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Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the Culture of Secular communities of Jew ish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious Jews working in cultural areas not generally considered to be connected to Religion . The word ''secular'' in secular Jewish culture, therefore, refers ''not'' to the type of Jew but rather to the type of culture. For example, religiously observant Orthodox Jews who write literature and music or produce films with non-religious themes are participating in secular Jewish culture, even if they are not secular themselves. However, Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which makes it difficult to draw a clear distinction between Judaism and Jewish culture. Furthermore, not all individuals or all cultural phenomena can be easily classified as either "secular" or "religious". In many times and places, such as in the ancient Hellenic world, in Europe before and after the Enlightenment , and in the contemporary United States and Israel , cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews with others around them, and others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to religion itself. ORIGINS OF SECULAR JEWISH CULTURE For at least 2,000 years, there has not been a unity of Jewish culture. Jews were always geographically dispersed, so that by the 19th century the Ashkenazi Jews were mainly in Europe, especially Eastern Europe ; the Sephardi Jews were largely spread among various communities in North Africa, Turkey, as well as various smaller communities in a diverse range of other locations, while Mizrahi Jews were primarily spread around the Arab World ; and other populations of Jews were scattered in such places as Ethiopia the Caucasus , and India . (See Jewish Ethnic Divisions .) Many of these populations were cut off in some degree from the surrounding cultures by Ghetto ization, by the Muslim laws of '' Dhimma '', etc. By 1931, before the Holocaust, 92% of the world's Jewish population was Ashkenazi in origin, and therefore much of what is thought of as "Jewish culture" is the Jewish culture of Central and Eastern Europe. Medieval Jewish communities in Eastern Europe developed distinct cultural traits over the centuries, but beginning with the Enlightenment (and its echo within Judaism in the Haskalah movement), many Yiddish -speaking Jews in Eastern Europe saw themselves as forming an ethnic or national group whose identity did not depend on religion. Constanin Măciucă writes of "a differentiated but not isolated Jewish spirit" permeating the culture of Yiddish-speaking Jews. This was only intensified as the rise of Romanticism increased the sense of national identity across Europe generally. Thus, for example, Bund members — that is, members of the General Jewish Labor Union in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — were generally non-religious, and one of the historical leaders of the Bund was the child of converts to Christianity , though not a practising or believing Christian himself. The Haskalah combined with the Jewish Emancipation movement under way in Central and Western Europe to create an opportunity for Jews to enter secular society. At the same time, Pogrom s in Eastern Europe created a migration, in large part to the United States , where 2 million Jewish immigrants arrived between 1880 and 1920. In the 1940s, The Holocaust resulted in the destruction of most of European Jewry, which, combined with the birth of Israel and the Movement Of Jews From Arab Nations , created a further geographic shift. Defining secular culture among those who practice Judaism is difficult, because the entire culture is entwined with religious traditions. (This is particularly true of Orthodox Judaism .) Gary Tobin , head of the Institute For Jewish And Community Research , said of traditional Jewish culture: The dichotomy between religion and culture doesn’t really exist. Every religious attribute is filled with culture; every cultural act filled with religiosity. Synagogue s themselves are great centers of Jewish culture. After all, what is life really about? Food, relationships, enrichment hellip; So is Jewish life. So many of our traditions inherently contain aspects of culture. Look at the Passover Seder —it’s essentially great theater. Jewish education and religiosity bereft of culture is not as interesting. The Emergence of a Jewish Cultural Identity , undated (2002 or later) on MyJewishLearning.com, reprinted from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Accessed 11 Feb 2006. Languages See main article Jewish Languages Literary and theatrical expressions of secular Jewish culture may be in specifically Jewish languages such as Hebrew , Yiddish or Ladino , or it may be in the language of the surrounding cultures, such as English or German . Secular literature and theater in Yiddish largely began in the 19th century and was in decline by the middle of the 20th century. The revival of Hebrew beyond its use in the liturgy is largely an early 20th-century phenomenon, and is closely associated with Zionism . Generally, whether a Jewish community will speak a Jewish or non-Jewish language as its main vehicle of Discourse is dependent on how isolated or assimilated that community is. For example, the Jews in the Shtetls of Poland and the Lower East Side of New York (during the early 20th Century ) spoke Yiddish at most times, while assimilated Jews in Germany during the 19th Century or the United States today would or do speak German or English in general. POLITICS AND MORALS demonstration, 1917]] See main article Jewish Political Movements Even in religious Judaism there is much room for a range of political or moral views; this is only more