James Loeffler

James Loeffler is the author of The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire and co-editor of The Idelsohn Project.

The ‘Lust Machine’
The cantor opposed the gramophone as a desecration of religion. The capitalist saw its potential as secular commodity. An early-20th-century tale of piety versus profit—and Zionism.
byJames Loeffler
Should American Jews Speak Hebrew?
Israeli Jews and diaspora Jews: one people divided by a common tongue
byJames Loeffler
How an American Jewish Opera Star Accidentally Launched the Soviet Jewish Movement
The 60th anniversary of Jan Peerce’s landmark Cold War Moscow show, where a final encore pointed the way to deliverance
byJames Loeffler
Why the New ‘Holocaust Music’ Is an Insult to Music—and to Victims of the Shoah
A recent wave of performances turns Jewish composers into shadow images defined only by their status as Hitler’s victims
byJames Loeffler
Showtime at the Apollo
Idan Raichel mixes traditional Ethiopian music, prayers, and funky beats to create dance tracks that speak to young Israelis
byJames Loeffler
Beyond the Melting Pot
A hipster scholar makes room on his provocative playlist for the jubilant, in-your-face shtick of Mickey Katz
byJames Loeffler
Ethnic Sampling
Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and the pliability of Jewish music
byJames Loeffler
Hidden Sympathies
A dubious portrait of Shostakovich as dissident has been debunked, but motifs in his work underscore his discord with Soviet power.
byJames Loeffler