08/05/2025
Death and mourning
As at all stages of Jewish life, the end of life and the mourning that follows are accompanied by rituals combining liturgical texts, symbolic gestures and sometimes, but more rarely, music …
07/05/2025
Religious Initiation (Bat and Bar Mitzvah)
The Bat or Bar Mitzvah marks the entry of boys and girls into religious adulthood. This religious initiation ceremony is marked by many liturgical and musical moments …
06/05/2025
Circumcision (Brit-Milah)
On the eighth day of life, the boys' circumcision is accompanied by poetic songs celebrating their entry into the Abrahamic Covenant …
27/02/2025
Leopold Kleinman-Kozłowski (1918-2019) – The last klezmer of Galicia
This article by Polish musicologist Sylwia Jakubczyk-Ślęczka introduces us to the life and work of Leopold Kleinman-Kozłowski (1918-2019), one of Galicia's last klezmer musicians …
16/01/2025
Baqqachot
On Saturday mornings in winter, before sunrise, Jews from the Maghreb and the Middle East gather at the synagogue to sing baqqachot, a set of liturgical, sometimes mystical poems …
19/11/2024
The wedding
The Jewish wedding is celebrated according to numerous customs and laws designed to bring out its full spiritual and material significance. In this article, we listen to the recitation of the 7 blessings in the Ashkenazi rite, taken from an historic recording made in 1933 …
27/10/2024
Jewish Patrons, Musicians and Composers during the Third French Republic (1870-1940)
Between 1870 and 1940, musical life in France depended largely on the support of a few enlightened, music-loving patrons. Among these patrons were a significant number of Jews …
14/04/2024
THE PASSOVER SEDER IN THE MOROCCAN RITE
In this article, we present the main songs and prayers of the Passover Seder evening, in the Moroccan rite …
13/10/2023
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 …
10/12/2022
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 …