so for secular Jews. However, even Jewish secular culture is often strongly influenced by moral beliefs deriving from Jewish scripture and tradition. In recent centuries, Jews in Europe and the Americas have traditionally tended towards the , and as a result do not expect a single world-state, which differs from the beliefs of many religions, such as the Roman Catholic and Islam ic traditions; rather, since in Jewish theology the religons of most Nations are respected, there was never any perceived reason to convert others. This lack of a universalizing religion is combined with the fact that most Jews live as minorities in their countries, and that no central Jewish religious authority has existed for over 2,000 years. ''(See also List Of Jews In Politics , which illustrates the diversity of Jewish political thought and of the roles Jews have played in politics.)'' "JEWISH" PROFESSIONS Some professions have traditionally been considered particularly "Jewish," partially as a result of historical circumstances. These include banking and finance, law, medicine, science, and academia. ''See also Court Jew .'' Banking and finance on the cover of '' TIME '' as Person of the Century.]] In most of Europe up until the late 18th century, and in some places to an even later date, Jews were prohibited by Roman Catholic governments (and others) from owning land. On the other hand, the Church, because of a number of Bible verses forbidding Usury , declared that charging any Interest was against the divine law, and this prevented any mercantile use of Capital by pious Christians. As the Canon Law did not apply to Jews, they were not liable to the ecclesiastical punishments which were placed upon Usurers by the Pope s. Christian rulers gradually saw the advantage of having a class of men like the Jews who could supply capital for their use without being liable to Excommunication , and the money trade of western Europe by this means fell into the hands of the Jews. However, in almost every instance where large amounts were acquired by Jews through banking transactions the property thus acquired fell either during their life or upon their death into the hands of the king. This happened to Aaron Of Lincoln in England , Ezmel De Ablitas in Navarre , Heliot de Vesoul in Provence , Benveniste De Porta in Aragon , etc. It was for this reason indeed that the kings supported the Jews, and even objected to their becoming Christians, because in that case they could not have forced from them money won by usury. Thus both in England and in France the kings demanded to be compensated for every Jew converted. The result was the stereotypical Jewish role as bankers and merchants. Medicine, science, and academia Also, the strong Jewish tradition of religious scholarship often left Jews well prepared for secular scholarship, although in some times and places this was countered by Jews being banned from studying at Universities , or admitted only in limited numbers (see Jewish Quota ). In medieval and early modern times, Jews were disproportionately represented among court physicians. Even into recent times Jews were little represented in the land-holding classes, but far better represented in academia, the learned professions, finance and commerce. The strong representation of Jews in science and academia is represented in the fact that at least 167 Jews and persons of Half-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize , accounting for 22% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2004. In addition, of '' TIME '' magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century, fourteen persons listed are either of Jewish ancestry or have converted to Judaism. LITERARY AND ARTISTIC CULTURE In some places where there have been relatively high concentrations of Jews, distinct secular Jewish subcultures have arisen. For example, ethnic Jews formed an enormous proportion of the literary and artistic life of Vienna , Austria at the end of the 19th century, or of New York City 50 years later (and Los Angeles in the mid-late 20th century), and for the most part these were not particularly religious people. In general, however, Jewish artistic culture in various periods reflected the culture in which they lived. Literature See main articles Yiddish Literature , Ladino Literature , Hebrew Literature , Jewish American Literature , English Jewish Literature . Also see Jews In Literature And Journalism . Jewish authors have both created a unique Jewish literature and contributed to the national literatures of many of the countries in which they live. Though not strictly secular, the Yiddish works of authors like Sholom Aleichem (whose collected works amounted to 28 volumes) and Isaac Bashevis Singer (winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize), form their own canon, focusing on the Jewish experience in both Eastern Europe, and in America. In the United States, Jewish writers like Philip Roth , Saul Bellow , and many others are considered among the greatest American authors, and incorporate a distinctly secular Jewish view into many of their works. Other famous Jewish authors that made contributions to world literature include Heinrich Heine , German poet, Isaac Babel , Russian author, and Franz Kafka , of Prague. Theatre Yiddish theatre See main article Yiddish Theatre . The Ukrainian Jew Abraham Goldfaden founded the first professional Yiddish-language theatre troupe in Iaşi , Romania in 1876. The next year, his troupe achieved enormous success in Bucharest . Within a decade, Goldfaden and others brought Yiddish theater to Ukraine , Russia , Poland , Germany , New York City , and other cities with significant Ashkenazaic populations. Between 1890 and 1940, over a dozen Yiddish theatre groups existed in