Music in the Jewish community of Palestine 1880 – 1948 – A Social History

Jehoash Hirshberg

Oxford University Press – Clarendon Paperbacks, 19-12-1996, 312 p.

This book by Jehoash Hirshberg presente a social history of music of a Jewish community in Palestine since the beginning of the Jewish immigration in Palestine in 1880 until the Declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. This is the fascinating story of a small society of immigrants and refugees who established a professional musical institution internationally renowned, facing two world wars, local fights and national war at a large scale. Although it was under Ottomane domination, followed by British domination, the Jewish society of Palestine was almost autonomous about culture, its musical culture fought to find a balance between a transplanted European heritage and strong ideologic desire to get inspiration from the East.

The professor Hirschberg starts by describing the music in Palestine under the Ottomane domination, then retraces the turbulent history of the 70 following years in a chronologic way. The last chapters are dedicated to the wide spectrum of ideologic and social polemics that rule the musical scene during all that period.

As such, his book will interest not only the historians of music, but also the social historians and cultural anthropologists and historians of contemporary Judaismn.

Purchase the book

You may also like

ERLANGER, CAMILLE (1863-1919)

Of Jewish German and Alsatian origin, Camille Erlanger is one of the opera composers of the "belle époque"

CONCERT LES BUBBEY MAYSE – LE PETIT MATIN DU GRAND SOIR

Watch excerpts from the Bubbey Mayse concert, the opening concert of the 21st edition of the Jazz'N'Klezmer Festival, on November…

CONCERT Kalarash – Klezmer music, Yiddish and French songs

Watch excerpts from the Kalarash - Klezmer music, Yiddish and French songs album release concert, held on March 26, 2023…

The Wolf and the Lamb – Live at the Shakh

This album by klezmer legend Yale Strom and his band Hot Pstromi was recorded in the synagogue of Holesov, Czech…