far away. synagogue services, , and mourning sound. Or to put it more accurately, it is for chicken skyrocketed, this was not enough. The long consonants and rush of syllables stood apart from all these others. Since That’s what happened when my brother rituals. The music I heard at these events created by stretching to recall the sounds I Levi—who had spent a year in Samarkand were song to my ears. But their command independence, Uzbek (a Turkic language) called at 4 a.m. to tell me that he and his was almost all foreign to my American, have forgotten. I begin with the chickens: previously—returned to offer assistance. of the language was not sophisticated. Nina was becoming dominant in schools, places girlfriend had decided to get married. Ashkenazic ears. I had little context to When I asked Nina how a chicken egg In the mornings he traveled between was unable to help me with the speeches of work, and on the street. But in Nina’s I would go home for the wedding a few understand or characterize. Were the vocalists is fertilized, she must have thought it funny. the city’s two synagogues. Those who did I had recorded on small audiotapes. compound, it was heard only amongst months later. And then my life in Nina’s skilled or not? Was the music classical or “Don’t laugh,” I probably retorted sheepishly, not manage to catch him at either, knew For this, I turned to Lolita. Chiseled the Muslim university students who were compound fragmented into bits of disjointed contemporary? Were the forms amalgams, and she likely listened with an encouraging they could find him at Nina’s place, where cheekbones, her hair swept up, Lolita boarding with her. On occasion I used Russian information, scattered through my notes and if so—then of what? Likewise, I lacked smile, while I developed my question in he was staying with his friends. Just a few wore stylish shoes and carried herself to communicate with them. But they mostly and letters. Now, by working to recall sound, technical vocabulary. I grasped for descriptive Russian with some difficulty. “So, does it days after arriving, Levi told me he had with confidence. She was so sure of her kept to themselves, and I kept my distance, I have stitched it back together enough to words, finding only unsophisticated phrases, happen inside the chicken? Or once it is laid?” already killed about 280 chickens. I wish English grammar, which she had learned daunted by the prospect of breaking through formulate this microportrait of Jewish life such as “bouncy tunes,” and “piercing notes.” Shmuly laughed. He was also entertained I had paid attention to the sounds of the in school, that she sometimes corrected another cultural and linguistic boundary. in Samarkand in its waning, mobile, post- I have made peace with this gap in by my question. He was one of the young birds he picked up and dangled by their me. Lolita’s grandfather was a professor Uzbek, Russian, Hebrew, English, Communist days. Nina and her husband Boris my writing by acknowledging that others Chabad emissaries from New York. Like feet. Did they cry out? I cannot remember. and her uncle was a skilled orator with a and Tajik; these were the languages of our are still there, but likely not for much longer. with expertise in ethnomusicology have me, he was a boarder in Nina’s sprawling Nor can I recall the cackles of the strong command of classical Bukharian. compound. We tripped over them with addressed these issues: Ted Levin in The compound. He shared an apartment-sized chickens, the calls of the mating rooster, With her language skills and access to broken sounds as we worked to connect Alanna E. Cooper is director of Jewish Lifelong Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical unit with two other Chabad emissaries. Their or the sizzling of freshly laid eggs in her erudite family members, she was well with each other in utterances that took Learning at Case Western Reserve University. Travels in Central Asia, and Evan Rapport in large dining room windows overlooked Nina’s frying pan. Yet, as I work to conjure suited to help me translate my recordings. effort to deliver and to understand. She is a cultural anthropologist and author of his recently published Greeted with Smiles: the courtyard where they had a view of the them, these sounds give dimension to my Misha’s face lit up whenever Lolita On occasion an intruder reminded us and the Dynamics of Global Bukharian Jewish Musicians in New York. garden, the eating area, and the chicken yard. memories of Passover in Samarkand. They came to the compound to work with me. that language does not always have this Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2012).

