Kavod on the Road: “There’s No Business Like Show Business: The Jewish Influence on American Culture Through the Broadway Musical”

According to one leading expert, “There would be no American musical without Jews.” From the 1920s to the 1980s, songwriters like Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Alan Lerner and Frederick Loew, Jerry Herman, and Stephen Sondheim were the acknowledged kings of Broadway music and American song. These Jewish composers were either immigrants themselves or children of immigrants, and many used show tunes as a way of integrating into American society. Broadway musicals sang the promise of America and helped define the meaning of who is an American. Dr. Jeanne Abrams will take us on a tour of early Broadway Jewish composers to illustrate their pivotal role in American culture for over half a century.