Hatikvah: A Sacred Reading of a Secular Text online talk, Sept. 13
Hatikvah: A Sacred Reading of a Secular Text
Presented by the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers
WHEN: September 13 at 2 pm.
WHERE: For more information or to register, visit BildnerCenter.Rutgers.edu.
ADMISSION: free and open to the public
WHERE: For more information or to register, visit BildnerCenter.Rutgers.edu.
ADMISSION: free and open to the public
The
status of Hatikvah as the anthem of the Zionist movement, and eventually
the State of Israel, was contentious from its earliest days and even into the
present.
Edwin Seroussi, the Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology and the director of the Jewish Music Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will explore the history of the embattled song, focusing on the unexpected, often obscured, and lesser-known alternative readings of the text. His talk will examine how Middle Eastern and North African Jews always viewed Hatikvah as a piyyut (religious song), or at least as an apolitical song of yearning for Zion.
A
pioneer in the study of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern musical cultures and
traditions, Dr. Seroussi was awarded the 2018 Israel Prize, the country’s
highest cultural honor. He also won the Joel Engel Prize for Life Achievement
in Jewish Music Research.
The
Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life connects the
university with the community through public lectures, symposia, Jewish
communal initiatives, cultural events, and teacher training.