52 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 53 since unlike many not everyone During shi’ur, kids bang on the locked The loudest sound of the day, quite Some Things I Heard at the Yeshiva at MTJ is studying the same text. back door of the library leading to the fire likely, is the collective response “yehey shmey Jonathan Boyarin My cell phone ringing to pull me out escape and thence to the play yard, or try the rabbo . . .” during the Kedushah. of the rhythm of group study, imperious as handle to see if they can get in through a After lunch, the sound of trop as the telephone on its stand in the hallway of shortcut. someone reviews the for The careful and muted sound Walter Benjamin’s childhood home as he Shuffling of pages as refers back to the coming Sabbath. Of a fruit falling from the tree describes in his Berlin Childhood around 1900. an earlier passage in the . Amidst the unbroken singing Someone’s watch beeps to mark the As Rebbe works through a difficult Jonathan Boyarin is the Diann G. and Thomas Of deep silence of the forest . . . hour. analysis in Tosafos that I’m incapable of Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies Mandelshtam At the table behind me, Rabbi Flinker following, I doze off, trying to catch myself at Cornell University. He previously held clicks his fingers, whether to get his study before I begin to snore. professorships at the University of North Carolina December 2015 partner’s attention or to help stress a logical Hershl Yekhezkl’s Gemara rips as he flips at Chapel Hill and the University of Kansas. He For the last four years, I have spent much of my point. back a couple of folios, turning them by the is the author and editor of numerous volumes free time studying at Mesivtha Tifereth The quiet rush of local traffic when the bottom of the page. of criticism, theory, and ethnography, recently Jerusalem (MTJ), the yeshiva on New York’s Lower window is open on this hideously mild day. Later, as everyone stands, facing the ’aron including Jewish Families (Rutgers University East Side where, for decades, Reb Dovid Feinstein Ten minutes later the window bangs shut kodesh and (roughly) east for the Minḥah Press, 2013) and A Fire Burns in Kotsk, a has presided as rosh yeshiva. MTJ includes a lower by itself, an echo of long-ago arguments prayer, coins jingle in a box borne translation of Menashe Unger’s Pshiskhe un school along with an advanced study hall, or bes about whether to keep the window open by my study partner. Kotsk (Wayne State University Press, 2015). medresh, which is where I study. The bes medresh or not. Then the rustle, like distant traffic is a large, roughly square, high-ceilinged room, or the waves on the seashore, of the air with huge windows on two sides, one of those sides conditioning switched on in mid-December. opening onto East Broadway. Unlike some yeshivas As we wait in the library for the shi’ur where students all face the front of the room, at to begin, Uncle Shlomo points to Zalie MTJ we sit at tables, and study pairs or chevruses Scharf sitting by the wall, where (unlike generally face each other rather than sitting across where I’m positioned) he will not be the from each other. My place is in the corner of the first to see the rosh yeshiva as he walks into bes medresh closest to the entrance and the street. the room. Shlomo explains: Zalie listens Opposite, facing the interior courtyard, another for the sound of the rosh yeshiva’s office corner has been closed off to form a separate library door closing, outside the bes medresh and room. Reb Dovid’s daily 11:00 a.m. Talmud shi’ur, across the hall, where we can’t see it from which I attend, is held in the library. Otherwise, Photo credit: Daniel Stein. the library. And apparently it’s true, because I am mostly preparing or reviewing, alone or Zalie stands up before any of us has heard with regular partners, the text covered in the or seen the rosh yeshiva approaching. shi’ur—right now, the tractate Bava Kamma. n the hallway outside the bes medresh, people walking, of course, but you don’t In shi’ur, the rosh yeshiva shows traces of For the past couple of months, I have quarters dropping into what is perhaps the hear them. a native Litvak phonology as he reads the attempted to note as sound, and not as semiosis, Ilast fifty-cent soda machine in New York, The liquid flapping of seforim being words of the Talmud, Rashi, and Tosafos. As a what I hear at the yeshiva. It is a difficult task cans dropping down, the top being popped. removed from the shelves. few more people drift in to the shi’ur, the since so much of the sound at MTJ consists of A burp? Yes, but perhaps unconnected. Catty-corner from me, Rabbi Berg and sound of the library door opening and closing, discursive textual study, or as I called it elsewhere, A sandwich or breakfast roll being Rabbi Fetterstein’s separate gemara niggunim footsteps, slight scraping of chairs. “Voices around the Text.” Here are some of my unwrapped from a plastic bag behind me. create a pleasant buzz. It reminds me of the A scraping sound