Emma Goldman, Radical Anarchism, and the Opera

Lecture Co-sponsored by American Jewish Historical Society, American Society for Jewish Music, the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, and YIVO Admission: Free Watch the video

Should a radical anarchist love going to the opera? To answer this complicated question, join Dr. Samantha M. Cooper for a lecture about the curious case of Emma Goldman, a Jewish radical anarchist whose assorted writings attest to her strong belief that she could be both a good revolutionary and a committed devotee of the highest of highbrow artforms. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Samantha M. Cooper is a historical musicologist who specializes in American Jewish cultural history. She is currently a Harry Starr Postdoctoral Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies, where she is working on her first monograph, American Jews and the Making of the New York Opera Industry, 1880-1940. Samantha received her Ph.D. in Historical Musicology at New York University in 2022. Samantha’s research has been supported by fellowships from the Center for Jewish History, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, P.E.O. International, the American Academy for Jewish Research, and Temple University’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History. Her publications have appeared in American Jewish History, as well as the Journal of the Society for American Music, Journal of Synagogue Music, Journal of Musicological Research, Society for American Music Bulletin, and Musica Judaica. Samantha is the producer and host of The Sounding Jewish podcast, and the Associate Executive Director of the Jewish Music Forum, A Project of the American Society for Jewish Music.