Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs

MAESTROS OF MUSICAL EVOLUTION
Jewish culture has been wedded to music and song since earliest times. Within the
great temple of Jerusalem, the psalms were sung by Levites to one of history's
oldest forms of musical notation. Many centuries later, cantorial music and the
melodies of folk musicians called klezmorim flourished, but were played solely
within Jewish communities. This would change.
By the 19th Century, villagers leaving the ghettos--including those with
musical gifts and ambitions--entered Europe's growing middle class which
developed a strong appetite for musical entertainment and invention. The classical
medium drew from maestros like Felix Mendelssohn; others also of Jewish
ancestry devoted their talents to popular music of the day. Johann Strauss,
Giacomo Meyerbeer and Paul Dukas, in turn, were followed by Jewish
composers who also contributed to great moments and innovations in Western
music's rich repertoire.

JACQUES OFFENBACH
(1819-80) b. Cologne, Germany Composer/Conductor
He was variously called the "king" and the "little
Mozart" of comic opera and operetta, and was a
principal figure in the theatrical genre he made his
own. His output of more than one-hundred stage
productions helped lift the operetta to its status as a
singular musical form. Offenbach's work eventually
inspired a newcomer that would supersede it in prom-
inence--the musical comedy of today. His brilliance endures, as in his best-known
lyric opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, an enduring international favorite.
........... . . - . .... • . . ............
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
(1874-1951) b. Vienna, Austria Composer It has been
said that he and his teacher, Gustav Mahler, were the
dominant musical influences in Austria after Brahms.
At the turn of the century, the largely self-taught
composer revolutionized music with a twelve-tone
system for organizing composition. By the time he
• emigrated to the U.S. in 1933, Schoenberg had almost
' 7
exclusively created a new classical form: The intellec-
tually challenging system structured dozens of his orchestral, stage, choral and
chamber works which are increasingly performed and admired by concert goers.

JEROME KERN
(1885-1945) b. New York City Composer Who could
resist the enchantment of Showboat or Roberta? Or
humming along with such ageless gems as "01' Man
River" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"? Measured by
a lifetime repertoire of more than 1,000 songs and
dozens of stage shows and musical scores for the films,
Kern was the unquestioned father of the modern
American musical. He almost single-handedly trans-
transformed the operetta of his day into a theatrical paradigm for virtually every
Broadway and Hollywood musical produced since Showboat.
Saul Stadtmauer

-

"What people on earth have contributed more to human culture than the Jewish
people?"
Pablo Casals, Cellist,Composer

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COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field & Harriet F. Siden, Chairpersons
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This Week

Washington Watch

D.C. Lobby

Selling Sharon; Powell's tour;
saving for school; Moscow favorites.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

I

sraeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel
Sharon wasted no time trying
to ease Washington's jitters
about his election and its
impact on stalled Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations.
On Tuesday, a high-powered team of
emissaries for the new leader began a
jam-packed round of meetings with
administration and congressional offi-
cials even as Sharon continued efforts
to cobble together a national unity
government. The goal: to reassure U.S.
officials that Sharon's bulldozer reputa-
tion does not necessarily mean the
onset of new violence and the end of
an active peace process.
Israeli newspapers reported this
week that the Sharon team has hired
two major public relations firms to
orchestrate a major campaign in U.S.
newspapers.
The team that touched down in
Washington on Tuesday included
Zalman Shoval, who served two tours
of duty as Israel's ambassador in the
U.S., and Dore Gold, Israel's United
Nations envoy during the last Likud
government.
The American-born Gold, sources
say, is a leading contender to take over
the Israeli embassy when Sharon forms
a government — although U.S..
sources say the current ambassador,
David Ivry, could stay if Sharon suc-
ceeds in forming a unity government.
The articulate, smooth Shoval is in
line for a position as Sharon's roving
ambassador, Israeli sources say.
The Sharon team maintained an
exhausting schedule this week, meet-
ing with Secretary of State Colin
Powell, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, leaders of both congression-
al foreign policy committees and
National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice.
The delegation was also scheduled
to meet with Jewish members of
Congress in a session hosted by Sen.
Carl Levin (D-Mich.). And they
scheduled sessions with the editorial
boards of both major newspapers in
Washington.
Jewish lobbyists welcomed Sharon's
charm offensive. "He has to put a gen-

tier face on himself," said Robert 0.
Freedman, a leading Mideast analyst
and peace process supporter. "He's a
clever politician; he knows he's going
to crack down on escalating
Palestinian violence, and he is laying
the groundwork with this visit."
Freedman said public opinion in the
U.S. is not unfavorable as the new
Israeli government gets assembled.
"There's been a real change in the
past month or two," he said. "More
and more, the media is concluding
that it was Arafat who elected Sharon.
Sharon's main point — that we will
not talk while the violence continues
— is going down very well."

Powell's Tour

President George W. Bush may be
hoping to back off a little from active
U.S. Middle East diplomacy, but
events in the region — and the threat
of a wider conflict — may not give
him the opportunity.
This week, Secretary of State Colin
Powell added Syria to the itinerary of
his getting-acquainted swing through
the region, scheduled to begin on Feb.
23.
The reason: mounting concern that
flare-ups. along the Israel-Lebanon bor-
der could be the spark that touches off
a much wider conflagration.
"The scenario for an all-out Israeli-
Arab war clearly starts at the Israeli-
Lebanese border with the prospect of
Hezbollah action," said Daniel Pipes,
president of the Middle East Forum.
"The new administration recognizes
the seriousness of that threat; if some-
thing happens, there is a real danger of
escalation."
Powell, Washington sources say,
wants to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the
new Syrian president, Bashar Assad,
and make the case that provocations
along the border are likely to cause a
dangerous escalation — doubly so
now that Ariel Sharon is getting set to
take power.
Powell also wants to talk to the
Syrians about reports that Damascus is
letting Iraq export oil through a Syrian
pipeline, in contravention of U.N.
.
sanctions. Press reports indicate that the
Syrian pipeline is turning into a major
source of illicit revenue for the Iraqis.

