The organ is commonly perceived today as an instrument belonging to Western culture and Christian civilization. At the same time, both many performers and listeners of organ music are often unaware that until the Middle Ages instrumental music was not permitted in Catholic liturgy—it was associated with the “pagan” and “Jewish” spheres [1]. Only in the mid-15th century did this instrument become widespread in churches. Jews themselves, in turn, began to perceive it as ḥukkat ha-goy—an element associated with Christian culture.

​

Thus, organs in Jewish culture have a history spanning many centuries. The Hebrew Bible mentions the instrument ugav four times: in Genesis 4:21, twice in the Book of Job (21:12; 30:31), and in Psalm 150:4. There is no doubt that the term refers to a musical instrument; however, due to the lack of unequivocal historical evidence, it has been interpreted in various ways, including as a flute, bagpipes, or a lute [2]. According to the Jerusalem Talmud (Sukkah 55c), it may even have referred to ancient hydraulic organs.

​

Another possible ancient predecessor of the organ is the instrument magrepha mentioned in the Mishnah (Hebrew: to scoop, gather, ladle). The Babylonian Talmud (Arakhin 10b–11a) describes it as a bellows-driven pipe organ with ten reed pipes of different sizes and keys mounted on a wind chest. This instrument was said to have been located in the Temple in Jerusalem. After its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE, instrumental music was banned in synagogue services as a sign of mourning for this event. Organs nevertheless remained a subject of rabbinic thought and were present in Jewish iconography and Judaic texts. Several centuries later, they entered the Christian cultural sphere. From the 13th century onward, many biblical manuscripts include drawings depicting King David playing the organ, even referring to him as an organista [3]. In the 15th century, organs became widespread in monastic and cathedral churches. It took, however, several more centuries before Jewish musicians—overcoming prejudice and considerable religious and communal resistance—permanently introduced organs into the synagogue.

​

The most significant chapter in the history of organs in synagogues begins with the Haskalah, the “Jewish Enlightenment,” and the works of Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), one of the most important Jewish philosophers and the grandfather of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A movement that initially aimed at the renewal of Judaism and the revival of forgotten Jewish traditions became the foundation of secular Jewish thought and Jewish assimilation. It subsequently developed into an emancipation movement striving for legal and socio-cultural equality of Jews with other citizens [4].

​

These changes also affected Jewish religious life. Reformers did not view their actions as a revolution; on the contrary, they believed that their efforts would bring to light the “true” Judaism, enabling it to become a fully recognized religion and to shed the stigma of being a closed and mysterious sect. Reforms particularly affected the aesthetic aspects of synagogue liturgy. The service was shortened, and the German language was introduced (sermons modeled on Christian preaching). The musical aspect of the liturgy underwent radical changes. In an effort to make it more accessible to congregants educated musically within Western culture, congregational chorale singing in German and Hebrew was introduced and—most importantly—organ instruments began to be installed in synagogues.

​

The first synagogue to house an organ was the prayer hall attached to a school for children from poor Jewish families in Seesen (Westphalia). Its founder, Israel Jacobson, in line with Mendelssohn’s ideas, saw education as a path to improving the social standing of Jews. The consecration of this synagogue on 17 July 1810 became the first documented event at which an organ was heard in a synagogue located on German territory—“something previously unheard of” [5].

​

Another significant event for Jewish organ culture was the Second Rabbinical Conference, held from 15 to 28 July 1845 in Frankfurt am Main. During the conference, discussions addressed the legitimacy of organs and organ music in synagogues and attempted to determine whether organists should be exclusively Jewish [6]. Although the conclusions stated that, in accordance with tradition and as a foreign element, organs should be prohibited, it was nevertheless acknowledged that they could be used to build and enhance the devotional character of the liturgy. Particularly noteworthy was the recommendation that in organ music one should “avoid imitating what is barbaric, unless… the barbaric element is an integral part of the given performance.” The participants also defined a new order of synagogue liturgy that took organ music into account.

​

As a result, organs were installed in many synagogues. The most significant of these was the instrument built—after lengthy rabbinical and philosophical debates—in the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin. The ideas of Reform Judaism radiated strongly from Germany to other European countries and regions, including Central Europe. They also reached the United States of America, the Middle East, and the West Indies [7].

​

In the territories of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the stronger the Western influences, the more opportunities arose to introduce instrumental music into synagogues. Large and magnificent instruments were installed in synagogues in Silesia, Greater Poland, and Pomerania, foremost among them the Great Synagogue in Gdańsk.

​

In Warsaw, debates about the legitimacy of installing an organ in the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street continued practically until the end of its existence. Although many sources preserve descriptions of the “powerful sounds of the organ,” it was most likely a harmonium. The widespread use of keyboard instruments as accompaniment to choral settings of psalms and hymns—documented from the mid-19th century onward—suggests that this instrument may have constituted a kind of compromise between proponents and opponents of reform. Nevertheless, accounts have survived of organists serving permanently in the synagogues of Warsaw, Kraków, Lviv, Vilnius, and Stanisławów. At the same time, organ music became firmly established in synagogues further east, with Odessa emerging as its principal center.

​

The continuous development of Jewish organ music in Germany was ultimately interrupted by Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938. In the rest of Europe, synagogues, musicians, their works, and their instruments were wiped from the surface of the earth with the liquidation of Jewish districts and ghettos and the brutal extermination of the Jewish population during the Holocaust. Over the years, the memory of this tradition in Poland has almost completely faded, and hundreds of composers and their works are still waiting to be rediscovered.

​

References

[1] Peter Williams, The Organ in Western Culture, Cambridge University Press, New York 1993.

[2] Entry: Biblical instruments, in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians [online], available at: www.grovemusic.com (accessed 8 December 2018).

[3] Joachim Braun, The Iconography of the Organ: Change in Jewish Thought and Musical Life, “Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography,” no. 28, 2003.

[4] David Sorkin, Religious Reforms and Secular Trends in German-Jewish Life: An Agenda for Research, “Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook,” no. 48, 1995.

[5] Caesar Seligmann, Geschichte der jüdischen Reformbewegung von Mendelssohn bis zur Gegenwart, Julius Kaufmann, Frankfurt am Main 1922.

[6] Protokolle und Aktenstücke der zweiten Rabbinerversammlung, E. Ullmann, Frankfurt am Main 1845.

[7] Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, Jewish Music in Its Historical Development, Dover, New York 1992.