External Resources

The following resources outside the Library of Congress are freely available online and are useful to locate general information about Jewish composers.

Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography External
Free online PDF files made available by the American Jewish Archives of this 1994 publication. Jewish American composers can be found within the alphabetical listings.
Jewish Music Research Centre External
From the website: "The Jewish Music Research Centre (JMRC) is dedicated to the documentation, research and publication of scholarly materials about music conceived, performed and consumed by Jewish societies in the past and present. Founded in 1964 by Prof. Israel Adler, the JMRC is one of the oldest research centers of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem." (https://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/en/about-us/83#paragraph-371)
Jewish Music Webcenter External
"The purpose of the Jewish Music WebCenter is to support and encourage scholarship and general enjoyment of Jewish music. This website provides an informational platform for activities by individuals and groups as well as academic and archival resources." (http://jmwc.org/about/)
The Biographies section of the website contains biographical sketches of many historical and living composers of concert music.
Jewish Virtual Library External
The Jewish Virtual Library is an online resource project of the the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Search the website with the term "composer" to find brief biographical articles of Jewish composers throughout history and today.
Milken Archive of Jewish Music External
"The Milken Archive was founded in 1990 to document, preserve, and disseminate the vast body of music that pertains to the American Jewish experience. In the time since, the Milken Archive has become the largest collection of American Jewish music ever assembled—roughly 600 recorded works, more than 500 of them world premieres. The Milken Archive’s collection contains over 800 hours of oral histories, nearly 50,000 photographs and historical documents, thousands of hours of video footage from recording sessions, interviews, and live performances, and an extensive set of program notes and essays that illuminate the music's historical and cultural context." (excerpted from https://www.milkenarchive.org/about/)
Music and the Holocaust External
"This website is focused on . . . the role of music in the Holocaust—the systematic mass murder by the Nazis of six million European Jews, as well as homosexuals, communists, Roma, and other victims during the Second World War. The articles describe the wide range of musical activities that took place in camps and ghettos across Nazi-occupied Europe, focusing not only on the work of professional musicians and composers but equally on the music created and performed by millions of ‘ordinary’ people in response to their experiences of internment. The recordings include songs written and sung by victims across Europe, as well as full-length compositions written primarily in Theresienstadt and in the post-war period." (https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/about-us/)
The Bibliography section of the website contains numerous journal articles and book titles of interest to those researching Jewish composers. The People section includes biographical sketches of Jewish composers active before and during the Holocaust in Europe.
Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women External
A free online encyclopedia maintained by the Jewish Women's Archive. The encyclopedia contains a performing arts section with photographs and information about Jewish women composers, songwriters, dancers, instrumentalists, vocalists, choreographers, actors, and more.

Jewish Composers: Resources in the Library of Congress Music Division

External Resources