Book Launch & Discussion: Transcending Dystopia – Music, Mobility, and the Jewish Community in Germany, 1945–1989
By the end of the Second World War, Germany was in ruins and its Jewish population so gravely diminished that a rich cultural life seemed unthinkable. And yet, as surviving Jews returned from hiding, the camps, and their exiles abroad, so did their music. Transcending Dystopia tells the story of the remarkable revival of Jewish musical activity that developed in postwar Germany against all odds. In this book talk, Dr. Tina Frühauf provides a glimpse into the rich kaleidoscopic panorama of musical practices in worship and social life across the country to illuminate how music contributed to transitions and transformations within and beyond Jewish communities in the aftermath of the Holocaust, followed by a discussion with Michelle Chesner, Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies, on the newly unearthed sources from archives and private collections.
Author of Transcending Dystopia, Tina Frühauf, is Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University in New York and serves on the doctoral faculty of the Graduate Center, CUNY. The study of Jewish music in modernity has been her primary research focus for two decades.
Register for the Zoom book talk at https://www.iijs.columbia.edu/upcoming-events/2021/2/1/3transcending-dystopia-music-mobility-and-the-jewish-community-in-germany-1945-1989
Purchase the book here.
The book talk is supported by the generosity of the Kaye and Radov Families.