Abstract

Żydowska kultura muzyczna w dziewiętnastowiecznej Warszawie w świetle informacji tygodnika „Izraelita” Jewish musical culture in nineteenth-century Warsaw in light of information from the weekly Izraelita This article discusses the history of Jewish musical culture both secular and sacred, understood as an emanation of Jewish identity, in nineteenth-century Warsaw. The author understands Jewish musical culture in two ways: on one hand, it constitutes a forum for Jewish social identification and is realised in institutions belonging to the Jewish community; on the other, it goes beyond that community and begins to connect with culture in general. With regard to the first aspect, the author reconstructs the musical activities in Warsaw synagogues, and also in concert halls in the Jewish quarter, including the Harmonia, rented by the most active Jewish organisation in the cultural domain at that time, the Association of Commercial Salesmen of the Faith of Moses. In addressing the second aspect, the author focusses primarily on musical relations between the Polish and Jewish environments – their interpenetration and mutual opposition. That explains the accounts and interpretations of examples of the presence of Jewish musicians in so-called ‘culturally neutral’ concert halls around the city, the presence of non-Jews at concerts identified as ‘Jewish’ and shows given by Jewish theatre groups, and also the antagonisms between the Polish and Jewish communities, including manifestations of anti-Semitism in musical culture. The source base for this text consists of material taken from the leading Polish-language Jewish periodical published during the second half of the nineteenth century in the Kingdom of Poland, Izraelita, supplemented with information from other periodicals, both Polish and foreign.