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Discovering Jewish Music

(Wall Street Journal) Bari Weiss - Charles Krauthammer, a Washington Post columnist, credits a class on Maimonides at McGill University for the understanding "that Jewish philosophy was not parochial, was not superstitious, but was at the level of the great philosophies of Western culture." His great-great-grandfather, he jokes, a chief rabbi of Krakow, "spent his life writing commentaries on the Torah. I spend my life writing commentaries on New York Times editorials." Together with his wife, Robyn, Krauthammer runs Pro Musica Hebraica, a concert series they launched last year to change the common view that "Jewish music" is hava nagila, liturgical music, klezmer and not much else. Earlier this month, Pro Musica Hebraica presented its fourth concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington. There is a rich tradition of Jewish classical music, though it is largely unknown even within the Jewish community.
2009-11-27 08:46:59
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