The Most Musical Nation: Jews & Culture in the Late Russian Empire

James Loeffler discusses the role of music in the formation of modern Jewish identity in 19th- and 20th-century Russia in his new book, "The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire."
Speaker Biography: Historian James Loeffler is assistant professor of Jewish history in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. He also serves concurrently as research director for Pro Musica Hebraica, an organization dedicated to bringing neglected Jewish music to the concert hall. Loeffler received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a master's degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has published widely on a variety of topics, including Jewish folk- and classical-music traditions in Eastern Europe and the impact of anti-Semitism on modern Jewish culture. He recently received a postdoctoral fellowship for research on Eastern Europe and Eurasia from the American Council for Learned Societies/National Endowment for the Humanities/Social Science Research Council.