Category: Events

Jewish Melodies from a Carpathian Farming Village
with Hankus Netsky and Jessica Kate Meyer

Join us for our second Soul Sounds concert on March 7 at Hebrew College. Hankus Netsky and Hebrew College Rosh Tefillah & Artist-in-Residence Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer share spiritual Jewish melodies passed down to them by Morris Hollender z”l, the sole survivor of his musical village.

A survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp, Morris Hollender came to the Boston area from Czechoslovakia in 1967. A child from a renowned musical family in the Munkacs/Beregsacz region, he learned nusach and melodies from his Uncle Shloyme, Yiddish folk songs from his mother and extended family, and nigunim from his father and his Uncle Berl. Hollender’s role as Ba’al Tefile and Ba’al Koreh at Temple Beth Israel in Waltham became the cornerstone of his musical legacy in the United States and across the world. His repertoire is a rare gift among the contemporary musicians, contributing to the international resurgence of Eastern European Jewish musical culture.

6:30 p.m. — Doors open. Light refreshments available
7:00 p.m. — Concert begins

Event organizational partners: Jewish Arts Collaborative (JArts), Base Boston, and Temple Beth Israel in Waltham.

Tickets

Purchase tickets here.

Thank you to our Series Underwriters

The Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation
Kavod Boston and the Kavod Jews of Color, Indigenous Jews, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Caucus (JOCISM)
Suzanne Priebatsch
Susan and James Snider
The William Davidson Foundation and The Wexner Foundation

>> DOWNLOAD THE SOUL SOUNDS SERIES FLYER

Our Musicians

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ethnomusicologist, Hankus Netsky is co-chair of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Musical Arts Department and founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, an internationally renowned Yiddish music ensemble. He has composed extensively for film, theater, and television, collaborated closely with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robin Williams, Joel Grey, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Brustein, and produced numerous recordings, including 10 by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. He has also recorded with Ran Blake, Marty Ehrlich, Rosalie Gerut, Linda J. Chase, Theodore Bikel, Margot Leverett, and Cantor Jeff Warschauer. He received the Yosl Mlotek Award and a “Forward Fifty” award for his role in the resurgence of traditional Eastern European Jewish ethnic musical culture. He was also awarded a New England Conservatory Outstanding Alumni award, along with the school’s Louis Krasner and Lawrence Lesser awards for Excellence in Teaching.

Listen to our Speaking Torah podcast episode featuring Hankus here!

Jessica Kate Meyer `14, Hebrew College Rosh Tefillah & Artist-in-Residence, is a prayer leader, storyteller, vocalist, and rabbi, who served as rabbi-hazzan at Romemu in NYC, and most recently, at The Kitchen in San Francisco. She has studied sacred Jewish music with masters from Ashkenazi and Mizrahi traditions and has performed as a vocalist with ensembles in the United States and Israel. In a previous life, Jessica appeared in film, theater, and television projects in Europe and the United States: most notably, as a principal role in the Oscar-winning film, The Pianist.

Itay Dayan is an Israeli clarinetist currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. Itay played with various ensembles spanning different musical worlds, such as the Klezmer Conservatory band, Meitar Ensemble and the Israel Klezmer Orchestra. His most recent endeavor, Hoffman’s Farewell, is a new and unique klezmer album drawing inspiration from traditional and contemporary sources. Currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory, Itay won scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Ronen Foundation, Ima Foundation, and the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Foundation. Itay is also a recipient of the Siday Fellowship for Musical Creativity by the Jerusalem Institute of Contemporary Music.

Save these Dates!

Spring Soul Sounds Concerts

April 18, 2024: Until Love Pleases: Piyutim of Shir HaShirim and Pesah with Kedma
Featuring Yoni Battat, Anat Halevy Hochberg, and Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer
6:30 p.m. — Doors open. Light refreshments available
7:00 p.m. — Concert begins

“I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem!
If you meet my beloved, tell him this:
That I am sick with love.”

