Jewish Organists and Organs in German Synagogues
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Jewish Organists and Organs in German Synagogues The title alone sounds nonsensical to most of us. But there is now an entire book on the subject, carried out with meticulous care by a German writer, describing herself as “a scholar who is not Jewish”, prompted by her accidental discovery that such people and activities once flourished. More than that, they continue into our present era and will do so in the future, it is hoped. Her research led to a comprehensive work in German, published in 2005. Now we have its English translation, published by the Oxford University Press in 2009: The Organ and Its Music in German-Jewish Culture by Tina Frühauf ISBN 978-0-19-533706-8 (284 pages, hard-back) We regard the organ as a Christian possession, a vital part of the religious service. But it was only slowly accepted ca. 900—1100 CE, when still a primitive instrument, and even then it was not incorporated into the liturgy. By comparison, instrumental music (whatever its form may have been) was apparently used in prayer by the ancient Hebrews; there is even a possibility that an organ — the magrepha — was used in the Temple in Jerusalem. It was not until the 15th century that Christianity adopted the organ as a devotional instrument, and this was slow to take hold. The Presbyterian Church, for example, did not accept the organ in services until well into the 19th century. There was concern that organ music would be regarded as frivolous, unworthy of the gravity of religion. Jewish orthodox practice continues to take this attitude. An organ (more probably an harmonium) is often in the choir loft of the synagogue, but it is there expressly to entertain wedding guests, for it has no place in the service. However, Frühauf has found evidence that some synagogues in Prague in the 1590s had tiny organs (portatives), used on Friday evening Sabbath services, if only to accompany the psalms. An occasional house also had such an instrument for religious purposes. There was even a Jewish organ-builder in Prague, Meir Mahler. Some Italian synagogues considered using organs too, but rabbinical opinion generally opposed the idea, if only because the organ was known to be a Christian possession. This opinion remained in other European countries too in succeeding centuries. However, the practice was retained in Prague until 1745, when all Jews were expelled; to be reinstated the next century when the Jews were readmitted, if limited then to Reform synagogues. This leads to a discussion of the appallingly bitter history Jews have sustained. (Much of the following comes from material in the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1957.) Two thousand years ago there was great unrest under the Roman rule of the biblical homeland, leading to the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem, in 70 CE, and a universal prohibition of music at services as a sign of mourning. At that time, Jews and Christians lived harmoniously side by side as the latter were also under persecution. The Jews made their last stand under Bar-Kochba in 132—135 against the Romans. The ensuing massacre now terminated Jewish access to Jerusalem and forced their dispersal (Diaspora) from this region. They settled in Northern Africa, Italy and Greece, and ultimately found their way into Spain, France and the Rhineland region of Germany. With the Roman adoption of Christianity, ca. 300, Jews came under pressure to convert, for these religions were no longer coexisting peacefully. Freedom for the Jewish minority was generally not granted and public office was out of the question. The Church took a divided attitude: the Jews were ‘Christ-killers’ (a view not officially withdrawn by the Vatican until recent years), yet to be kept as a continuing line, if in public contempt, “as evidence for the truth of Christianity”. During the Moorish occupation of North Africa and Spain late in the 1st millennium came a complete relaxation of such attitudes and unrestricted development of Jewish life: a golden age. This was maintained in the early years of Christian rule in Spain, and also under the Carolingian rule in France (ca. 750—1000) and Germany (ca. 750—900). Two leading names in Jewish life shortly after: Judah Halevi, 1086—1141 and Moses Maimonides, 1135—1204. Most Jews were not learned scholars, of course, but peasant farmers, having difficulty competing with their Christian neighbours. Some found their way more readily in commerce as merchants and money-lenders, the latter subject to allegations of usury. In the 1st Crusade (1096), a Jewish massacre in the Rhineland drove the remaining community eastwards. Similar catastrophes followed: England in 1290 and France in 1306. The excuse offered was that Jews had poisoned the wells or in some other way caused the Black Death, etc. Such outbursts were smaller then in Germany — sporadic, local. The Jews were encouraged to settle in Poland by ‘Casimir the Great’, 1333—70. Spanish massacres occurred