under the table around notes, slightly edited and rearranged to help the I can’t tell what he’s saying but it’s Larry years I studied oboe with a master: when which we’re all sitting—I’ve heard it often reader imagine the spaces where these sounds Browner’s voice in the opposite corner of the we played scales together at a set interval, in shi’ur before. It must be someone scraping arise or are heard in the course of the study day. bes medresh, closer to the ’aron kodesh and to there was a clear third intertone that found his feet on the bars of the table. (It sounds Names are changed per ethnographic the windows facing the courtyard. Hershl itself at the place where our sounds met. like radiator pipes banging but there’s no convention, though I think there are no secrets here. Yekhezkl’s voice likewise distinguishable, The ebb and flow of conversations from radiator there.) Photo credit: Daniel Stein. but not the words, from the library. several chevrusas reminds me again of the Some of the “sentences” below, like Something between a murmur and a passage in Edmond Jabès’s Book of Questions Mandelshtam’s poem above, have no verbs. If cacophony of voices from three to five people where he clarifies that Jews at prayer only I could, I would have written this entire piece in the opposite corner. A young Hasid comes appear to be standing, and rocking on their without verbs. But I am no Mandelshtam. in at the table next to us and learns in a feet. Actually, he says, they are prone, and murmur, and continues to do so while his rocking on the waves of the sea. Here, the

friend has come into the bes medresh and sits conversations are the waves, and the words down across from him. The background I catch (“Rashi . . . actually . . . sure, but it murmur or cacophony gradually grows louder wasn’t a . . . let’s see the Rashi . . . vayter toward 11:00 a.m., as people drift into the bes vayter vayter . . . generally is . . .”) so many medresh. The clicking sound made by the legs bits of foam and spray that detach from of two chairs as the Hasid next to me stacks the current for a second and then return them so he can sit higher. But footsteps to it. Even if I do catch some of the words I walking on the carpet are silent: you see can’t necessarily tell what’s being studied,

54 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 55

bites, students cannot but begin to develop classes; and by the time it concludes, many ways music produces “magic beyond.” a deeper appreciation of Jewish cultures. If, the students feel as though they were at In particular, I find that incorporating music Questionnaire for example, they were to see Unzere kinder, the wedding. Pedagogically, the images into the classroom helps transport students out the extraordinary 1951 Yiddish feature film and the couple’s happiness concretize of the classroom and so, too, out of the middle What are ways that you find most useful to incorporate about post-Holocaust memory that was made the memories of the wedding rituals. of Michigan. Often, this transportation also in Poland, starring the great comedy team of The film begins with shots of the tish(es) involves changes to their own expectations sound, images, or other nontextual media into your Dzigan and Shumacher; hear Bialik’s “Be-‘ir (tables), where the bride and groom sing, and preconceived notions about the history ha-haregah” (listen on http://perspectives laugh, and toast their friends and family. and traditions of Judaism. Music informs Jewish Studies classrooms? .ajsnet.org) recited in Ashkenazic Hebrew; Celebrants sing a joyful version of the nearly every section of the intro-level Judaism watch interviews with Ladino speakers “Marseillaise” in honor of the groom’s French course I teach: from the place of ’Avinu (http://youtu.be/6q323m0RRPU), listen to relatives, and the bride speaks of her love for Malkeinu in the liturgy, the Sephardic origins David Biale speaks of in his poem. The song creates the a different subject was encouraging. Students Ladino music or to recordings of the greatest Ezra. The tishers bring Ezra to meet Olivia; of Lekha Dodi with its image of Sabbath as Department of History, University of longing for connection to the murdered who knew nothing about the topic engaged operatic H. azzanut, a tradition very few he immediately breaks down in tears. This bride/queen, to the writing of “Ha-tikvah” California, Davis world, but it can never fully bridge that with the theological debate and constructively synagogues around the world have been able scene is followed by the bedeken (veiling), the and the way the song eventually became the distance, thus serving as a theme for the interrogated artistic and scholarly choices to maintain; or make use of websites such signing of the ketubah, and more singing. As national anthem of the modern State of Israel. As the holder of the Emanuel Ringelblum course as a whole. Liz and I made in organizing and presenting as that of the National Sound Archives of the sun goes down, the groom’s parents escort But I also draw on slightly less traditional