New York City alone, performing original Play s, Musicals , and Yiddish translations of theatrical works and Opera . Perhaps the most famous of Yiddish-language plays is '' The Dybbuk '' (1919) by S. Ansky . Yiddish theater in New York in the early 20th Century rivalled English-language theater in quantity and often surpassed it in quality. A 1925 '' New York Times '' article remarks, "…Yiddish theater… is now a stable American institution and no longer dependent on immigration from Eastern Europe. People who can neither speak nor write Yiddish attend Yiddish stage performances and pay Broadway prices on Second Avenue." This article also mentions other aspects of a New York Jewish cultural life "in full flower" at that time, among them the fact that the extensive New York Yiddish-language press of the time included seven daily newspapers. Melamed, 1925. In fact, however, the next generation of American Jews spoke mainly English to the exclusion of Yiddish; they brough the artistic energy of Yiddish theater into the American theatrical mainstream, but usually in a less specifically Jewish form. Yiddish theater also played a prominent role in the arts scene of the Soviet Union until Stalin's 1948 reversal in government policy toward the Jews. Mentorship Yiddish theatre fed into the mainstream of American stage and film acting: the , Jill Clayburgh , James Dean , Robert DeNiro , Paul Newman , Jack Nicholson , Al Pacino , and Eva Marie Saint , to name just a few. Similarly, what Jewish composer John Kander calls an "interesting phenomenon that Broadway Musical composers like Jerome Kern , George Gershwin and Marc Blitzstein are Predominantly Jewish " comes from "the tradition established from New York's Yiddish theater."Keith D. Cohen, John Kander to be honored in KC concerts . ''The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle'', May 27, 2005. Accessed 11 Feb 2006. American English-language theatre See also List Of Jewish American Musicals Writers , List Of Jewish Americans In Theatre , List Of Jewish American Playwrights . of '' West Side Story '' by the team of Jewish writers consisting of Leonard Bernstein (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), Arthur Laurents (book) and Jerome Robbins (direction and choreography)]] Not only have ", but they were instrumental in the creation and development of Genre of Musical Theatre and earlier forms of theatrical entertainment, as well as contributing to non-musical theatre in the United States. According to University Of Toronto English professor Andrea Most, Almost all the American musicals in the 20th century were written by Jews and... the most compelling reason for this is that the musical offers a lot of strategies for exploring and performing new identities theatrically… the musical theater exists because of the unique historical situation of the Jews who created it" Broadway helped Jews gain acceptance, researcher says , 11-Dec-2002 on EurekaAlert.org. Summary Andrea Mostbook. Accessed 11 Feb 2006. Alan Gomberg, What's New on the Rialto? , book review of ''Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical'' by Andrea Most, February 2004. On Talkin' Broadway site. Accessed 11 Feb 2006. , gossip columnists, Songwriters , and singers that grew out of the Ghetto , whether it was on the Lower East Side , Harlem (a Jewish ghetto before it was a black one), Newark , or Washington, DC ." Charyn, Jerome. "Early Broadway's un-Jewish Jews." ''Midstream'' 50.1 (Jan 2004): 19(7). ''Expanded Academic ASAP''. Thomson Gale. UC Irvine (CDL). 09 March 2006 Likewise, in the analysis of Aaron Kula, director of The Klezmer Company, "…the Jewish experience has always been best expressed by music, and Broadway has always been an integral part of the Jewish-American experience… The difference is that one can expand the definition of "Jewish Broadway" to include an interdisciplinary roadway with a wide range of artistic activities packed onto one avenue--theatre, opera, symphony, ballet, publishing companies, choirs, synagogues and more. This vibrant landscape reflects the life, times and creative output of the Jewish-American artist". The Klezmer Company Breaks New Ground with Orchestral Klezmer Production "Jewish Broadway with Orchestra and Chorus" at FAU . Florida Atlantic University press release, February 8, 2005. Accessed 11 Feb 2006. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the European , and during the early 20th century the form was explored and expanded by Jewish comedians and actors such as Jack Benny , Fanny Brice , Eddie Cantor , The Marx Brothers , Anna Held , Al Jolson , Molly Picon , Sophie Tucker and Ed Wynn . During the period when Broadway was monopolized by Revues and similar entertainments, Jewish producer Florenz Ziegfeld dominated the theatrical scene with his Follies . By 1910 Jews (the vast majority of them immigrants from , Frank Loesser , Lerner And Loewe , Stephen Sondheim , Leonard Bernstein , Stephen Schwartz , Kander And Ebb and dozens of others during the "Golden Age" of musical theatre were Jewish. Since the Tony Award For Best Original Score was instituted in 1947, approximately 70% of nominees and 60% of winners were Jewish. Of successful British and French musical writers both in the West End and Broadway, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Lionel Bart are Jewish, among others. One explanation of the affinity of Jewish composers and playwrights to the musical is that "traditional Jewish Religious Music was most often led by a single singer, a Cantor while Christians emphasize ' Choral ' singing." Jacob Baron, Jewish Composers , ''Machar, The Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism'', June 2, 2005. Accessed 15 Feb 2006. Many of these writers used the musical to