Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

October 10, 2019

Israel’s Religious-Music Revolution Can Bring It Closer to the Diaspora

The annual piyyut festival.

Last week, the annual piyyut festival took place at the National Library in Jerusalem, drawing a large crowd and some of the country’s most popular musical acts. Originally meaning “liturgical poem,” piyyut has come to refer to musical performances of these poems, or variations of them, which have now become an element of the Israeli popular-music scene. Yossi Klein Halevi explains the significance of this genre’s success:

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