Here’s The Shpiel
Dance Film Screening and Workshop with Rachel Linsky
Thursday, March 21 | 6:30-7:30PM | MIT Welcome Center
During her 2023 JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellowship, dancer Rachel Linksy evolved her Zachor (remembrance) series. Join Rachel Linsky for a screening of the short films inspired by this work and the story of Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Rachel will lead a Yiddish dance session following the screening. Learn more and reserve your spot here.
Shabbat Alive with Lily Henley
Friday, March 22 | 6:30 – 7:30PM | Temple Emanuel, Newton
Join JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow Lily Henley for a unique evening of Ladino song and Shabbat celebration. Shabbat Alive is open to all. Can’t make it in person? Livestream is available here.
New Gallery Concert with Purim-Inspired Melodies
Saturday, March 23 | 8 – 10PM | Pickman Hall, Harvard Square
Celebrate Purim with beloved local musicians Derek David, Eden MacAdam-Somer, and Hankus Netsky for an evening of new music and visual arts. The Legacy performance features the premiere of a new work by Lainie Fefferman followed by Purim-inspired melodies.
Driving in Circles: New Musical By Jay Eddy
Wednesday, March 27 | 7:30PM | Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Driving in Circles is a solo-ish new work that traverses the highway between confessional monologue, stand-up comedy, and rock concert, all with Jay’s Jewish story threaded throughout. JArts Executive Director Laura Mandel will be talking Jewish plays in the talkback on March 27. Shows run from March 21 – April 6.
Passover & Poetry: An Exploration with Professor Deborah Leipziger
Wednesdays, April 3, 10, 17 | 6:30 – 8:30PM | The Vilna Shul
Join JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow Deborah Leipziger for a 3-part Passover Poetry Workshop.
The Jewish Holiday Table – A Culinary Adventure
Tuesday April 9 | 6:30 – 8:30PM |The Vilna Shul
Join author Naama Shefi and expert baker Uri Scheft for a lively conversation and challah-making demonstration. With moderator Kara Baskin (Boston Globe), they’ll discuss The Jewish Holiday Table, Naama’s new cookbook for the Jewish Food Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Jewish culinary heritage from across the globe. The book includes 135 vibrant recipes, each with accompanying stories which bring them to life.
Concert of Arab-Jewish music by composer and musician Yoni Avi Battat.
Saturday, April 13 | 8:30 – 10PM | Brandeis University – Slosberg Music Center
Lean into the complexity of Yoni Avi Battat‘s fragmented Arab-Jewish identity through his ensemble’s performance of original and traditional pieces inspired by Middle Eastern musical forms, with lyrics in Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Yiddish, and accompanied by projections of artwork by Brandeis professor Ariel Basson Freiberg.
Jerusalem Youth Chorus “A Different Song” Tour
Sunday April 14 | 4 – 6PM | Emmanuel Church
In these times of violence, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus sings a different song: an Israeli-Palestinian music and dialogue project raising youth voices for a shared future.
Until Love Pleases: Piyutim of Shir HaShirim and Pesah with Kedma
Thursday, April 18 | 7 – 8:30PM | Hebrew College
Join musicians from a new ensemble, Kedma, featuring Yoni Battat (JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow, 2021), Anat Halevy, and Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer, for a night of piyyutim (liturgical poetry) inspired by the Pesah season and the Song of Songs. Weaving their ancestral voices with melodies from Mizrahi traditions, as well as Hasidic and contemporary music, you will enter the garden, ready for Pesah, Spring, and love.
Shabbat Alive with Lily Henley
Friday, April 19 | 6:30 – 7:30PM | Temple Emanuel, Newton
Join JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow Lily Henley for a unique evening of Ladino song and Shabbat celebration. Shabbat Alive is open to all. Can’t make it in person? Livestream is available here.
Studio Israel: Neta Weiner and Stav Marin with Music from JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow, Yuval Gur
Thursday, May 2 | 6:30 – 8PM | The Vilna Shul
Stav Marin and Neta Weiner are co-founders of System Ali, a one of a kind Jaffa Israel based hip hop band who use music to connect across languages, cultures, and beliefs. Now, you can hear their music and story in conversation with Yuval Evri, Brandeis University Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies on the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jewish Studies.
This program will explore the diversity of Israel – the beauty and the challenges – through a funky and beautiful blend of music, dance, and conversation.
This is the first live iteration of the Studio Israel series which began online in 2020 as a means to connect with Israeli culture through artists during the Covid-19 pandemic. The series is presented in collaboration by Hadassah Brandeis Institute, the Jewish Arts Collaborative, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, the Vilna Shul, and is made possible with support from CJP. Neta and Stav are in residence at Tufts University for the 2024 Spring semester through the BAMAH visiting Israeli artists program.