Symposium Examines Antisemitism through Music and Sound

This Spring, I was fortunate to be part of a small team of organizers of an important, but challenging, symposium titled “Music, Sound, and Antisemitism.” The symposium brought together leading scholars from across the globe to study the ways that antisemitism is articulated, transmitted, and inculcated through sonic media. We were also honored to host important Jewish thought leaders who served as panel chairs, including the director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, Cantor Jill Abramson. Spread across four days—two in-person and two on Zoom—the content was meticulously researched, the discussion was thought-provoking, and the importance of the conversation was palpable.

The majority of the twenty-four papers were rooted in musicology and sound studies, offering deep engagement with musical works, composers, performances, and institutions across a wide historical spectrum. What emerged over the course of the symposium was not only how antisemitism has operated in coded or implicit ways, but also how frequently it has been blatant, public, and purposefully weaponized through music and sound. Participants traced these dynamics through varied case studies, demonstrating how antisemitic ideologies have been sustained and amplified by musical means.

The symposium included excellent papers from historical musicologists, but the symposium did not treat antisemitism as a phenomenon of the past. Several presentations addressed music created in recent years (and horrifyingly, recent weeks), revealing how antisemitic messages continue to appear in both fringe and mainstream cultural spaces. From online content to live performance, the persistence of antisemitic rhetoric—and the ways it is adapted to new sonic and technological contexts—was a sobering reminder of the ongoing relevance of this work. The program underscored that music is not only a reflection of cultural values but also a potent force in shaping and normalizing them.

The conversations throughout the symposium were marked by critical engagement and a shared sense of ethical responsibility. Whether in formal sessions or informal discussions, participants reflected on the role of scholarship in recognizing and confronting anti-Jewish sentiment in all its forms. The symposium offered a space not only for intellectual exchange but also for collective reckoning—a recognition that sound, music, and listening are central to understanding how antisemitism operates, and to imagining ways of resisting it. As my co-organizer Dr. Tina Frühauf stated at the conclusion of the program, “music can be used to hurt and to heal.” The group of scholars assembled came away with a reinvigorated sense that those who study antisemitism play an important role in speaking out against it with nuance, careful documentation, and historical perspective.

The program for the symposium may be found here.