On Arab Music and Jewish History in North Africa - Spring 2019

Monday, February 10th, 2020 | 6:30-8 p.m. | Fromm Hall, Berman Room
For much of the twentieth century, North African Jews played an outsized role as both music-makers and purveyors of music across the Maghrib. In Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, all under French colonial rule through the middle of the last century, Jewish vocalists, instrumentalists, and sonic impresarios utilized the phonograph to record and rescue the classical Andalusian tradition while simultaneously pioneering popular musical forms mixed in style and language. Focusing on phonograph records and their trajectories, Dr. Chris Silver, Segal Family Assistant Professor in Jewish History and Culture in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University, will walk us through both Jewish history and Jewish-Muslim relations in the region anew.