Diaspora Identity and Klezmer in America (original) (raw)

Jewish identity has undergone major changes in the American Diaspora. Relentless oppression in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries meant that immigration to America surged, particularly during 1880-1924 (Netsky 2002). Immigrants found themselves in a country of greater equality, prosperity and opportunity, but one in which assimilation and cultural survival were problematic. This essay presents a tripartite schema for the role of Klezmer in American-Jewish identity, in which music serves as a conduit for survivalist discourse, moving from particularism to assimilation and returning anew to particularism during the revival of the 1970s and 80s. Firstly, it connected America’s working class Jewish population both to their past and to each other, maintaining a particularist Jewish identity (Slobin 2000). Secondly, under assimilatory pressures, the next generation broke with their European past to connect to an American future. Here, Klezmer provided a cultural platform for assimilation while maintaining a modicum of Jewish identity (Sapoznik 2006). Thirdly, with mass assimilation and gentrification Klezmer was re-employed, as a middle class reaction to the boredom of homogeneity and the search for a new Jewish identity. This essay will first consider identity theory, and then seek to validate this Schema.