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 …
14/11/2024
Elfassy, Raphael (1939-2019)
Raphael Elfassy was born on November 4, 1939 in Rabbat, Morocco. Like many children in the Moroccan community, he developed a precise and meticulous knowledge of sacred texts. He was …
13/11/2024
Finzi, Graciane (1945)
Born into a family of musicians on July 10, 1945, Graciane Finzi first studied at the Casablanca Conservatory, directed at the time by Georges Friboulet, then at the Conservatoire National …
07/11/2024
Attia, Adolphe (1937)
Born into a modest family on April 23, 1937 in M’Sila, Algeria, Adolphe Attia was raised by his aunt in Bousaada, his mother having already had six children and his …
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 …
14/10/2024
Schumann, Henriette born Halphen (1911-2002)
Daughter of Fernand Halphen and Alice de Koenigswarter, Henriette Halphen inherited a taste for music and art from her parents. She began playing the organ in her mother's mansion on rue Dumont D'Urville, for which she composed two charming melodies, Ombre et Lumière and Sérénité …