Professorship in Jewish History at the the story. I’m hopeful that the graphic the Jewish National and University Library a now sobbing Ezra down the aisle, and the music as well, including several of the music University of California, Davis, I teach several history will provide a useful and interesting (http://jnul.huji.ac.il/eng/music.html) that two engage in the rituals under the h . uppah . videos created by Yeshiva University’s a courses on the Holocaust. The challenge in Nina Caputo bridge between the documentary past and allow one to compare and contrast widely For most of my Midwestern students, capella group . A favorite teaching this subject is to make it possible Department of History, University of Florida contemporary modes of representation. differing versions of the same song, students these rituals are brand new; most have among students is their “Les Misérables for students who often have no personal will be made aware of the vast range of only ever been to Protestant or Catholic Medley,” (http://youtu.be/qmthKpnTHYQ) connection with the event to experience I was trained as an intellectual historian Jewish musical styles and their classroom ceremonies, and seeing a couple their age, which retells the Passover story by sampling it both intellectually and emotionally. of the Jewish , so my scholarly John M. Efron experiences will be deeply enriched. clearly in love and committed to their from the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Indeed, this is one of very few subjects in world has been one of texts. More precisely, Department of History, University of These are just a few examples of traditions, has a profound effect on them. novel. As the video plays, I ask students to note the university curriculum that have real it has been one of unadorned, often printed California, Berkeley what using sound can achieve from a The wedding is traditional, but the couple what they recognize and what is unfamiliar emotional impact, something I consider texts. Consequently, sound, images, and pedagogic standpoint. Of course, none have personalized it, making choices that to them. The list of recognizable elements important to discuss with the students. What other forms of nontextual media have rarely My remarks largely pertain to teaching of these resources is intended to replace reflect their commitments and their love of regularly includes the basics: the enslavement is the appropriate emotional response to played a significant role in my teaching. In undergraduate survey courses in modern textual sources, but rather to supplement Judaism. Because the video covers almost all of the in Egypt, Moses’s birth story, genocide? Where is the dividing line between my experience, images of medieval texts, Jewish history or courses on modern Jewish and enhance them. Jewish culture in of the “major moments,” I am able to pause the plagues. When we move to what was new kitsch and art in reaction to this event? illuminations, windows, and buildings have culture, loosely defined. We live and work its religious and secular forms is one of the video and ask students what is going to them, at least one brave person usually One way to answer these questions is by limited application when teaching medieval at an unprecedented moment in the history the greatest of print cultures, but early on, discussing what changes the couple raises a hand and asks, “What was with the using music not only to set a mood but also Jewish history. And attempts to integrate of pedagogy with respect to the sheer on, “Hear, O Israel” was the command, has made to the rituals they read about (I guy holding the two plates in the video?” to raise important issues. I typically start my diverse sources and media into classroom quantity and range of nontextual resources testament to the fact that listening, sound, usually assign a chapter of Harvey Goldberg’s Of course, “the guy with the two plates” course on the “Memory of the Holocaust” presentations have been only marginally available to us. To take full advantage of this and audible recitation and proclamation are Jewish Passages as background reading). provides an opportunity to introduce the with a Yiddish poem, set to music by Chava successful. When I played music in a class opportunity, we must first reconceptualize fundamental elements of the culture as well. I know it’s not very innovative to idea of . We next read a section from Alberstein. The course on memory is, in fact, on medieval and early modern Jewish the classroom. Instead of merely conceiving say “I use a YouTube video” in response to Exodus Rabbah and I explain how midrash the only course in the History Department Iberia, for example, the students found the of it as a venue where we lecture or lead Audio and video examples are included this question, but this find has been truly functions as a way to address “gaps” in the that investigates the cultural memory of rhythms, melodies, and lyrics to be alienating discussions over written texts, it would help in the online version of this article at serendipitous. Year