explore issues relating to assimilation, the acceptance of the outsider in society, the racial situation in the United States, the overcoming of obstacles through perserverance, and other topics pertinent to Jewish Americans and Western Jews in general, often using subtle and disguised stories to get this point across.Alan Gomberg, ''op. cit.'' For example, Kern, Rodgers, Hammerstein, the Gershwins, '', August 4, 1957. Reproduced on .leonardbernstein.com. Accessed 12 Feb 2006. The ranks of prominent Jewish producers, directors, designers and performers include Boris Aronson , David Belasco , Joel Grey , the Minskoff family, Zero Mostel , Joseph Papp , Mandy Patinkin , the Nederlander family, Harold Prince , Max Reinhardt , Jerome Robbins , the Shubert Family and Julie Taymor . Jewish playwrights have also contributed to non-musical drama and theatre, both Broadway and regional. Edna Ferber , Moss Hart , Lillian Hellman , Arthur Miller and Neil Simon are only some of the prominent Jewish playwrights in American theatrical history. Approximately 21% of the plays and musicals that have won the Pulitzer Prize For Drama were written and composed by Jewish Americans. European-language theatre From their , commenting on Jewish contributions to European culture at the Fin De Siècle , writes that The area where Jewish influence was strongest was the theatre, especially in Berlin. Playwrights like Carl Sternheim , Arthur Schnitzler , Ernst Toller , Erwin Piscator , Walter Hasenclever , Ferenc Molnar and Carl Zuckmayer , and influential producers like Max Reinhardt , appeared at times to dominate the stage, which tended to be modishly Left-wing , Pro-republican , experimental and sexually daring. But it was certainly not revolutionary, and it was cosmopolitan rather than Jewish. Johnson, Paul (1987). ''A History of the Jews'', pg. 479. New York: Harper Perennial. Jews also made similar, if not as massive, contributions to theatre and drama in Austria, Britain, France, and Russia (in the national languages of those countries). Jews in Vienna, Paris and German cities found or the United States and continued working there. Hebrew and Israeli theatre The earliest known ''. ''Could not access 12 Feb 2006.''. All of these early Hebrew plays were about Biblical or mystical subjects, often in the form of Talmudic Parable s. During the post-Emancipation period in 19th century Europe, many Jews translated great European Plays such as those by Shakespeare , Molière and Schiller , giving the characters Jewish names and transplanting the plot and setting to within a Jewish context. Modern Hebrew theatre and drama, however, began with the development of site, credits www.habima.org.il and www.cameri.co.il . Film '' (1931), starring Ludwig Satz ]] In the era when Yiddish theatre was still a major force in the world of theatre, over 100 films were made in Yiddish. Many are now lost. Prominent films included '' Shulamith '' (1931), the first Yiddish musical on film '' His Wife's Lover '' (1931), '' A Daughter Of Her People '' (1932), the anti-Nazi film '' The Wandering Jew '' (1933), ''The Yiddish King Lear '' (1934), '' Shir Hashirim '' (1935), the biggest Yiddish film hit of all time '' Yidl Mitn Fidl '' (1936), '' Where Is My Child? '' (1937), '' Green Fields '' (1937), '' Dybuk '' (1937), '' The Singing Blacksmith '' (1938), '' Tevye '' (1939), '' Mirele Efros '' (1939), '' Lang Ist Der Weg '' (1948), and '' God, Man And Devil '' (1950). The roster of Jewish entrepreneurs in the English-language American film industry is legendary: Samuel Goldwyn , Louis B. Mayer , the Warner Brothers , David O. Selznick , Marcus Loew , and Adolph Zukor , to name just a few, and continuing into recent times with such industry giants as super-agent Lew Wasserman , Steven Spielberg , and David Geffen . However, few of these brought a specifically Jewish sensibility either to the art of film or, with the sometime exception of Spielberg, to their choice of subject matter. A much more specifically Jewish sensibility can be seen in the films of the Marx Brothers , Mel Brooks , or Woody Allen ; other examples of specifically Jewish films from the Hollywood film industry are the Barbra Streisand vehicle '' Yentl '' (1983), or John Frankenheimer's '' The Fixer '' (1968). Jewish Film Composers have also written scores to a large amount of the great films of the 20th Century . Among the most prolific have been Elmer Bernstein , Danny Elfman , Elliot Goldenthal , Jerry Goldsmith , Bernard Herrmann , James Horner , Alan Menken , Alfred Newman , Miklós Rózsa , Lalo Schifrin , the Sherman Brothers , Howard Shore , Max Steiner , and Dimitri Tiomkin . Radio and television The first radio chains, the Radio Corporation Of America and the Columbia Broadcasting System , were created by the Jewish-American David Sarnoff and William Paley , respectively. These Jewish innovators were also among the first producers of Television s, both black-and-white and Color .Johnson, ''op. cit.' p. 462-463. Among the Jewish immigrant communities of America there was also a thriving Yiddish Language radio, with its "golden age" from the 1930s to the 1950s . Although there is little specifically Jewish television in the United States ( National Jewish Television , largely religious, broadcasts only three hours a week), Jews have been involved in American television from its earliest days. From Sid Caesar and Milton Berle to Joan Rivers , Gilda Radner , and Andy Kaufman to Billy Crystal and Jerry Seinfeld , Jewish stand-up comedians have been icons of American television. Other Jews that held a prominent role in early radio and television were Eddie Cantor , Al Jolson , Jack Benny , Walter Winchell and David Susskind . In the analysis of Paul Johnson , The Broadway