The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

External Cultural Influences on the Jewish Community of Izmir r 293

The Manner of Song Copying

In his book Krach shel Romi (City of Rome), Rabbi Moshe Yosef Hazan,
an Izmir native, describes the manner in which Christian tunes were ad-
opted for prayers and holy texts.

... and I swear by the heavens and the earth that while I was in the
big city full of hakhamim and scribes called Smyrna (Izmir) (may
G-d protect it), I saw some of their hakhamim who were great poets
and musicians... and their leader was the wondrous Rabbi Avra-
ham Hakohen Ariyas (may he be remembered in the next world)
and for their musical rhythms of the High Holy Days which call
for great humility and are called Chazanut. They would go to the
Christian church behind the partition during their days of worship
to learn from them that humbled sound which breaks all hearts and
then they would arrange from those sounds wondrous Qadishim
and Qedushot.^33

In other words, the cantors used to go to the churches in order to learn
their tunes from the Christians, but that was only one example. Melodies
were taken from Muslims praying at their mosques as well. During this
period, the songs were mainly religious and para-religious and were com-
posed using the popular instruments of Turkish music. However, from
the nineteenth century, songs lacking all religious content were composed
in the Jewish-Sephardic communities.
Parallel to the national awakening of the Balkans, the melodies used for
anthems, whether official melodies or songs expressing national ideolo-
gies, became a widespread phenomenon in the repertoire of many Jewish
communities. With the acceptance of the national state idea by the Jews
of Europe as a solution to the “Jewish problem,” the anthem melodies
entered the religious repertoire. It was now easy for synagogue cantors
throughout the Ottoman Empire to adopt the melodies of the patriotic
Turkish songs.^34 For example, during the “Young Turk Revolution” in
1908, the masses held meetings supporting the new government, result-
ing in the composition of pro-revolution songs. One of the songs, named
Por La Libertad (For Liberty), contains twenty verses praising the new
government and describing the background leading to the revolution, and
it concludes by praising the values of freedom and equality that formed
the basis of the revolution. The song was apparently written and sung in