Jeremiah Lockwood

Growing up in New York City, Jeremiah Lockwood, PhD ’19, played blues guitar on subway platforms with the legendary Carolina Slim. He also sang in a synagogue choir led by his grandfather, a renowned cantor. Today he’s front man and composer for The Sway Machinery, a band that builds on both of these influences, transcending the boundaries of genre and tradition. As a doctoral student in the GSE’s Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies, he is researching how cantorial music has been transmitted over time and how it has evolved—exploring this aspect of human culture through the lens of teaching and learning. He hopes his work will invite “a larger dialogue of what Jewishness in America is supposed to sound like,” he says. “I’m interested in how far you’re willing to reach outside your own community and still maintain an identity in that community without pushback.”