musical, radio and TV were all examples of a fundamental principle in '' on which to set their mark, before other interests had a chance to take possession, erect Guild or Professional fortifications and deny them entry.Johnson, ''op. cit.'' p. 462-463. One of the first televised , Mel Brooks , Selma Diamond , Larry Gelbart , Carl Reiner ,and Neil Simon all wrote for Sid Caesar; Reiner's son Rob Reiner worked with Norman Lear on '' All In The Family '' (which often engaged Anti-semitism and other issues of Prejudice ); Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld created the hit sitcom '' Seinfeld '', Lorne Michaels , Al Franken , Rosie Shuster , and Alan Zweibel of '' Saturday Night Live '' breathed new life into the Variety Show in the 1970s. Music See also List Of Jewish Musicians . For information on Jewish sacred music see Jewish Music . Jewish musical contributions also tend to reflect the cultures of the countries in which Jews live, the most notable examples being Classical and Popular music in the United States and Europe . Some music, however, was unique to particular Jewish communities, such as Klezmer in Eastern Europe. Klezmer, Sephardic/Ladino, Mizrahi and Israeli Folk as secular Jewish music See main articles Klezmer , Sephardic Music , Mizrahi Music , Israeli Folk Music . While the below two sections address instances in which Jews have contributed musically using originally non-Jewish forms or the forms used by the mainstream culture, Ashkenazi/Yiddish (klezmer), Sephardic, Mizrahi and Israeli Folk music are examples of genres of music that are secular but yet Jewish in their form. Jews in classical music , the French-Jewish composer of the Grand Opera '' La Juive ''.]] Before small numbers of Jewish composers were present in Amsterdam , Southern France and Italy , the vast majority of Jewish classical Composers were active during the Romantic period (following the French Revolution ) and even more so in the 20th Century ''ibid.''. Paul Johnson summarizes the dynamics of this cultural pattern: The Jewish musical tradition, for instance, was for older than anyone else's in Europe. Music remained an element in Jewish services, and the Cantor was almost as pivotal a figure in local Jewish society as the Rabbi . But Jewish musicians, except as converts, had played no part in European musical development. Hence the entry, in considerable numbers, of Jewish composers and performers on the musical scene in the middle decades of the nineteenth century was a phenomenon, and a closely observed one. Johnson, ''op. cit.'', p. 408. Likewise, Music Historian David Conway notes that At the start of the nineteenth century there were virtually no Jewish professionals in music and the standard of music in Jewish Synagogue s was generally appalling. Yet by the end of the same century throughout Europe Jews held leading positions as Conductors , Soloists , Producers , Music Publisher s and Patrons of music; a Jew was the most successful opera composer of the century, and the Jews were commonly held, what would have seemed nonsensical a hundred years earlier, to be a 'musical people'. Conway, David. "'In the midst of many peoples' - some nineteenth-century Jewish composers and their Jewishness.(Cultural Histories)(Biography)." ''European Judaism'' 36.1 (Spring 2003): 36(24). ''Expanded Academic ASAP''. Thomson Gale. UC Irvine (CDL). 09 March 2006 Despite this later trend, however, it ''should'' be noted that the origin of , archived Mar 26, 2005 from the site of Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University , North Carolina. After Jews were admitted to mainstream society in and New York (the latter's Jewish Population being heavily multiplied by waves of Immigration ). During the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, when works by Jews were labelled as Degenerate Music (not only because of the Jewish origins of the composers but also their association with Modernism ), many European Jewish composers emigrated to the United States and Argentina , strengthening classical music in those countries. Sample Jewish 20th-century composers include Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander Von Zemlinsky from Austria, Hanns Eisler With the exception of those living in isolated Jewish communities, most Jews listed here as contributing to secular Jewish culture also participated in the cultures of the peoples they lived with and nations they lived in. In most cases, however, the work and lives of these people did not exist in two distinct cultural spheres but rather in one that incorporated elements of both. This person had one Jewish parent and one non-Jewish parent, and therefore exemplified this phenomenon ''par excellence''. and Kurt Weill from Germany, Viktor Ullmann and Jaromír Weinberger from Bohemia and later the Czech Republic (the former perished at the Auschwitz extermination camps), George Gershwin and Aaron Copland from the United States, Darius Milhaud and Alexandre Tansman from France, Alfred Schnittke and Lera Auerbach from Russia, Lalo Schifrin and Mario Davidovsky from Argentina and Paul Ben-Haim and Shulamit Ran from Israel. There are some genres and forms of classical music that Jewish composers have been associated with, including notably during the Romantic period and Contemporary Music . Arnold Schoenberg in his middle and later periods devised the Twelve-tone Technique and was a primary advocate of Atonality , a system of composition which was laster used by Jewish composers Paul Dessau and René Leibowitz . George Rochberg and Milton Babbitt were leading composers in the school of Serialism , Steve Reich and Philip Glass worked with Minimalism , George Perle devised his own form of twelve-tone tonality, Leo Ornstein helped develop the