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 Should beloved works be rewritten to fix outdated or problematic portrayals?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 and has been a concert promoter since 2000, directly involved in many events by international artists, like Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Sarah Brightman, Roger Hodgson, ASIA, Journey, Kenny G and many more. He designed and staged many original orchestral events, including an Event of the Year winner and several world premieres. He served as the Cultural Director at UNION ISRAELITA DE CARACAS from 2008 to 2019, releasing books, organizing film cycles, concerts and art exhibits. He has been consistently teaching online and in person across the US and in other countries since 2020.