A night of piyyutim (liturgical poetry) inspired by the Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim) and Pesah.

>> Learn more & purchase tickets

May 5: Catalan Mahzor Suite
Featuring Ira Klein (Composer, Guitar), Rachel Linsky (Choreographer, Dance) and Beth Bahia Cohen (Violin, Yayli Tanbur)
6:30 p.m. — Doors open. Light refreshments available
7:00 p.m. — Concert begins

Inspired by The Catalan Mahzor, a micrographical anthology of psalms and medieval Judeo-Spanish poetry, this one-of-a kind music, dance, and art experience fuses influences from Judeo-Spanish and Middle-Eastern music with the contemporary sounds of jazz and folk music.

(This concert is also in commemoration of Yom HaShoah.)

>> Learn more & purchase tickets

June 6: The Rabbi’s Family Band
Featuring multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Lisa Mayer, Rabbi Sruli Dresdner and Zachary Mayer
7:30 p.m. — Doors open. Light refreshments available
8:00 p.m. — Concert begins

Steeped in tradition but with a fully modern and inclusive sense of Yiddishkeit, the trio has performed their beautiful and authentic nigunim (wordless melodies) all over the world. 

>> Learn more & purchase tickets

series Organizational partners

Support the Series

If you’d like to support more events like this, please consider making a donation here.

The Journal of Interreligious Studies and Co-Produced Religions, co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, USA) and the University of Bern (Switzerland), are hosting an interactive webinar with experts from history, religion, and theology.

Keynote: “Religious Co-production and its Potentials for History and Theology”

Katharina Heyden, Professor for History of Christianity and Interreligious Encounters University of Bern
David Nirenberg, Director and Leon Levy Professor Institute for Advanced Study Princeton

>> View the event flyer

Co-Produced Religions seeks to provide the foundations of a new history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as co-produced communities, a history that makes clear the many different ideas and ideals that each of these communities has formed, and continues to form, by interacting with or imagining the others.

The keynote will be followed by historical case studies of co-production from the ongoing research project. Following these two portions, the webinar will turn to theological responses and reactions, breakout sessions, and a Q & A.

Panelists presenting historical case studies

• Maureen Attali: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Bern (Switzerland)
  Jillian Stinchcomb: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton)
• David Gyllenhaal: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton)
  Shlomo Zuckier: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton)
• Jillian Stinchcomb: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton)
• Shlomo Zuckier: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton)

Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Responses

• Rachel Slutsky: Monsignor John Oesterreicher Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations in Antiquity, Department of Religion, Seton Hall University
• Adam Gregerman: Professor, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, and Associate Director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations, St. Joseph’s University
• Lailatul Fitriyah: Assistant Professor of Interreligious Education at Claremont School of Theology (California, USA)
• Mohammed Gamal: Lecturer of Islamic theology and philosophy at the Faculty of Uṣūl al-Dīn, Al-Azhar University (Cairo); visiting fellow at the Department of philosophy, University of York, UK
• Marianne Moyaert: Professor of Comparative Theology and the Study of Interreligious Relations at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium
• Klaus von Stosch: Schlegel-Professor for Systematic Theology at Bonn university (Germany) and head of the International Centre for Comparative Theology and Social Issues

Please join us virtually on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 7 p.m. EST for “Torah and Dharma: A Renewed Conversation”. The event will take place on Zoom and all registrants will receive a reminder with the Zoom link a few days before the event.

Building on the legacy of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (of blessed memory), His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, and other bold Jewish and Buddhist practitioners, the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College is pleased to invite you to a dialogue on Torah & Dharma. Rabbi Or Rose, Director of the Miller Center, will engage in a conversation with Buddhist scholars Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown and Dr. Amelia Hall of Naropa University (Boulder, Colorado).

Dr. Simmer-Brown is Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies Emeritx at Naropa University, where she has taught for over 40 years. Her areas of expertise include Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, interreligious dialogue, Buddhist chaplaincy, and contemplative education. She worked closely with Reb Zalman during his tenure as the World Wisdom Chair at Naropa University.

