Events and Studies Enhance Understanding of the Realm of Jewish Music in America
In the heart of Los Angeles, on Wilshire Blvd., Sinai Temple has been a hub for Jewish musical traditions, and it's here that graduate student researcher Ray Ace delved into the intriguing world of Max Helfman, a composer whose contributions to American Jewish music have yet to be fully explored.
Ray's research took place in a small, attic-like space within the temple, where he encountered various challenges, including large quantities of dust and an organ's wind turbine starting unexpectedly. Despite these obstacles, Ray persevered, spending weeks analyzing handwritten sheet music, documenting, and photographing compositions by Helfman.
Meanwhile, Kacie Morgan, another graduate student, focused on the influencers and interrelationships of composers across generations in American Jewish Music. Kacie's analysis revealed who was being mentioned, by whom, and how often in the oral histories. She then created a visual mapping of these relationships using oral histories from the Milken Archive.
The Milken Fund, an organisation dedicated to promoting the academic study of the arts with an interdisciplinary perspective and disseminating knowledge about Jewish culture to the general public, played a significant role in this research. The Fund co-sponsored the Second International Symposium of the Arts of Performance and Jewishness in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and will support a concert featuring Max Helfman's music at Sinai Temple in the spring of 2019.
This symposium was a collaboration between the Universidad of Buenos Aires, UCLA, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. Edwin Seroussi, winner of the 2018 Israel Prize, delivered the keynote address at the event. Lillian Wohl, a Post-Doctoral Scholar, served on the organizing committee and presented at the event on the panel, "Jewish Mysticism and Musical Creation."
The concert, which will take place at Sinai Temple, promises to be a unique event, with many pieces receiving their first public performance. It's a testament to the enduring influence of American Jewish music and the important role institutions like the Milken Fund play in preserving and promoting this rich cultural heritage.
As for Max Helfman, his works, previously unavailable, have now been discovered in the Sinai Temple Archive. Ray's research has shed light on this overlooked composer, whose music deeply reflects Jewish cultural and liturgical themes, much like other influential composers in American Jewish music across generations, such as Ernest Bloch, Irving Berlin, Jerry Bock, and the folk-influenced lineage involving Aaron Copland and Bob Dylan. Their personal stories and contributions reflect a blend of Jewish cultural identity, liturgical tradition, and the American musical landscape.
These composers and musicians illustrate a dynamic, intergenerational narrative in American Jewish music, balancing preservation of Jewish liturgical and folk traditions with innovation and integration into American cultural forms. This research, supported by the Milken Fund, continues to uncover and celebrate this fascinating history, providing invaluable insights into the evolution of American Jewish music and its profound impact on the broader American musical landscape.
Ray Ace's research in the attic-like space within Sinai Temple, focusing on Max Helfman's contributions to American Jewish music, has intertwined education-and-self-development with entertainment, as Ray's findings have illuminated Helfman's works, previously unavailable, and offered new knowledge that will be shared through an upcoming concert at Sinai Temple. Meanwhile, Kacie Morgan's analysis of composers' influencers and interrelationships across generations in American Jewish Music has expanded this perspective further, closely linking learning with music, as her work has uncovered intricate relationships between influential composers throughout the history of this unique musical genre.
