The music of Ethiopian Jews

Ethiopian Jews form a unique community within the Jewish diaspora, due to their geographical location within the African continent. The traditional Ethiopian liturgy – which is not sung in Hebrew – and its music are totally different from other Jewish traditions. Discover this fascinating world with a few clicks…
Feature Article

THE MUSIC OF THE ETHIOPIAN JEWS, THE BETA ISRAEL (7 min of reading)

The massive illegal immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel began at the turn of the 1980s. Within the space of three decades, more than 90,000 Beta Israel and Falash Mura settled in the Hebrew state, where they integrated the ranks of normalized Judaism, abandoning their ancestral ritual practices…

THE LITURGICAL SINGING OF THE ETHIOPIAN JEWS: AN ISRAELI DESTINY

This lecture by Simha Arom and Olivier Tourny gives us the keys to understanding what has happened to the singing of the Ethiopian Jewish community since its settlement in Israel…

Conference
Biography

All about:

SIMHA AROM (1930) (7 min of reading)
Born in Germany, but a refugee in Palestine after the war, Simha Arom is an internationally renowned musician and ethnomusicologist, specializing in traditional music, particularly from Central Africa. He has also recorded the music of Ethiopian Jews on their arrival in Israel…

Radio programs

Listen:

THE ETHIOPIAN JEWISH LITURGICAL SONGS, Guest: Olivier Tourny (50 min program in French)
SIMHA AROM – FROM DÜSSELDORF TO JERUSALEM, FROM CENTRAL AFRICAN MUSIC TO THOSE OF ETHIOPIAN JEWS, Guest: Simha Arom (50 min program in French)

LE CHANT LITURGIQUE JUIF ÉTHIOPIEN – ANALYSE MUSICALE D’UNE TRADITION ORALE, by Olivier Tourny

Cet ouvrage de Olivier Tourny, ethnomusicologue au CNRS, ancien directeur du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, décrit de manière pédagogique l’étonnante tradition musicale des Juifs d’Éthiopie…

Book
Book

MUSIQUES LITURGIQUES JUIVES, PARCOURS ET ESCALES, by Hervé Roten

This book-disc retraces the history of Jewish music through time and space, with a particular focus on the ancient Marrano communities of south-west France, the extraordinary musical heritage of the Jews of Djerba and the astonishing liturgy of Ethiopian Jews…

THE LITURGY OF BETA ISRAEL – MUSIC OF THE ETHIOPIAN JEWISH PRAYER

This 3-CD reference anthology was published in 2018 by the Jewish Music Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The booklet, written by leading specialists (Simha Arom, Frank Alvarez-Pereyre, Shoshana Ben-Dor and Olivier Tourny), provides a historical, liturgical and musicological analysis of the music of the Beta Israel

CD
External Link

Jewish Music Research Centre. Ethiopian Jews in Israel – a Musical Ethnography

This article, written by Nili Belkind and accompanied by audio and video recordings, offers a study of Ethiopian Jewish music and its evolution within Israeli society

Other online contents

Discover all our articles about the Ethiopian Jews’ music…

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