The Jewish story behind music’s greatest controversies.
ONLINE
TUESDAY, 2:00-3:30pm (ET) February 10, 2026 - March 3, 2026
“Music doesn’t argue, discuss, or quarrel. It just breathes the air of freedom.”
— Harold Arlen (Jewish composer of Somewhere Over the Rainbow)
Course Description:
Music has always sparked debate—and Jews, with our love of interpretation and boundary-pushing creativity, often find ourselves right at the center of the drama. From classical music to Broadway to Hollywood, artists have crossed lines, broken rules, and ignited scandals that still shape how we experience the arts today.
In this lively course, we’ll explore controversies around race, gender, consent, and representation in iconic shows like Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel, South Pacific, and The Lion King. Is political correctness enriching theater—or ruining it? Should beloved works be rewritten to fix outdated or problematic portrayals? What happens when cultural values collide with artistic legacy?
We’ll also look at plagiarism battles in pop and film music—stories filled with egos, lawsuits, and surprising Jewish connections.
Come for the scandals and stay for the questions that matter: How should we revisit and reinterpret the art we love? And what does the Jewish cultural imagination bring to the conversation?
Tuesdays, 2:00 - 3:30 pm (ET)
Emanuel Abramovits is a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA, Concerts promoter since 2000, responsible for many shows by international artists in Venezuela, like Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Sarah Brightman, Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), Kansas, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Slash, Backstreet Boys, ASIA, Journey, Kenny G and all main local Symphony Orchestras. Designed and staged many original events, like MOZARTFEST, PINK FLOYD NUESTRO TRIBUTO (Event of the Year winner), OFRENDA PARA VYTAS, EL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO LLEGA A TI (world premier), etc..Cultural Director at UNION ISRAELITA DE CARACAS from 2008 to 2019, in charge of documenting Holocaust survivors’ stories, the history of the local Jewish Community, art exhibitions, lectures, film cycles, orchestral concerts, Limmud contents, etc. Recent exhibitions included the History of Yiddish Culture in 2017 and the History of Jewish Music in 2018.
