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Dear Friends,
New Year’s greetings for 2024 to you and yours! It has been a difficult few months since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7. As always, we in the Zamir community hold strong our belief that music can be comforting, healing, and cathartic—through our offerings, we can try to infuse some joy and light in the darkness. In this issue, Josh Jacobson muses about the history of what is called “Jewish Music.” We also offer a glimpse of what’s ahead—including a major, though temporary, change in leadership—and take a look back at our fall events.
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In each issue of E-Notes, Artistic Director Joshua Jacobson offers his unique insights and experiences as a world-renowned scholar, composer, conductor, and influential teacher of Jewish music.
The Father of Jewish Music
Any investigation into the field of Jewish Music must start with Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938), pictured. Idelsohn was known as the inventor of “Jewish Music”—not so much for his compositions (although he did write some music) as for his research, his teaching, his publications. Idelsohn was the first to develop an overarching idea of "Jewish Music" as a concept, the first to conceive of a history of Jewish music.
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Idelsohn came of age at a time when the relatively new sciences of anthropology and ethnomusicology were advocating the study (and salvage) of the cultural artifacts of isolated communities. It was also a time when many ethnic groups were calling for independence from the great empires of the day—both political and cultural independence. Jewish nationalists were promoting the idea that all Jews, as one people derived from one ancient nation, now would return to their roots. This ideology became the central focus of Idelsohn’s work: collecting music from Jewish communities around the world, demonstrating that all Jewish music derived from a source in ancient Israel, and returning its focus to the “old-new land.” To paraphrase Israeli journalist Ari Shavit, Idelsohn was using the Hebrew past to give depth to the Hebrew present and enable it to face the Hebrew future.
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 |  | Inspired equally by Zionism and by haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment, Idelsohn would be the first to undertake a scientific study of the music of the Jews. And he had two great projects: 1) After collecting Jewish melodies from around the world, he published them in a massive ten-volume Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies. The Jewish people had foundational texts—starting with the Hebrew Bible—texts that had kept the Jewish people together for thousands of years. Idelsohn was arguing that Jews also had foundational music—a repertoire that had kept the Jewish people together and connected with its past through the years of Diaspora. 2) Commissioned by the great Zionist poet Hayim Nahman Bialik, Idelsohn wrote and published the first comprehensive history of Jewish music—a book charting an unbroken continuity of Jewish music from antiquity until the present. Idelsohn created what Irish political scientist and historian Prof. Benedict Anderson would call an “imagined community” of Jewish identity.
Idelsohn had an agenda to prove the historical and geographical unity of the Jewish people. Idelsohn was searching for his holy grail, the original font from which all Jewish music had sprung. By comparing folk music from different communities and finding common elements, he tried to demonstrate the unity of the Jewish people and its connection to antiquity. While more recent scholarship has taken Jewish music research into new directions, Idelsohn’s work remains a monumental achievement and a tremendous resource!
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A Tapestry of Cabaret
Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington St, Newton: At our spring concert, you will experience the allure of cabaret with Zamir and Andrew Mattfeld (pictured), conductor and Master of Ceremonies. The program includes cabaret songs from the U.S., Israel, France, and Germany paired with the composers’ Jewish-themed choral music, plus some surprises!
Stay tuned for more details in the spring as well as details about other events.
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Passing the Baton—for Now
From January to June, Josh Jacobson will be taking a well-deserved sabbatical. He and Ronda are looking forward to spending more time with their family in Israel. We are happy to announce that Andrew Mattfeld, Zamir’s longtime assistant conductor, will be leading rehearsals and concerts. Josh will remain artistic director and looks forward to returning full time in the fall.
Samuel Adler Setting of “Psalm 8” Dedicated to Zamir
Last year, renowned composer Samuel Adler surprised Josh by sending a newly composed piece, a beautiful setting of Psalm 8, which he dedicated to Josh and the Zamir Chorale of Boston. In August, a chamber chorus gathered to bring the music to life at an informal session. We look forward to including it in future programming.
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On December 21, the Zamir Chorale and Chamber Orchestra presented the 33rd annual “Hanukkah Happens” concert at Temple Emanuel in Newton. What had originally been dubbed a celebration of the 75th year of Israel’s independence was recast into a moving tribute to Israel’s history and musical variety. The program opened with Kabbalat Shabbat, a cantata for chamber orchestra and voices based on the Friday-night Sabbath service by Israel’s first great composer, Paul Ben-Haim. The second half featured an Israeli sing-along as well as a stirring rendition of Cantor Sol Zim’s “Avinu Shebashamayim,” a prayer for Israel, with Cantor Elias Rosemberg, soloist.
On December 7, we were delighted to return to Temple Beth Shalom in Needham for a wide-ranging program. Soloists Allison Aaron, Liana Perlman, and Cantor DJ Fortine added their able voices in solos such as Broza’s “Yihyeh Tov” and Rossi’s “Riede La Primavera.” The program included the lighting of the chanukkiya and some seasonal favorites, such as “Ocho Kandelikas,” “Hanukkah in Santa Monica,” and a doo-wop version of “I Have a Little Dreydel.”
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On November 12, Zamir joined Nashirah, the Jewish Chorale of Philadelphia, for a joint concert at the beautiful Adath Jeshurun Synagogue in Philadelphia. The combined choirs opened the program with Lewandowski’s stunning “Mah Tovu,” with our host, Cantor Howard Glantz, soloist. Led by Prof. Julia Zavadsky, Nashirah had been our guests in Boston earlier in the season; we hope to keep our collaboration going in the future!
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Keep in Touch
Stay safe and warm wherever you are! Wishing you peace, harmony, and good health in 2024.
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Barbara Gaffin
Managing Director
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