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Maqam and Liturgy: Ritual, Music, and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn.  Mark L. Kligman. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2009.  267 pp. + CD.  ISBN 978-0-8143-3216-0

Reviewed by Galeet Dardashti

During my public lecturing on Judeo-Arab liturgical music, I often play recordings.  Invariably, after hearing the thoroughly Arab sounds—sounds that, for many attendees, evoke images of the Muslim muezzin’s call to prayer—someone in the audience asks, “What is Jewish about this music?”  Mark Kligman artfully answers this question in his comprehensive study of the Judeo-Arab synthesis between the music and text of the Shabbat liturgy of Syrian Jews living in Brooklyn.  The author endeavors to provide a descriptive analysis of the Sabbath liturgy as well as a cultural lens for understanding Syrian Jewish identity (11).   The Aleppo Syrian Jews of both Brooklyn and Israel are known for their appreciation and punctilious maintenance of the Arab maqam—traditional Arabic music’s system of melodic modes—in their liturgy.  While other studies have examined other aspects of Syrian Jewish liturgy, Kligman’s is the first to document and analyze Syrian musical practices in the Sabbath service. Read the rest of this entry »