The Jewish Music Forum is a new organization devoted to the study of Jewish music in all of its historical and contemporary diversity. The Forum seeks to provide a new context for interdisciplinary dialogue and scholarly exchange in the growing academic field of Jewish musical studies as well as a critical intellectual resource for artists, educators and others interested in the role of music in Jewish life.
Founded in the fall of 2004 under the auspices of the AmericanSociety for Jewish Music, with the support of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History , the Forum is coordinated and administrated by a committee, and assisted by a large international advisory board with active partners in the American Society for Jewish Music and Center for Jewish History Office of Public Programs.
Currently the Jewish Music Forum is engaged in three main areas of activity. First, the Forum hosts an annual series of regular academic seminars at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. There, a diverse array of international scholars congregate for a monthly colloquium in which invited lecturers present original research to an audience of scholars, graduate students and other interested specialists. In the spring of 2005, the Forum commenced with five public seminars in the series New Perspectives on Music in Jewish Life. . It featured presentations by nine leading international scholars from Israel and the United States. The series continued into the 2005-2006 academic year, with ten additional sessions featuring over twenty invited scholar participants. Our third season Music, Media, and Memory in Jewish Life begins on September 15, 2006.
The second mandate of the Jewish Music Forum is to serve as an intellectual and cultural resource for individuals and institutions involved in the creation of contemporary artistic and educational projects involving Jewish music. As part of this initiative, the Forum currently serves in an advisory capacity to the American Society for Jewish Music and the Programming Office of the Center for Jewish History, thus helping to develop public programs that link the academic research efforts of scholars to historically-informed artistic performances, masterclasses and other public educational events.
The Forum’s third current area of interest is the promotion of musical inquiry in larger American and international academic circles. To that end, the Forum sponsors events and meetings at major academic conferences. In December 2004, the Forum organized and co-sponsored a panel session, “The Study of Jewish Music,” at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in Chicago, and in August 2005, co-sponsored the panel session, “The Singing Mirror: Exploring Jewish Musical Historiography” at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. The Forum also serves as the American affiliate of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Thanks to the recording technology available at the Center for Jewish History, the Forum’s academic seminar series will soon be available to audiences nationally and internationally through the worldwide web.
For additional information about the Jewish Music Forum’s current and future activities, please contact us at info@jewishmusicforum.org
Founded in the fall of 2004 under the auspices of the AmericanSociety for Jewish Music, with the support of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History , the Forum is coordinated and administrated by a committee, and assisted by a large international advisory board with active partners in the American Society for Jewish Music and Center for Jewish History Office of Public Programs.
Currently the Jewish Music Forum is engaged in three main areas of activity. First, the Forum hosts an annual series of regular academic seminars at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. There, a diverse array of international scholars congregate for a monthly colloquium in which invited lecturers present original research to an audience of scholars, graduate students and other interested specialists. In the spring of 2005, the Forum commenced with five public seminars in the series New Perspectives on Music in Jewish Life. . It featured presentations by nine leading international scholars from Israel and the United States. The series continued into the 2005-2006 academic year, with ten additional sessions featuring over twenty invited scholar participants. Our third season Music, Media, and Memory in Jewish Life begins on September 15, 2006.
The second mandate of the Jewish Music Forum is to serve as an intellectual and cultural resource for individuals and institutions involved in the creation of contemporary artistic and educational projects involving Jewish music. As part of this initiative, the Forum currently serves in an advisory capacity to the American Society for Jewish Music and the Programming Office of the Center for Jewish History, thus helping to develop public programs that link the academic research efforts of scholars to historically-informed artistic performances, masterclasses and other public educational events.
The Forum’s third current area of interest is the promotion of musical inquiry in larger American and international academic circles. To that end, the Forum sponsors events and meetings at major academic conferences. In December 2004, the Forum organized and co-sponsored a panel session, “The Study of Jewish Music,” at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in Chicago, and in August 2005, co-sponsored the panel session, “The Singing Mirror: Exploring Jewish Musical Historiography” at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. The Forum also serves as the American affiliate of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Thanks to the recording technology available at the Center for Jewish History, the Forum’s academic seminar series will soon be available to audiences nationally and internationally through the worldwide web.
For additional information about the Jewish Music Forum’s current and future activities, please contact us at info@jewishmusicforum.org
