Category talk:Jewish classical musicians

Irving Berlin isn't quite classical.

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I find the list useful, partly as a chronicle of the centrality of "classical music" in Jewish assimilation in modern Europe (and the New World). But the page may benefit (and be more valuable) if if gets some weeding based on more analysis of the two categories involved: (1) what constitutes "Classical"? (To list Ira Gershwin as a "classical musician" makes no sense - he was a great lyricist, not a musician. Besides, like Irving Berlin, his genre was the show tune, not what he himself would have called "classical"); (2) what constitutes Jewish? Mariss Jansons is a practicing Lutheran - but indeed, the state of Israel would have regarded him as Jewish had he emigrated there as a child, because his mother was Jewish. Jacqueline DuPre did indeed convert - in Israel. Both of these issues (especially the latter - what is "Jewish"?) are contentious ones outside of Wikipedia. It's not an easy undertaking; but clearly the list needs both expansion (many examples remain to be added) and at the same time some pruning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brozhnik (talk • contribs) 02:50, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I've started in on the above, Part 1 only - removing names of people whose work wouldn't normally (or even expansively) be counted as "classical music" (e.g. Tin Pan Alley, rock, and song lyricists); but trying to be fairly inclusive about what counts as classical. Many film scores, e.g. Howard Shore, seem to me to count, for example. Again, i think the list is more useful if every entry is obviously defensible and not in any way a stretch. - Brozhnik —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brozhnik (talk • contribs) 02:11, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Leonard Bernstein
Shouldn't Leonard Bernstein be here? He is categorized only as Jewish American classical composers (that's his only Jewish category, by the way). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leonardo T. Oliveira (talk • contribs) 17:47, 6 November 2011 (UTC)