Groping for the greats: the strange musical claims of Nathan Ausubel

ABSTRACT

Nathan Ausubel (1898–1986) achieved unprecedented popularity as a compiler and translator of Jewish folklore during the 1940s and 1950s. Beneath the inspiring stories and charming sayings was a leftist ideologue preoccupied with the demise of Jewish life in Europe and the loss of Jewish identity to capitalist forces in the United States. Ausubel's agenda is elucidated in his polemical essays, which advocate using folklore as a means of bolstering Jewish pride and solidarity. Part of his strategy involved exaggerating the influence of Jewish culture on famous non-Jews, including Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert. This article examines these dubious musical claims and how they furthered Ausubel's activist agenda.

KEYWORDS:

• Nathan Ausubel
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Franz Schubert
• Salomon Sulzer
• American communist party
• folklore
• klezmer
• synagogue music
• assimilation
• holocaust memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jonathan L. Friedmann is Professor of Jewish Music History at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California. He is the author or editor of  15 books, most recently Music in Our Lives: Why We Listen, How it Works (McFarland, 2015) and Voices in the Wilderness: Emerging Roles of Israeli Clergywomen (Gaon Books, 2015).