Singing the Land: Hebrew Music and Early Zionism in America

Singing the Land explores the use of popular Hebrew Zionist music among American Jewry during the first half of the twentieth century, highlighting its role in fostering mainstream American Jewish engagement with the Jewish state and Hebrew national culture. It examines the historical contexts of Zionist national development and American Jewish life and analyzes primary sources to understand how and why musical frameworks were central to catalyzing American Jewry's support of the Zionist cause by the 1940s.

Format: Hardback
Length: 260 pages
Publication date: 04 March 2024
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Singing the Land: Hebrew Music and Early Zionism in America explores the widespread use of popular Hebrew Zionist music among American Jewry during the first half of the twentieth century. This music played a significant role in fostering mainstream American Jewish engagement with the Jewish state and Hebrew national culture as they emerged after Israel declared its independence in 1948. Hebrew music emerged as an important means through which many American Jews physically participated in or 'performed aspects of Zionism and Hebrew national culture from afar. Eli Sperling analyzes primary sources within the historical contexts of Zionist national development and American Jewish life to explore how and why musical frameworks were central to catalyzing American Jewry's support of the Zionist cause by the 1940s, while maintaining firm commitments to their American locale and national identities. The proliferation of this widespread American Jewish-Zionist embrace was achieved through a variety of educational, religious, economic, and political efforts, and Hebrew music was a thread consistent amongst them all.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472076659