Borns Jewish Studies Program

In this course, we will examine the ways in which people have employed music to articulate, symbolize, depict, and reflect on the Jewish experience in East and Central Europe. We will approach much of the material in chronological order, focusing especially on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By using music as our entry way into discourses surrounding religion, politics, history, identity, belonging, and nationhood, this course offers a musical window into the cultural history of Jewish communities in Poland, Russia and the USSR, Germany, Austria, and Ukraine. Some of the questions we will consider include: how did Jews employ music to negotiate national belonging in the East and Central European region? How did Jews use music to articulate a Jewish identity in the face of genocide, trauma, and antisemitism? What was the function of music during and after the Holocaust? How did the non-Jewish world influence Jewish musical practice? How did the Haskalah affect Jewish music in the Synagogue? We will explore these questions and more over the course of the semester by reading diverse literature from a variety of perspectives.