Dr. Amelia Hall earned her doctorate in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies from the University of Oxford in 2012 and is currently Associate Professor of Buddhism and Department Chair in the Wisdom Traditions department at Naropa University. She teaches across several degree programs at Naropa, including BA in Religious Studies, MA in Yoga Studies, MA in Contemplative Religions, and Master of Divinity.

Rabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and associate dean for Informal Education of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017) and has taught for Hebrew College’s Me’ah Classic program.

Hanukkah is a time to celebrate light and miracles. What better way than to recognize this time than with Yiddish Hanukkah tunes?

Come light, sing, and drink together at Hebrew College’s partner organization, Lehrhaus. We’ll sing Yiddish Hanuke fare–tunes both obscure and well-trodden. Taught by Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer, Rosh Tefillah and Artist-in-Residence at Hebrew College in Newton.

During this time of grief and heartbreak, we will gather as a community on Zoom to kindle the lights of Hanukkah together, seeking comfort, strength, and hope in each other’s presence and in our shared sense of purpose. Hanukkah reminds us that we are all lamplighters; for a few minutes each weeknight of Hanukkah, join us as come together to dispel the darkness and shine a little more light into our world.

6 Weeknights. 6 Kavanot for light in a time of darkness.
5-5:10 p.m. EST | Zoom | View previous candlelightings

tonight’s HOST:
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld and Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld welcomes beloved friend and colleague Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, founder and spiritual leader of Zion: An Eretz Yisraeli congregation in Jerusalem, to kindle the lights of the fifth night of Hanukkah.

Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum is co-founder of the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis, a joint project of the HaMidrasha Educational Center for Israeli Judaism and the Shalom Hartman Institute. She is also the founder of Kehilat Zion in Jerusalem. Her work spans and links tradition and innovation, working toward Jewish spiritual and ethical renaissance. She devotes much of her energy to the renewal of community life in Israel and the struggle for human rights.

She has served as rabbi of Congregation Magen Avraham in the Negev; as a congregational rabbi in the New York suburbs alongside Rabbi Gordon Tucker; and as Assistant Dean of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem.

In 2010 she was named by The Forward as one of the five most influential female religious leaders in Israel for her work promoting pluralism and Jewish freedom.

During this time of grief and heartbreak, we will gather as a community on Zoom to kindle the lights of Hanukkah together, seeking comfort, strength, and hope in each other’s presence and in our shared sense of purpose. Hanukkah reminds us that we are all lamplighters; for a few minutes each weeknight of Hanukkah, join us as come together to dispel the darkness and shine a little more light into our world.

6 Weeknights. 6 Kavanot for light in a time of darkness.
5-5:10 p.m. EST | Zoom| View previous candlelightings

tonight’s HOSTS:
rabbi sharon cohen anisfeld

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld welcomes guest Yosef Abramowitz, president and CEO of Energiya Global Capital, to talk about the future of solar energy in Israel and Gaza.

Rabbi Anisfeld became president of Hebrew College in July 2018 after being appointed president-elect in fall of 2017 and serving as acting president from January-June 2018. Rabbi Anisfeld first came to Hebrew College in 2003 as an adjunct faculty member of the Rabbinical School and then served as Dean of Students from 2005-2006. She served the next eleven years as Dean of the Rabbinical School (2006-2017).

Rabbi Anisfeld graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1990 and subsequently spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tufts University, Yale University, and Harvard University. She has been a regular summer faculty member for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel since 1993 and is co-editor of two volumes of women’s writings on Passover, The Women’s Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder and The Women’s Passover Companion: Women’s Reflections on the Festival of Freedom. From 2011 to 2013, she was named to Newsweek’s list of Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America. In 2015, Rabbi Anisfeld was named one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by The Jerusalem Post. She writes and teaches widely, weaving together Torah, rabbinic commentary, and contemporary poetry and literature in her wise and compassionate approach to the complexities of the human experience and the search for healing and hope in a beautiful but fractured world.