Tone Cluster , Morton Feldman and Armand Lunel were noted composers of Chance Music (the latter is also considered the inventor of spatialization, and Mario Davidovsky was famous for writing a series of compositions mixing Acoustic and Electronic Music . In addition, Lera Auerbach , Alfred Schnittke and John Zorn have worked with Polystylism and other forms of Postmodern Music , and Modernist Miriam Gideon combined atonalism and Jewish folk motives in her pieces. While orchestral and operatic music works by Jewish composers would in general be considered secular, many Jewish (as well as non-Jewish) composers have incorporated Jewish themes and motives into their music. Sometimes this is done covertly, such as the 's '' Nabucco ''. In addition to composers, many Jews have been prominent and most frequently today, Jewish Conductors have also been prominent, with many like Leonard Bernstein achieving international stature. As of January 2006 , the principal Music Director s of the American Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra , Boston Symphony Orchestra / Metropolitan Opera , Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Berlin State Opera , National Symphony Orchestra , New York Philharmonic , Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra , San Francisco Symphony and Tonhalle Orchestra (in Zurich ) are of Jewish descent (respectively Leon Botstein , Mariss Jansons , James Levine , Daniel Barenboim , Leonard Slatkin , Lorin Maazel , Marvin Hamlisch , Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman ); furthermore, "of the one hundred leading conductors of the twentieth century... approximately one-fourth were, or are, Jews". A few notable Cantors also worked as Opera singers, such as Jan Peerce and Richard Tucker . =Case study in secular Jewish culture: Jewish identity in 19th-century central Europe ''Die Jacobsleiter'' ('' Jacob's Ladder '') (1917-1922, unfinished) by Arnold Schoenberg ]] Research regarding the Jewish identity of composers usually focuses on the '', August 23, 2002. Accessed 12 Feb 2006.), the fifth movement of the Third Symphony , the fourth movement of the Fourth Symphony and his Eighth Symphony . However, the issue in both cases is not so simple: although his father urged him to drop the name "Mendelssohn" in concert programs to purge any reference to his Jewish past, Felix "retained the name… despite his father's protests, and though undoubtedly a sincere Lutheran, retained a respect for his Jewish history. His professional and social success may have emboldened him to be more forthrightly pro-Jewish than other converts".David Conway, Mendelssohn the Christian ; preparatory work to his doctoral dissertation provisionally entitled ''Jewry in Music''. Notes say "from a recent article in ''European Judaism'' magazine", but give no date. Accessed 12 Feb 2006 Mahler wrote what have been perceived as Jewish references in his works, including klezmer-like passages in the third movement of the First Symphony and first movement of the Third ; in addition, the previously mentioned fifth movement of the Second Symphony includes a passage that many believe imitates Shofar blasts with a Programmatic Text resembling the ''Unetanneh Tokef'' prayer. The most compelling reason why Mendelssohn and Mahler are commonly considered Jewish composers are because they have been repeatedly identified as such both by : He {Link without Title} was not a man who ever deceived himself, and he knew that people would not forget he was a Jew.... Nor did he wish it forgotten.... He never denied his Jewish origin. Rather he emphasized it. ''Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters'' (trans., New York 1946), pg. 90; quoted in Johnson, ''op. cit.'', pg. 409. Regarding Wagner himself, it often seems ironic to some that many of the most influential and popular interpreters of his work have been Jewish conductors such as the aforementioned Mahler and Bernstein, as well as '', March 2001 (exact date not given). Accessed 12 Feb 2006. While much has been written about Wagner's anti-Semitism in his writings and music, and the Nazi appropriation of his music, research in recent years has analyzed the possibility that Wagner was himself of Jewish ancestry, and explored Wagner's interaction with and attitude towards the Jews through a multi-sided perspective David Conway, 'A Vulture is Almost an Eagle': The Jewishness of Richard Wagner and Wagner's Magic Lamp: an ongoing mystery… ; preparatory work to his doctoral dissertation provisionally entitled ''Jewry in Music''. Accessed 12 Feb 2006. . Much less complex and disputed is the Jewishness of Arnold Schoenberg . Although he was brought up as a Catholic and converted to Protestantism in 1898, during the rise of the Nazis in 1933 he openly embraced and returned to Judaism . The result was a number of later works dealing with Judaism and the Holocaust , such as '' A Survivor From Warsaw '', '' Kol Nidre '' and '' Moses Und Aron ''. During this time Schoenberg also began to concern himself with the historical situation of the Jewish people in his essays and other writings. Both Mahler and Schoenberg were Jewish composers who converted to a form of Christianity to avoid anti-Semitism, but yet were still attacked by the anti-Semitic elements of Viennese society as fundamentally Jewish and therefore a corrupting and perversive influence. According to Paul Johnson , The feeling of cultural outrage was much more important than anti-Semitism as such; or rather, it turned into anti-Semites, at any rate for the moment, people who normally never espressed such feelings. It was he Jew-as-Iconoclast which aroused the really deep rage... Mahler had begun it; Schönberg carried it on; both were Jews, and they corrupted young Aryan