The monograph “The Moralization of Jewish Heritage in Germany: Sustaining Jewish Life in the Twenty-First Century” (publisher: Rowman & Littlefield) by Sarah M. Ross will be published on November 15, 2024.

This book explores and reveals the intricacies of Jewish heritage in contemporary Germany, the role it plays as a “moral heritage” in the symbolic representation of Jews and Judaism in the national landscape, and its relevance for the cultural sustainability of local Jewish communities. The practice of synagogue music in the past and present is a central case study in the discussions. This ethnographic study examines how Jewish liturgical music as the cultural heritage of minorities has been constructed, treated, discussed, appropriated, and passed on to different actors in different forms and for different purposes over time. It also examines the resulting moral and ethical questions and power imbalances. The author discusses how both Jewish and non-Jewish stakeholders utilize the music of 19th- and early 20th-century Reform Judaism and the Minhag Ashkenaz for a symbolic reconstruction of German Jewry. Furthermore, they repatriate it in local Jewish communities today. This is usually done for individual, sometimes commercial, rather than religious reasons. The Jewish-musical cultural heritage process is characterized by moral imperatives and complex negotiations about power and representation. It reveals problematic aspects of German-Jewish relations, cross-generational rifts, and denominational differences between the Jewish communities in post-war Germany.

“If there was any doubt about the unique contribution that ethnomusicology can offer to contemporary Jewish studies, then the incisive critique of the politics and economics of synagogue music in contemporary Germany by Sarah Ross shows its subversive potential with lucidity. Framing the results of her long-term ethnography among agents active in the production of music in present-day German-Jewish communities and non-Jewish institutions along theoretical postulates of Critical Heritage Studies and the idea of the “moralization” of post-War Jewish existence in Germany, Ross addresses two sensitive issues: first, how discrete social, political, economic and cultural interests of Jewish and non-Jewish agents determine the criteria for the selective preservation of German-Jewish musical heritage, its circulation and performance in Germany today; second, how meaningful, if at all, is the maintenance and reconstruction of this Jewish musical heritage of the past for members of a young generation of German Jews who have no memories of the pre-War (or even the pre-unification) period or (more commonly) no roots in Germany at all. This is a courageous document that will probably trigger frank discussions regarding the future of Jews and Judaism in one of the most conspicuous lands in Jewish history.”

Prof. Edwin Seroussi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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