in 1391 and 1411. Many Jews sought escape in an outward show of baptism but still continued to practise Judaism in secret; such people were labelled Marranos (Spanish word for pigs, as they were then supposedly pig-eaters?). They flouted danger by transmitting Jewish tradition to their children, who in later generations founded colonies in Turkey, then prepared to accept these settlers. The Church became aware of the Marranos and opened the Inquisition in 1478, seeking to stamp out this practice, if with astonishing barbarity. Finding even that inadequate, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, Portugal in 1496, and Italian regions under Spanish rule in 1597. By then, all western Europe was closed to Jewish settlement except for small regions in Italy and Germany. Most Jews were now in eastern Europe: Poland, Russia and Roumania, living in ghettos. The term arose in Venice, where it was the name for the Jewish quarter. It was soon applied to all such places in Italy; in Germany Judengasse [Jews’ alley] and in France Carrière des Juifs [Jews’ course]. The 3rd Lateran Council in 1179 forbade Christians “lodging amongst infidels” but did not enforce this until 1555, during the counter-Reformation. The ghetto was a separate region, even walled, with street gates permitting entrance; these were locked at night and also during some church festivals, e.g., Maundy Thursday to the following Saturday. Such times were greatly feared, as enraged mobs (allegedly inspired by their priests’ sermons) regularly made an attack on the ‘Christ-killers’ each Good Friday. Jewish leaders maintained order within the ghetto and were obliged to collect the excessive taxes imposed by the State. A special badge (yellow) and/or hat had to be worn when outside the ghetto during daylight hours as general identification, yellow being regarded as degrading, for it was associated with prostitutes. The size of the ghetto was fixed, permitting no expansion of land area. Additional storeys were necessary, whenever the population increased; sunlight became scarce in the narrow, winding streets. Crowding was extreme, facilitating the spread of infectious disease. The greatest concentration of ghettos was in Russia by accident, due to the partition of Poland in 1772—95: over that period, Russia ‘inherited’ all the Jews formerly in Poland. The Jews came to be massed in what amounted to one enormous ghetto, the Pale of Settlement (1791), well to the east. There, the Russian leaders sometimes treated them with kindness but more often brutally. Under tsar Alexander II (1855—81), for example, craftsmen and intellectuals could shift into Russia proper, 1855—65. However, pogroms (Russian word for destruction) were more usual, particularly in the 1870s and 1880s, forcing many Jews to flee to English-speaking countries. The Romanoffs (from Alexander III, 1881—94) far worsened the situation by re-introducing the mediaeval scapegoat policy, later to be used so much by the Nazis. The downtrodden Russian peasant was given the idea that their circumstance was of Jewish origin. Several Jewish massacres were prompted and financed by the Russian State in this way. The Russian defeat by Japan in 1904—05 provided another excuse for pogroms. The modern era for Jews commenced with Moses Mendelssohn (1729—86), grandfather of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809—47), the musician. He was a religious Jew, who translated the first five books of the bible into modern German and tried to restore old traditions in Judaism. He also led the move for emancipation, encouraging his fellow-Jews to facilitate their assimilation into contemporary German life by studying secular subjects, and by making themselves more acceptable to their Christian neighbours. To begin, they must be fluent in the local language, apart from the Yiddish of the ghetto: mediaeval German with a few Hebrew words is an oversimplified description of this language but a reasonable starting point; it arose early in the second millennium. Jews in Germany and other parts of Europe struggled with the concept of emancipation at a time when anti-Semitism was still rife. Some went further in choosing the ‘full’ assimilation of conversion instead, either for themselves or their children: e.g., Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Benjamin Disraeli, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gustav Mahler, Wanda Landowska, Arnold Schönberg, Arthur Schüller, etc. The concept of emancipation (applied in this case as the Jewish Enlightenment or Haskalah) was laid down in the American Constitution and Bill of Rights (1789—91), and taken up by the leaders of the French Revolution. They had no love for their Jews but preached freedom for all: Jews would be tolerated if they created wealth and became ‘useful’ citizens. Napoleon accepted these premises and imposed Jewish equality in most lands he conquered. He expected Jews to assimilate with all speed but community attitudes were slow to change and many Jews remained wary after centuries of ghetto life.