Feature articles

The Music of the Jews in Italy: A Short Introduction

The history of Jewish music in Italy is long, fascinating, and filled with contradictions. Length is due to the very history of Italian Jewry, whose origins go back more than …

The songs of Chanukah

Discover the most important songs of Chanukah that punctuate the eight days of this Festival of Lights in the very heart of winter …

Prayers to the tune of La Marseillaise!

The Jewish liturgy is full of surprises! In 1993, while I was coordinating the activities of the Yuval Association for the preservation of Jewish musical traditions, under the direction of …

Rosh Hashanah Seder among North African Jews

The Rosh Hashanah Night Seder consists of the consumption of symbolic foods - known as simanim (signs) - and the recitation of prayers. This tradition dates back at least 2,000 years and was first celebrated in the communities of the Mediterranean Area …

Jewish Music in Spain

Article about the historical situation of Jewish Music in Spain, by Jorge Rozemblum, director of Radio Sefarad and Spanish correspondent of the European network of Jewish music …

The organ in the Jewish tradition

On May 21, 1856, the conference of the French chief rabbis, presided by the chief rabbi of France Salomon Ulmann (1806 - 1865), endorsed the use of the organ in the Consistorial temples. This decision was subject of a lively debate between the holders of Orthodox Judaism and the reformers …

Esther, a Purim oratorio by the composer Lidarti (1730- ap. 1793)

Rediscovered in 1997, the score of the oratorio Ester (1774) by the composer Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti is to this day the longest and richest work of all Hebrew art music …

The Judeo-Portuguese rites in France : Bordeaux, Bayonne, Paris

Engaged in a PhD research work, Hervé Roten studied during seven years the music of the Judeo-Portuguese communities from all sides. He collected precious information, and his thesis that was defended in 1997 gives us the core of it. This work was rewarded by the Zadoc-Kahn Association Award in 1998. …

Shabbat songs

The Shabbat, the day of rest, is a very important event of Jewish life. And the songs that rhythm this particular day hold a major place, at the synagogue as …

Thoughts about the sung Torah

Jean-Philippe Amar studies in the University of Paris IV Sorbonne and prepares a PhD on the cantilation of the Thora the Jewish communities of Paris. The reading of the Torah, …

You may also like

Léon Algazi (1890-1971), a Jewish music pioneer in France

In the "Life Courses" series, Jacques Algazi (1934-2021) reveals the life of his father, Léon Algazi (1890-1971), a tireless intellectual…

Sefarad in the piano – Toni Costa

Inspired by Judeo-Spanish folk poetry, jazz, early music and the popular rhythms of flamenco, the pianist Toni Costa presents his…