Jewish Music and Jewish Culture in Germany, 1918-1938

Ludwig Rosenberer Bookplate

Exhibition curated by Philip Bohlman, Associate Professor of Music.

Between the world wars, Jewish culture in many German cities flourished because of the changing nature of the Jewish community, particularly because of the new possibilities of examining the essence of Jewishness in modern, cosmopolitan contexts. Jewish music, both through new forms of expression and through its participation in many other forms of artistic activity, provided an especially powerful voice for new expressions of Jewishness in Germany, particularly after 1933 when the Jewish community was severed from the rest of German society. Drawing upon publications in music and the arts in the Rosenberger Library of Judaica, the works displayed in this exhibit narrate the complex transformation of the German-Jewish community on the eve of the Holocaust.