We need community support! Please sign if you want to help support our efforts in creating a Jewish Music Category for The GRAMMY Awards. 

My name is Joanie Leeds and I am a GRAMMY Winning musician and I have been working with my musical friend Mikey Pauker finalizing our proposal which we will submit the the Recording Academy for consideration before March 1st, 2023.

Much like the Jewish diaspora, Jewish Music is currently spread out over many categories (American Roots, Rock, New Age, World, Pop, Classical, Reggae…) Similar to the Contemporary Christian or Children’s genre, there is not just one style of Jewish music. Jewish music can include both religious and non religious music, sung in many languages (English, Spanish, Yiddish, Ladino, Hebrew...) and It can be instrumental, a cappella, chant, choir, or nigunim.

Because Judaism and its music does not include the second testament or Christian themes, it does not fit into the Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music genre and while the music is created by musicians all over the globe, it doesn’t fit in Global because this category excludes musicians of European descent. 

What is Jewish Music?

While Judaism describes a religion, it is also an ethnicity, a heritage, a history and a culture. Its music comes from all over the world, sung in every language (English, Hebrew, Ladino, Yiddish, Aramaic, Spanish etc…) and can be performed and written by every denomination (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Agnostic…) and all genders including non binary. Just because a song is composed by a Jewish person, this does not indicate that the music is Jewish. 

The Jewish Music category must include music that has Jewish content and includes one of the following: 

The Jewish music category will include music that deals explicitly with Religious themes or music that originates in religious settings or is dealing with aspects of Jewish cultural identity. That includes music sung in Yiddish or Klezmer music. That is an expression of Jewish cultural identity. The category does not include forms of Israeli or Mizrahi secular music that do not engage in an aspect of Jewish religious or cultural identity.

Religious Jewish Music includes: 

1) Cantorial music-  the music of the professional prayer leader

2) Nusah- the melodies to which traditional prayers are chanted, with different tunes used for different services

3) Modern liturgical music- Composers set excerpts of Jewish prayer to choral or other music that is not necessarily inherently “Jewish” (a folk song with acoustic guitar, for example)

4) Cantillation- The notes for chanting public readings of the Torah, haftarah (selections from Prophets), and other Jewish sacred texts, such as the Scroll of Ecclesiastes on the festival Sukkot

5) Nigunim- Wordless melodies

6) Mizrahi Jewish Music- Includes traditional and contemporary settings of religious texts sung by Mizrahi Jews (Jews of the Middle East, North Africa, Iran, the Balkans and Greece.) It also includes original compositions with original religious themes and compositions that incorporate elements of the music of these regions including modes, scales (maquam) and instruments such as: Oud, violin, ney, qanun, kamanche, santur, and middle eastern percussion.

7) Contemporary Jewish Music- Music rooted in religious themes, falling under all genres with Jewish themes often celebrating the Jewish culture through Chagim (holidays) which occur annually and Jewish values such as K’hillah (community) Tzedakah (charitable giving), Chesed (kindness), Tzedek (righteousness), Tikkun Olam (healing the world) and sometimes it’s simply music of pure sameach (joy) and celebratory framework with Wedding/B’nai Mitzvot themes. It can include musical elements of popular and classical western musical genres and elements of Jewish genres from Euporpe and the Middle East.

Secular Jewish Music includes: In a Jewish Language as an expression of Jewish cultural identity.
 
1) Klezmer- is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The diasporic songs are typically dance songs for weddings and other celebrations and are typically in Yiddish.

2) Yiddish- Music sung in Yiddish, a Jewish language from Eastern Europe.

3) Ladino-  Born in Medieval Spain and inherently diasporic, there are three types of Sephardic songs—topical/entertainment songs, romance songs and spiritual/ceremonial songs. Ladino is its own language which many say sounds like Spanish and Hebrew.

4) Judeo-Arabic- Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage encompassing four languages: Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (aju), Judeo-Yemeni Arabic (jye), Judeo-Iraqi Arabic (yhd), and Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (yud). Judeo-Arabic languages contain borrowings from Hebrew and Aramaic.

5) Holocaust Music- Music about the Holocaust or created by artists who lived, survived and perished alongside the six million Jewish people murdered in concentration camps.

*The Jewish Music category is monotheistic, not polytheistic and its music would not include Christian or evangelical themes, Jesus, Mary, the Second Testament, witnessing, missionizing, proselytizing or Messianic ideas.

With your help, we can make this necessity a reality. 

Thank you,
Joanie Leeds & Mikey Pauker