Europäisches Zentrum für Jüdische Musik (EZJM) and
Jewish Music Research Centre, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

invite you to an international open study session dedicated to

A Liturgy within the Liturgy:
The German Torah Service in Past and Present

Sunday, November 21, 2021; 17 Kislev 5782
at 11 am (USA, EST); 17:00 (CET); 18:00 (Israel)

https://huji.zoom.us/j/81667736324?pwd=Z0JNTS9LdGQvc3l4V2hnY2MwK3dudz09

In the framework of the collaborative project German-Jewish Sacred Musical Intersections funded by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development/Deutsch-Israelische Stiftung für Wissenschaftliche Forschung und Entwicklung (Grant No. I-1467-112.4/2018)

The study session will be divided into two halves lasting fifty minutes each. They will include a twenty-five minute presentation of the project’s preliminary findings and an equal time for discussion.

Part 1:
11 am (USA, EST) 17:00 (CET); 18:00 (Israel) led by Edwin Seroussi
The German Torah Service in Historical Perspective

Part 2:
12 pm (USA, EST) 18:00 (CET); 19:00 (Israel) led by Sara Ross
The German Torah Service in Contemporary Performance Practices

The Torah Service in the German Jewish liturgy evolved in the past two centuries from a humble affair into a major event endowed with pomp and circumstance. The dramatic musical evolution of this service is one of the topics addressed by the German-Jewish Sacred Musical Intersections project.
This study session will introduce its participants to some of the preliminary results of this join German-Israeli project. Studied from both an historical perspective based on written sources and an ethnographical standpoint based on fieldwork carried in German synagogues in 2019-2021, the evolution of the Torah service illuminates less-studied aspects of Jewish modernity. Changing patterns of socialization within synagogue rituals, the aesthetization of the reading of scripture and the public display of ceremonial devotion are among the subjects to be discussed amid the musical analysis of selected approaches to this liturgy among German-speaking Jews throughout Europe and in their American and Israeli diasporas.