after year even the most biblical text. I ask students to figure out what a historical event, so it is challenging for at best and humorous at worst. And I was enormously to consider the classroom as a http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. apathetic students start smiling and laughing biblical “gap” sits behind Exodus Rabbah 1:26, students used to more conventional courses. at a loss for how to mediate effectively. I’ve venue that also caters to sensory experience. and contributing to discussion. If anyone where young Moses, playing on Pharaoh’s lap, The poem with which I start the class is had better luck with film, but to say that Nontextual sources can be especially out there knows Ezra or Olivia, can you tell reaches for the jeweled crown atop the king’s by Binem Heller (1908–1998), a Polish-born there are few medieval Jewish historical helpful in our increasingly diverse classrooms, Meira Z. Kensky them that for seven years, college students head; Pharaoh and his counselors, suspicious Yiddish poet living in Israel. Entitled “Mein films available is an understatement. where larger numbers of non-Jewish Department of Philosophy and Religion, in Iowa have vicariously participated in that Moses might grow up to steal the crown, shvester Chaya,” it is the poet’s memory of Yet I’ve long believed that many episodes students now take our courses, most of Coe College celebration of their wedding and think put the child to a test. As in the , his sister “with green eyes and black braids” in medieval Jewish history lend themselves to whom have never heard the sound of any they are the loveliest couple around? Oh, two bowls are set before Moses: one with gold who raised him when their mother went off translation into visual or dramatic form that or Jewish music. Indeed, Seven years ago, facing a recalcitrant “Intro and that they have somewhat become and the other with burning coals. Not shown to work. Only in the fifth stanza do we learn could thereby provide a fruitful pedagogical this observation applies to an expanding to Religion” class and looking for anything the personification of “Jews” for them? in the Maccabeats rendition is how, although that “a German burnt her in Treblinka.” The tool. With this in mind, I embarked on a number of Jewish students as well. If any of to spur more energy in the room, I stumbled Moses reaches out for the plate of gold, an poet writes his song in Yiddish since that was collaborative project with a graphic artist, our students has heard a Jewish language, it across “The Wedding of Ezra and Olivia” angel intervenes and pushes his hand toward the language in which he remembers her. Liz Clarke, to produce a graphic history of is, understandably, Hebrew. But how many on YouTube, an eight-minute highlight Kelly Murphy the coals, leaving Moses with a burned tongue. Indeed, he is the only one who remembers the Barcelona disputation. This forced me to American college students have ever even reel of a wedding in Jerusalem between Department of Philosophy and Religion, As students soon realize, the midrash explains her and he preserves that memory in carefully consider how visual (though not heard non-Israeli forms of Hebrew, Yiddish, possibly the two loveliest people on the Central Michigan University the biblical assertion that Moses was “heavy the yiddishe medine, where, ironically, entirely nontextual) media could provide or Ladino? I don’t think it matters that they planet. More moving than your typical of mouth and heavy of tongue” (Exod. 4:10). Yiddish has become an alien language. a foundation for a textured introduction to are unable to understand these languages; videography, the film is filled with music, In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s With the “Les Misérables Medley,” the magic The by Jewish-Christian relations in the Middle Ages. letting them just sample the sounds, rhythms, as friends and family spontaneously break Stone, Dumbledore once notes, “Ah, music, a of music leads the class to the magic beyond: is deeply evocative and sets the mood for the Though I haven’t had the opportunity to use and cadences makes for a good beginning. By out into song, people randomly show up magic beyond all we do here!” As someone namely, to the textual world of the Oral Torah. class. But hers is not a traditional Yiddish this yet in a medieval Jewish history class, showing films (many of which are subtitled with guitars, and the couple themselves sing who teaches undergraduates who are (mostly) melody, so it stands for the same alienation experimental presentation of portions of the so students won’t be completely unaware of under the h . uppah . Since discovering this unfamiliar with Judaism, I rely heavily on A video example is included in the online version from the memory of the event that Heller graphic history to undergraduates in a class on what is going on) or using well-chosen sound video, I have incorporated it into multiple a number of teaching tricks, including the of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org.

