ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of music in the settlers' quest for social and spiritual integrity, and considers the ways in which music reflects the complexities of cultural engagement with place amongst a body of diasporic Jews whose Jewishness is a full-time preoccupation. These complexities are born of the centuries-old experience of Exile that followed from the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and of multiple migrations, both voluntary and involuntary. The Jewish insistence on musical continuity is actually based on an awareness of Galut, born out of need, religious requirement and tradition. Musical tradition is located in the minchag; minchag is also the site of passionate attachment to cultural memory and of arguments over identity and continuity. Music was an important component of most Jewish festivals, whether celebrated in the home or the shul. In fact, there was a danger at times that the music could overshadow the actual substance of the festival.
