Inventing Jewish Music

It was 1848, and the music of central Europe's Jewish communities was in a state of chaos. In the cities, acculturation was moving ahead full throttle; in the villages and shtettls, there was a growing sense of isolation and abandonment. The very nature of Jewish identity was being questioned from within Jewish society and challenged from without. Traditional music, once a symbol of Jewish identity and an embodiment of Jewish community through performance, seemed as if it was falling into decay while the musical life of Jews continued to disintegrate. The year 1848 was, however, not a time of passive acquiescence, and the Jewish cantors of central Europe, troubled by the growing awareness that Jewish musical practices differed from community to community, from country to country, turned to the publication of a journal to enact a program of musical reform: Liturgische Zeitschrift zur Veredelung des Synagogengesangs mit Berücksichtigung des ganz Synagogenwesens ['Liturgical journal for the edification of music in the synagogue, with consideration of the entire synagogue life”].