On Gustav Mahler’s Reception in Israel: The Fourth Homeland?

Abstract

The performances of Mahler's music all over the world never elicited a unanimous response of delight.  Quite naturally, performances of his music in Israel also generated ideological discussions, in the context of the Jewish Eretz-Israeli culture of the 1930s and into the early 1950s, after the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel. The range of opinions mirrored the arguments about the essence of Jewish identity in the evolving Promised Land. Despite the disagreement about Mahler’s place on the spectrum of Jewish-Israeli culture, his Resurrection Symphony was performed at three crucial junctures in Israel’s history: during the War of Independence in 1948, after the Six-Day War in 1967 (both times under the baton of Leonard Bernstein), and at Masada in 1988, marking 40 years of Israeli statehood (this time under the baton of Zubin Mehta). On January 22, 2007, a square in Tel Aviv was named after Mahler. Thus Mahler acquired one more home, in addition to Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic, in recognition of Israel’s appreciation of a great European composer who had been born a Jew.