composers like Berg - so the argument went.Johnson, ''op. cit.' p. 410. Again, although these critics meant their identifications of Mahler and Schoenberg as Jewish in an offensive way, this context provides a legitimate reason to claim them as Jewish composers today, though now in a neutral or positive sense. Despite the three above examples, however, a majority of Jewish artists and intellectuals in Austria, Germany and France during the 19th century and early 20th century assimilated culturally either by keeping the Jewish religion but living a mainstream European lifestyle (as Moses Mendelssohn had wished in earlier decades) or renouncing religion in favor of Secularism , but retained at least the identification of Jewishness. It is the dual existence of people who disassociated themselves with Judaism yet remained affiliated with the Jewish people, and those who wished to retain the Jewish religion but eliminate any distinct Jewish culture by blending into Gentile society in this region and period (as opposed to Eastern Europe at the same time, where both the Jewish peoplehood and religion were perserved) that show the complexities of both Judaism and secular Jewish culture. Jews in popular and Jazz music Clarinetist and Bandleader Artie Shaw .]] Jews have also contributed to popular music, primarily in the United States (and, obviously, in Israel ), and in some specific forms of popular music have become or are dominant. This is true to a lesser extent in Europe, but it should be noted that some of the first influential Jewish popular musicians in the US were actually natives of Europe, such as Irving Berlin , Kurt Weill and Sigmund Romberg . The most visible early forms of American popular music in which Jews have contributed are the Popular Song and Musical Theater . Approximately half of the members of the Songwriters Hall Of Fame are Jewish. However, the latter especially has been dominated by Jewish composers and lyricists throughout its history and to a certain extent still today. While , Paul Desmond , Kenny G , Stan Getz , Benny Green , Lee Konitz , Ronnie Scott and Zoot Sims , trumpeters and cornetists Randy Brecker , Ruby Braff , Red Rodney and Shorty Rogers , vibraphonist Terry Gibbs , drummer Victor Feldman and singers and pianists Billy Joel , Al Jolson , Ben Sidran , Mel Tormé and Harry Connick, Jr. . Some artists such as Harry Kandel were famous for mixing Jazz with klezmer, and others like Flora Purim have worked with Latin Jazz and Jazz Fusion . Since a great deal of Jazz music consisted of musical cooperation of Jewish and African-American musicians or black musicians funded by Jewish producers, the art form became "the racist's worst nightmare". Jews & Jazz . Academy BJE, NSW Board of Jewish Education. Accessed 12 Feb 2006. Although the early , Carol King and Gerry Goffin , Neil Diamond , Neil Sedaka , and nearly all of the other Brill Building songwriters were Jewish, as was Phil Spector . With the mid-1960s rise of the Singer-songwriter , some (King, Diamond, Sedaka) became performers; others (such as Burt Bacharach ) managed to continue to work primarily as songwriters. In the Rock Era , Jewish musicians were by no means dominant, but many worked with a mix of Folk and rock forms, including Bob Dylan , Leonard Cohen , Simon And Garfunkel ; more purely on the rock side are David Lee Roth , Lenny Kravitz , and all three Beastie Boys . Today Jews have begun to experiment with forms such as Reggae and Rap , and artists such as Matisyahu have used forms of secular culture to express religious ideas. "Popular" music in Europe during the early 20th century would have been considered to be lighter classical forms such as Operetta and entertainments like Cabaret , and in these Jewish involvement was very large, especially in Vienna and Paris . Probably the most notable ethnically Jewish composer of operettas was Jacques Offenbach , a Roman Catholic convert; in the second half of the 20th century, Serge Gainsbourg 's was one of the dominant figures in the evolution of cabaret music. During the more recent period with its different definition of popular music, Jews have to a lesser extent still contributed, such as band musicians in Britain and songwriters in France. Perhaps the most notable Jewish rock musician in the UK was Marc Bolan of T. Rex . Popular Music In Israel has also a been medium for Jewish secular musical expression. Many Israeli secular musicians explore topics such as the Jewish and Israeli people, Zionism and Nationalism , agriculture and the land of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict . Israeli popular music for the most part uses borrowed American forms like Rock and Alternative Rock , Pop , Heavy Metal , Hip Hop , rap and Trance . In addition to these and classical music, Israel is host to a wealth of styles of Mizrahi Music , featuring the influences and contributions of Arab , Yemenite , Greek and Ethiopian Jews. Dance Deriving from Biblical traditions, dance had long been used by Jews as a medium for the expression of joy and other communal emotions. "Dancing was a favorite pastime of the Jews, who were never community developed its own dance traditions for wedding celebrations and other distinguished events. For Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe , for example, dances, whose names corresponded to the different forms of Klezmer music that were played, were an obvious staple of the wedding ceremony of the Shtetl . Jewish dances both were influenced by surrounding Gentile traditions and Jewish sources preserved over time. "Nevertheless the Jews practiced a corporeal expressive language that was highly differentiated from that of the non-Jewish peoples of their neighborhood, mainly through motions of the hands and