Ellen Koskoff, Music in Lubavitcher Life, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001. xviii + 200 pp., index, illustrations, glossary, bibliography, discography, song texts. ISBN 0-252-02591-1 (cloth cover) $39.95

Lubavitchers are one of several groupings of Hasidim, or ultraorthodox Jews. Originating in Poland, their headquarters are now firmly established in Crown Heights, New York, and there are Lubavitcher outposts all over the world, (including London, where their youth and music activities are subsidised by the British Musician’s Union). Lubavitcher men, like other Hasidim, are easily distinguished by their distinctive clothes, but otherwise form a relatively closed community wherever they live. Their lives are governed by hundreds and hundreds of laws, their ethos being to follow the laws of Judaism not only in the letter but also in the spirit. Their community is growing rapidly and they are actively evangelical within the Jewish community. (Persons not belonging to the Jewish community are not considered to contain any spark of spirituality whatsoever and are consequently not worth converting). In addition to the law, Lubavitcher philosophy contains elements of Jewish mysticism derived from the Kabbalah, and regarded with some suspicion by other Orthodox Jews.

Ellen Koskoff gives us the results of twenty-two years of research: a remarkably detailed, affectionate and comprehensive picture of Lubavitcher daily life, religion, social customs and music. Her account is warm and at times ironic. She describes the ethical trials and tribulations of fieldwork, in particular the difficulties encountered when her respondents attempt to convert her and the ease with which she sometimes loses her temper with female respondents of roughly her own age, with honesty and a gently self-deprecating humour. During this time she develops warm relationships with several members of the community, who never tire of answering her questions or give up hope of saving her soul.

The first part of the book sets the scene by describing a Farbrengen, that is to say a musical and religious ceremony involving most of the local community, which starts at sundown and continues until three or four o'clock in the morning. Koskoff follows this by setting out her analytical framework and listing her academic predesessors. The second and more substantial part of the book gives the history and philosophy of Lubavitcher Hasidism, and a comprehensive picture of the contemporary Lubavitcher society showing how this philosophy is lived. It also describes how Lubavitcher religious philosophy is embedded in music, and how music is used to enable Lubavitchers to reach an ecstatic state.

Part three considers aspects of four central beliefs which are embodied in and celebrated by performance. Koskoff describes this as ‘the means by which Lubavitchers perform their core beliefs into being’. One such aspect is the past, which is believed to be spirituality privileged. The idealised past is seen as the time of ‘spiritual giants’, consequently any connection between the modern-day and the spirituality is counted as a blessing. The other aspects are the performance of gender in music, that of lineage, and ‘the modern’. In addition to examples of varying musical contexts and performances there is a description of the unique way in which music from outside sources is made ‘Hasidic’ and consequently usable for religious purposes. The fourth part of the book is a brief coda which discusses issues of Lubavitcher identity. Finally there is a description of the death of the Rebbe, the spiritual leader.

Koskoff’s book follows hard on the heels of Fiddler on the Move by Mark Slobin(1), (reviewed in the British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 10/1, p. 127)(2) and makes another valuable contribution to books about contemporary Jewish music. There the resemblance ends. I found Music in Lubavitcher Life fascinating and nearly impossible to put down. As a non-Jewish performer of Jewish music it answered many of my questions about the Hasidim in particular and some wider queries about other forms of Judaism. As a philosopher, I liked the way in which the tension between religious ideal and the practicalities of everyday life is palpable throughout this book, and the innovative ways in which it is negotiated by Lubavitchers. Sadly there is no CD accompanying the book, but if you want to hear examples of the music you can download the Rebbe and others singing Niggunim from the internet(3).

1. Mark Slobin, Fiddler on the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World, (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), chapter 2.
2. Abigail Wood in British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 10 (2001), 127-29, (p.128).
3. These sites all worked on 4 February 2002:

Lindsay Aitkenhead is researching the viola in the folk music of Britain for her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield, England. Her book Mathematics Multimedia Courseware Review, (Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University, 1997), helped to get her on the course but has nothing whatsoever to do with ethnomusicology. She is also a professional performer of Klezmer music with the band Tashbain.