56 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 57

Esther Raizen Seth Sanders compare the answers. One solution to this gap literature was used, enable me to show the class nearly every Middle Eastern piyyut chants and to Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Religious Studies, is of course simply to bring a rabbi into class, preserved, and transmitted, besides providing premodern edition and the ways in which address the current piyyut fad in Israel. The University of Texas at Austin University of California, Davis but logistically and pedagogically that often them the thrill of contact with earlier times. different illustrators interpreted the text. I have occasionally organized field poses challenges, especially when a clergy Thus, in my courses on Hebrew liturgical When teaching a course on ’s trips. For an undergraduate course on Islam As an enthusiast of computer-assisted Since I can draw while I lead a discussion, I member coming from one denomination or poetry, a visit to the library demonstrates, poetry, I was able to show the class two and Judaism, I arranged for a trip to the language instruction, I became an early like to draw big pictures on the blackboard as perspective attempts to offer global answers. more forcefully than anything I could say, autograph Genizah manuscripts of Halevi’s 96th St. Mosque, where the imam kindly adopter of the internet in the mid-1990s. I we talk, things like the Jerusalem temple or In order to address this issue, a few the prominence of poetry in the liturgical documenting his famous pilgrimage. They met with the class; and to the Metropolitan have since created and posted a large volume the impaled victims on Assyrian banquet hall years ago I set out to collect video clips of practice of earlier times. The illuminations were thrilled to find that they could make out Museum of Art, where a docent guided of open educational resources for Hebrew reliefs. Seeing the physical form of a written rabbis from different denominations (as in some manuscripts afford another way the Arabic title (written in Hebrew letters) us through the collection of Islamic art. I language instruction, relying heavily on idea helps both me and the students think well as other, non-Jewish clergy) answering of looking at the texts besides the more of the Kuzari in Halevi’s own handwriting! once organized a tour to the Cloisters for nontextual media in the development about how it could play out, and keeps all of a variety of questions. I precirculated the philological work that we do in class. For a I almost always devote a session of my students interested in Medieval Studies, process and in the pedagogy underlying us awake. Ancient artifacts make you think list of questions—all designed around my course on medieval Hebrew rhymed prose liturgical poetry courses to the associated again with the guidance of a docent. For our Hebrew curriculum, where I follow the about the dialectic between physical realities anticipated teaching needs over the next stories, I developed a session on the history music, inviting a cantor/musicologist who an undergraduate class on common motifs inverted-classroom model. In this model, and the human imagination in history. few years in a variety of courses—and then of the illustrations of Ibn Sahula’s Meshal lectures, plays recordings, and demonstrates in Greek and biblical narratives, I held preparation work outside the classroom I’ve taken them to Assurnasirpal’s throne with the help of a video team supplied by the ha-kadmoni, the first-known Hebrew work that at the piano. Last year I also invited a an after-hours showing of the 1977 film creates a firm basis for skill-activation room at the Met and read them Ezekiel’s university went to their offices and conducted was designed by the author to be illustrated. performer who specializes in Jewish music Iphigenia in Aulis (with pizza) to provide an work in the classroom itself, minimizing description of the hybrid monster angels with an interview that usually lasted about an Our holdings are sufficiently extensive to of the Near East and Israel to demonstrate opening for our discussion of the play. my involvement in activities that allow their eyes closed. When they opened them hour. I ended up interviewing five clergy for student independent learning and the first thing they saw were real, two-ton members, creating about seven hours of raw maximizing the efficacy of class-time hybrid monster angels—the winged man- video footage in digital form. The university’s activities where student-student and bull statues that flanked the throne of the technicians cleaned the footage and marked student-instructor interactions take place. most powerful being on earth: the Assyrian transition points. (For a public sample of how I In the contemporary language king. Seeing how an ancient object would used these clips to create a short video on why classroom, books have gradually moved to take up space in the real world can give us people enter the clergy, see the video “Serving the background, and internet-based materials surprising new insights and questions. God” on YouTube: http://goo.gl/qs4067.) are used more and more frequently. Such This is true of