Music has always been an integral part of Jewish religion and culture. Yet the term “Jewish music” did not appear until the middle of the 19th century. Its emergence marked a turning point in both the Jewish artistic self-understanding and the modern ideology of cultural antisemitism. Richard Wagner’s antisemitic manifesto Das Judenthum in der Musik (1850/1869; “Judaism in Music,” 1907) established the myth of the Jews as a non-creative people in European culture.