arms, with more intricate legwork by the younger men." Yiddish, Klezmer, Ashkenazic or 'shtetl' dances , Le Site Genevois de la Musique Klezmer. Accessed 12 Feb 2006. In general, however, in most religiosly traditional communities, members of the opposite sex dancing together or dancing at times other than at these events was frowned upon. Israel folk dancing, first developed by early immigrants to the is the name of a circle dance in Israel and other countries. (This same name applies to the circle dance that is the national dance of Romania .) In Yemen , where Jews were banned from dancing publicly, forms of dance evolved that are based on stationary hopping and posturing, such as can be done in a confined space. Jews have made important and vital contributions to Ballet and Contemporary Dance in the Europe, United States and Israel, as well as musical theatre dance in the former. In Russia and France, the Ballets Russes was, according to Paul Johnson , "primarily a Jewish creation"Johnson, ''op. cit.'', p. 410.. In Israel both Jewish immigrants from France and other European countries and native born Jews have established a vibrant art dance scene, incluing the popular and influential Israel Ballet. This company features both native-born Israelis and emigrants from the former Soviet Union . Contemporary dance in Israel derives from both Israeli Folk dance and European influences, and is featured in the popular Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Inbal Dance Theater, Bat-Dor Dance Company and Batsheva Dance Company. In the United States Jerome Robbins , Anna Sokolow , Michael Bennett , Michael Kidd , Ron Field , Arthur Murray , Helen Tamiris and Pearl Lang have been successful and leading forces in Broadway dance, ballet, and contemporary dance, and to a certain extent Social Dance . Jewish ballet Impresario Lincoln Kirstein either founded or helped found the School Of American Ballet , The American Ballet and the New York City Ballet . Humor ''See main article Jewish Humor '' Visual arts See also List Of Jews In The Visual Arts . Children's Book ''Yingl Tzingl Khvat'' (The Mischievous Boy) by El Lissitzky , c.1918.]] Compared to music or theater, there is less of a specifically Jewish tradition in the Rabbinical and Kabbalistic literature also contain textual and graphic art. However, in the Ghettos Of Europe it was even illegal for Jews to create art. Roza Bieliauskiene and Felix Tarm, Brief History of Jewish Art , Jewish Art Network. Archived Oct 23, 2004. Johnson again summarizes this sudden change from small amount of participation of Jews in visual art (as in many other arts) to a large entry of them into this branch of European cultural life: Again, the arrival of the Jewish artist was a strange phenomenon. It is true that, over the centuries, there had been many animals (though few humans) in Jewish art: lions on Torah curtains, owls on Judaic coins, animals on the Capernaum capitals, birds on the rim of the fountain-basis in the Fifth-century Naro Synagogue in Tunis ; there were carved animals, too, on timber synagogues in Eastern Europe - indeed the Jewish Wood-carver was the prototype of the modern Jewish Plastic Artist . A book of Yiddish folk- Ornament , printed at Vitebsk in 1920 , was similar to Chagall's own Bestiary . But the resistance of pious Jews to portraying the living image was still strong at the beginning of the twentieth century.Johnson, ''op.cit.'', p. 411. ]] Jewish ''secular'' art, therefore, just like Jewish participation in European classical music, did not really appear until after ( Tamara De Lempicka ), Bauhaus ( Mordecai Ardon , László Moholy-Nagy ), Constructivism ( Boris Aronson , El Lissitzky ), Cubism ( Nathan Altman , Jacques Lipchitz , Louis Marcoussis , Max Weber , Ossip Zadkine ), Expressionism ( Erich Kahn , Jack Levine , Jules Pascin , Chaim Soutine ), Impressionism ( Max Liebermann , Leonid Pasternak , Camille Pissarro ), Minimalism ( Richard Serra ), Orphism ( Sonia Delaunay ), Realism ( Raphael Soyer ), Social Realism ( Leon Bibel , Raphael Soyer ), Surrealism ( Victor Brauner , Marc Chagall , Méret Oppenheim and Man Ray ), the Vienna School Of Fantastic Realism ( Arik Brauer , Ernst Fuchs ) and Vorticism ( David Bomberg , Jacob Epstein ), as well as some not necessarily affiliated with a single movement ( Balthus , Eduard Bendemann , Mark Gertler , Maurycy Gottlieb , Nahum Gutman , Menashe Kadishman , Moise Kisling , R. B. Kitaj , Mane-Katz , Isidor Kaufman , Michel Kikoine , Pinchus Kremegne , Amedeo Modigliani , Elie Nadelman , Felix Nussbaum , Charlotte Salomon , Boris Schatz , George Segal , Anna Ticho , William Rothenstein )— and have been particularly prominent in the post-World War II United States and UK— Lucian Freud , Frank Auerbach , the Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein , and Judy Chicago . During the early 20th century Jews figured particularly prominently in the and Jerry Siegel , creators of '' Superman '', were Jewish, as were Bob Kane (''né'' Robert Cohen), Martin Goodman , Joe Simon , Jack Kirby , and Stan Lee of Marvel Comics ; and William Gaines and Harvey Kurtzman , founders of '' Mad ''. FOOD See main article: Jewish Cuisine , Paris )]] Jewish Cooking combines the food of many cultures in which Jews have traveled, including Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Spanish, German and Eastern European styles of cooking, all influenced by the need for food to be Kosher . Thus, "Jewish" foods like Hummus , Stuffed Cabbage , and Blintz es all come from various other cultures. The amalgam of these foods, plus uniquely Jewish contributions like Bagels , Tzimmis , Cholent , and Matzah Balls , make up Jewish cuisine. NOTES REFERENCES
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