“Israel in Three Anthems”

Michael A. Figueroa, Assistant Professor of Music, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Discussant: Brigid Cohen, Assistant Professor of Music, NYU

Monday, November 28th at 7pm. at the Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011. Tickets are free and all programs are open to the public. Please rsvp to: info@jewishmusicforum.org.

This talk discusses how three anthems—“Ha-Tikva,” “L’Internationale,” and “Yerushalayim shel Zahav”— have helped shaped Israeli society, analyzing these songs as performances of collectivity representing the multifaceted nature of Zionism and the shifting political landscape in Israel.

Michael A. Figueroa is an ethnomusicologist whose work resides at the intersection of music and political consciousness in Middle Eastern and African American contexts. His work argues for the critical importance of musical performance and interpretation in how people construct space, place, and society. To this end, his current book (in process) looks at the role of music in the making of modern Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. His other research and teaching interests include music and poetry, performance studies, black music historiography, global popular music, critical theory, diaspora studies, media and technology, and the analysis of timbre.

This program is co-sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Society.