The community as ethnographer: Views of classical music in the English-speaking Orthodox Jewish community

For the Orthodox Jewish community, classical music is a site of self-definition. Insular factions reject it as tainted, while more progressive factions see it as a symbol of education and erudition. Data from interviews present opposing views of classical music among communal leaders; internet-based discussions offer community-members an opportunity to air anxieties concerning music and their process of self-definition. For minority groups, the diaspora constitutes an ethnographic field - a locus of interaction with a larger host society. Orthodox Jews must constantly sift through the information of the host society, organizing and assimilating the cultural artifacts and data they acquire in ways that make sense for their position within both their religious community and the secular society as a whole.