The question of music in American Judaism: reflections at 350 years *

Clamorous debates above music have been a feature of American Judaism since at least the beginning of the nineteenth hundred Indeed, questions concerning music in the synagogue have stood next to the first only to questions concerning women in the synagogue as prime sources of disputation, dividing synagogues and sometimes level landing up in court. Like women music is at one time alluring and dangerous; it delights the faculty of perceptions but it may also stir up passionate disagreement, undermine the established order, and distract nation from the solemnity of worship. In the organ of visions of synagogue leaders, therefore, one as well as the other music and women have demanded careful regulation.