What is special about Jewish music and what role did Ukraine play in its formation?

When we talk about Jewish music, we most often recall touching violin melodies, klezmer ensembles, the sound of the clarinet, and Hasidic chants that can both cry and rejoice simultaneously. But behind this tradition lies a vast cultural layer closely connected with the history of Ukraine. It is here that unique musical expressions were formed, ancient chants were preserved, and many elements of Jewish music intertwined with Ukrainian folk culture, creating a completely unique sound landscape.

On the website of the “Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter” in November 2025, a large conversation with Michal Stamova was published — a researcher of Jewish culture, a specialist in the history of Hebrew prayer, and a consultant on Jewish education projects. Her answers help to look at Jewish music differently: as a living organism that developed on Ukrainian lands alongside local traditions, experienced wars, migrations, cultural explosive moments, and today is regaining popularity.

Below is a comprehensive overview of this topic specifically for NANews – news of Israel.

Music as Part of Judaism

In Judaism, music was never something forbidden or suspicious. On the contrary — it was initially a way to glorify the Almighty. Even in the Jerusalem Temple, there were musical instruments, psalms were sung, and King David combined the roles of ruler, warrior, and poet-musician.

Michal Stamova emphasizes: in the Tanakh, there are many musical fragments — songs, ballads, prayer texts, which, unfortunately, have reached us without notes but have become the basis for modern composers. Both Jewish and non-Jewish. In this sense, music is not just art but a sacred connection between tradition and the creator.

A person, created “in the image and likeness,” expresses their inner state through sound. And in Jewish tradition, this has always been a natural, permissible, and even necessary way of spiritual practice.

What is Considered Jewish Folk Music

In Jewish culture, strict copyright existed long before modern legislation. If a melody was recorded in a synagogue of a certain tradition, it was signed. If the author was known, their name was passed down orally and in writing. But when the origin was lost, the melody became “folk.”

According to Stamova, the peculiarity of the Jewish musical tradition is that it was recorded not only with texts but also with a system of signs describing melodic movement. Sometimes in such records, you can find comments on where the melody was taken from or indications of which Hasidic group it belonged to.

An important detail: Hasidic music is one of the aspects of the Jewish musical tradition closest to Ukrainians. After all, Hasidism originated here, on the territory of Ukraine, and many of its chants were formed in the towns of Volhynia, Podolia, Galicia.

Klezmer as a Phenomenon: Why Ukraine is at the Center of the Picture

When they say “Jewish music,” they most often mean klezmer — instrumental ensembles that played at weddings, fairs, folk festivals. And here, Ukraine’s influence is enormous.

Main facts:

• klezmer is a phenomenon of Eastern European Jewry, and Ukraine plays a key role in it
• ensembles were formed from musicians of different nationalities: Ukrainians, Moldovans, Rusyns, Belarusians
• the repertoire was adaptive: Jewish weddings, Ukrainian, Moldovan — the ensemble played everywhere
• it was on Ukrainian lands that the most important musical styles of klezmer were formed

Stamova emphasizes: klezmer was as much a part of Ukrainian cities and villages as troisty music. The only difference is that Jewish ensembles more often conveyed melodies through special spiritual intonations.

Instrumentalists learned from vocalists. Hence the main phenomenal feature of klezmer: the instrument “sings.”

What Makes Jewish Music Recognizable

For those who listen to music non-professionally, a Jewish melody is recognized instantly. Why?

Here are the key features:

• krekht — an intonational “sigh,” “moan” made on the clarinet, violin, and even on wind instruments
• double harmonic minor — often called the “Jewish scale”
• vocal origin of instrumental technique

The clarinet in Jewish music literally talks, sighs, cries. The violin is an extension of the human voice. Therefore, the image of the “Jew with a violin” arises not by chance.

And here we return again to Ukraine: it is on Ukrainian soil that this style of instrumental emotionality was formed into a stable tradition.

Nigun: The Voice of the Soul Without Words

Besides klezmer, there is another important branch of Jewish music — nigun. This is a spiritual chant, a prayer without words. A nigun can be slow, weeping, or, on the contrary, dance-like. Its meaning is to create an internal dialogue with the Almighty.

Stamova emphasizes: nigun is an invention of Hasidism, which was born on Ukrainian soil. And therefore, Ukraine is one of the key places of birth of modern spiritual Jewish music.

Niguns are performed both as vocal meditations and as instrumental improvisations. Modern songs are written based on them, adding words from the Torah, sayings of the Rebbe, and philosophical texts.

Ukraine as the Center of Klezmer Memory

If not for the researcher Moisei Beregovsky, a huge part of Jewish music could have disappeared forever. In the 20th century, especially after the Holocaust, musical traditions were destroyed along with communities. Beregovsky, risking his life, traveled through ghettos and towns, recorded old melodies, collected folklore, and systematized archives.

Thanks to his work:

• we know Podolian klezmer
• melodies of the Kyiv province have been preserved
• ancient Hasidic chants have been recorded
• the structure of Jewish wedding melodies has been restored

Ukraine became not only the cradle of klezmer but also the place of its salvation.

Jewish Music Today: A New Renaissance

Despite war and migrations, Jewish music is experiencing a resurgence. According to Stamova, young Ukrainian musicians are actively returning to their roots.

Who is worth listening to:

• Hennadiy Fomin — Ukrainian musician and fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, creator of modern Jewish compositions
• Natalia Kasyanchik — domra player, raised on Ukrainian klezmer traditions
• Feldman Band from Chernivtsi
• techno-klezmer by Sacha Baron Cohen and his brother
• Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra, who take roots in the Balkans but use Eastern European motifs

Festivals, summer schools, and international programs continue to develop, attracting musicians from all over the world.

The Image of the Jew with a Violin: Stereotype or Philosophy

This image is not an accident or a cliché. It grew out of Jewish humor and simultaneously from tragic experience. Sholem Aleichem called the life of a Jew “a fiddler on the roof” — a balance where a person stays above the abyss but continues to play.

The violin is an instrument that can cry, moan, laugh. It conveys the emotions embedded in the history of the Jewish people: exiles, joys, anticipation of change, faith in the best.

Therefore, this image became a cultural code, not a caricature.

Why Jewish Music is Impossible Without Ukraine

Ukraine is:

• the territory where klezmer was born
• the place where Hasidic chants were formed
• a space where different cultures lived side by side
• a source of musical themes that went to Broadway and into global pop culture
• the cradle of musicians who created the foundation of modern Jewish music

Hence the global influence of Ukrainian land on the world Jewish tradition.

Conclusions

Jewish music is not a museum exhibit. It is the living breath of the community, its memory, and energy. It absorbed Ukrainian multiculturalism, local rhythm, the melancholy of Podolian melodies, the temperament of Moldovan weddings, the lyricism of Hutsul chants.

And today, when culture once again becomes an important tool of dialogue between peoples, Jewish music reminds us: Ukraine and the Jewish people have a common history — complex, multi-layered, but surprisingly harmonious.