sound as well. Having When I am teaching a topic, I am now materials allow instructors to respond students sing part of the Songs of the Sabbath able to quickly find the relevant video clips for Did you know? to students’ expectations for a dynamic Sacrifice or the hymn from Revelation makes each of the clergy, and using image software environment in which images, sounds, them realize this stuff was performed by on my desktop computer, splice together animation, and interactivity are integrated people with their whole bodies, and consider answers. When we are talking, for example, The AJS website is a central location for resources on Jewish Studies research, teaching, and program into the learning process. With unlimited how texts would have been experienced. about the meaning of prayer, or abortion, I development, including: server capacity and robust support from our Ultimately most of our most profound can then integrate this ten-minute clip into information technology services, I work ways of knowing, learning, and doing the class, usually either at the beginning or Syllabi Directory: A listing of more than 150 syllabi, organized and cross-listed by topic. Designed to with sound files in designing listening things come from senses beyond reading. toward the end. This allows me to give “faith” assist AJS members in developing new courses and identifying new readings for current classes. New comprehension activities, flashcards with But reading, writing, and thinking are in a voice but to do so in a controlled manner. submissions are welcome. sound, and drag-and-drop and matching dialogue with them. They’re not things that exercises. I ask students to articulate sitting down taking notes might naturally A video example is included in the online version Public Programming Best Practices Resource Guide: A guide for scholars launching public programs stories and problems based on images, facilitate. But if you ask the right questions of this article at http://perspectives.ajsnet.org. in conjunction with a Jewish Studies department, including information on audience targeting, and direct them to internet searches for of it, just a moment of seeing or singing can marketing and outreach, program evaluation, and more. authentic materials, including, among provoke you to think in whole new ways. others, jewelry, Judaica artifacts, short Raymond P. Scheindlin The Profession: A collection of articles, links, and webinars pertaining to professional matters in Jewish movies and music clips, commercials, The Jewish Theological Seminary Studies, including the job search, fundraising for Jewish Studies, and non-academic careers for Jewish and photos from historical archives. All Michael L. Satlow Studies scholars. these lead into class activities in the form Program in Judaic Studies / Department of Most of my teaching deals with medieval of conversations, debates, presentations, Religious Studies, Brown University Hebrew texts. I am fortunate to teach at an Perspectives on Technology: An archive of columns by Heidi Lerner, Hebraica/Judaica cataloguer at opinion surveys, arts-and-crafts work, institution that has a major research library Stanford University Libraries, on technology-based resources for Jewish Studies teaching and research, role-play, and calligraphy exercises. One of the major challenges that I have always with an enormous collection of manuscripts, including links to all electronic resources. While I do not yet work with specific faced in my classes is the gap between the including a huge collection of Genizah competency standards for visual literacy, my academic approach to religion and student fragments. The availability of these materials And more, including Positions in Jewish Studies, Data on the Field, Directory of Jewish Studies extensive use of images in both preparatory expectations. We examine texts and scholarly makes it easy for me to supplement my Programs, Events and Announcements in Jewish Studies, Directory of Fellowships and Awards, The and class activities, and the established interpretations in class but at the end of textual teaching by showing students the Art of Conferencing, Registry of Dissertations-in-Progress. expectation that students learn how to the day many students also want to know raw materials from which these texts are interpret and produce visual materials, make how “most” Jews might approach the topic. derived and from which they make their To access all these resources and more, visit www.ajsnet.org/resources.htm. me well positioned to adopt such standards Frequently, what they really want to do is way to printed editions. Putting students and incorporate them into our program’s to talk to a rabbi, ask questions for which into such close contact with these materials Please e-mail syllabi and any suggestions for the Resources section of the website to [email protected]. learning objectives for the upcoming years. they already have scholarly responses, and makes concrete for them the ways in which

58 AJS Perspectives SPRING 2016 59 Association for Jewish Studies December 18–20, 2016 Hilton San Diego 48th ANNUAL Bayfront Hotel CONFERENCE San Diego, CA

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60 AJS Perspectives