Perspectives on Jewish Music

Perspectives on Jewish Music presents five unique and engaging explorations of Jewish music. Areas covered include self-expression in contemporary Jewish secular music, the rise of popular music in the American synagogue, the theological requirements of the cantor, the role of women in Sephardic music and society, and the personal reflections of a leading figure in American synagogue music. Its wide-ranging topics and disciplinary approaches give evidence for the centrality of music in Jewish religious and secular life, and demonstrate that Jewish music is as diverse as the Jews themselves. From these studies, readers will gain an appreciation of both what Jewish music is and what it does. This book will be useful for students, practitioners, and scholars of Jewish secular and religious music and Jewish cultural studies, as well as ethnomusicologists specializing in Jewish or religious music.

The diversity of subjects addressed in the book's rich bibliography of mostly English-language sources on music in Jewish culture further emphasizes the difficulty of coming to a useful definition of 'Jewish music.', Perspectives on Jewish Music gives voice to a diverse choir of intellectual, passionate, original and committed approaches in exploring what is Jewish and what exactly is musical about Jewish Music. Friedmann demonstrates that the Jewish mouth sings colorful tones on many coasts, in various guises and genres—always surprising and thoughtful while all the while broadening an already supple tradition.

Jonathan L. Friedmann is cantor of Bet Knesset Bamidbar in Las Vegas, Nevada and editor of Jewish Sacred Music and Jewish Identity (2008), The Value of Sacred Music (2008), and Music in Jewish Thought (2009).