Contemporary Jewish religious music

rdf:langString Contemporary Jewish religious music

rdf:langString For the purposes of this article, “contemporary” refers to the period from 1967 (Israel's Six-Day War) to the present day, “Jewish” refers to the various streams and traits of Judaism practiced. Many Orthodox Jews use the term “religious” to refer to a strict adherence to Jewish law. For the purposes of this article, “religious” refers to the content and context of the music itself: liturgical or implicit references to the divine. Jewish ethnomusicologist Mark Kligman notes, “The scope of contemporary Jewish music encompasses a wide range of genres and styles, including music for the synagogue, folk and popular music on religious themes, Yiddish songs, klezmer music, Israeli music, and art music by serious composers. Every sector of the Jewish community – from the most right-wing Orthodox to the most secular – participates in the Jewish music endeavor, creating, performing, and listening to the particular music that meets its taste and needs.” The question of what is Jewish music and what makes music Jewish continues to be explored in academic and artistic circles alike. It may be seen in the work of Velvel Pasternak, who spent much of the late twentieth century as a preservationist committing what had been a strongly oral tradition to paper. Also, John Zorn's record label, Tzadik, features a "Radical Jewish Culture" series that focuses on exploring what contemporary Jewish music is and what it offers to contemporary Jewish culture.