Monash University
The Australian Archive of Jewish Music focuses on the following kind of music as found in Australia and Asia:
– Yiddish folk and Klezmer music
– Liturgical and paraliturgical music encompassing Ashkenazi, Baghdadi and Sephardi cantorial traditions
– secular music of Jewish Oriental communities
– Chassidic music
– Holocaust songs
– Jewish popular and art music and popular and art music performed by Jews
The Archive has accumulated around 1,000 records, over 200 audio-cassettes and approximately 50 video-cassettes. The collection is representative of the rich and varied musical styles and traditions brought to Australian shores by Jews from numerous waves of migration over the past two hundred years and thus provides valuable substance for academic scholarship. The collection is also a window to the Jewish music cultures that developed along trade routes to Asian cities such as Bombay, Rangoon, Singapore, Penang, Jakarta, Surabaya, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Books and articles relating to the Jewish music in these areas are currently being written by top-ranking academics for a world-wide readership.
