Dedication Concert for Hebrew College’s New Musicant Cohen Center for the Performing Arts at Ordis Hall
Join us on Thursday, March 2, 2023 for the dedication of the Musicant Cohen Center for the Performing Arts at Ordis Hall on Hebrew College’s new shared campus. Doors open at 7 p.m. Concert will begin at 7:15 p.m.
The evening will feature a live musical performance by the five-woman band Divahn, led by world-renowned Middle Eastern vocalist and composer Galeet Dardashti. Infusing traditional and original Jewish songs with sophisticated harmonies and entrancing improvisations, Divahn has an international following, performing in venues ranging from top concert halls in Poland to the most prestigious clubs in New York City.
Tickets are $15 for general public, free for Hebrew College students. Seating is limited, so make your reservation today!
This special event is hosted by Hebrew College and campus partner Jewish Arts Collaborative (JArts).
Myra Musicant & Howard Cohen
Myra Musicantis Treasurer of the Hebrew College Board of Trustees. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College with a major in religion. She studied in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University for 3 1/2 years while in graduate school. She received a master’s degree from the Simmons Graduate Program in Management. She obtained her CPA and had 7 years’ experience with the firm of Coopers & Lybrand. Myra was a member of the board of trustees at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Boston, serving as Treasurer and First Vice President. She is an alumna of the Me’ah program at Hebrew College. Myra has dedicated her life to volunteering in non-profit organizations. Currently, she is a hospice volunteer at Hebrew SeniorLife.
Howard Earl Cohen is the founder and chair of the board of Beacon Communities LLC. He serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency Advisory Committee, and the Department of Housing and Community Development Housing Preservation Advisory Committee. Howard holds a BA summa cum laude in economics from Washington University of St. Louis and a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School. He also co-founded and served as chair of the board of New Lease for Homeless Families. He serves as chair of the real estate committees at both Hebrew College and Hebrew SeniorLife. He chaired the community committee that resulted in the creation of Jewish Arts Collaborative and served as its initial board chair.
About Divahn
Lead singer Galeet Dardashti (right) follows a family tradition of distinguished musicianship dating back to 19th-century Persia. But it was down in Austin, Texas, where this bold, all-woman Mizrahi/Sephardi ensemble began dazzling audiences with its Middle Eastern grooves, infusing traditional and original Jewish songs with sophisticated harmonies and entrancing improvisations.
Galeet is the first woman to continue her family’s tradition of distinguished Persian and Jewish musicianship. Her grandfather (Younes Dardashti) was one of the most highly acclaimed singers of Persian classical music in Iran and her father, Farid Dardashti, is a renowned cantor in the United States.
The group’s live shows include lush string arrangements, eclectic Indian, Middle Eastern, and Latin percussion, and vocals spanning Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Arabic, and Aramaic. Dardashti’s diverse background performing Persian and Arab classical music, Ashkenazi cantorial music, Western classical music and jazz enhance Divahn’s unique and innovative sound.
The group has appeared at music festivals and live television and radio shows internationally and has shared the stage with some of the world’s most renowned master musicians. As one of the few groups performing Mizrahi and Judeo-Arab music in the United States, Divahn welcomes its audiences to a beautiful sphere of shared Jewish and Muslim culture. Learn more here.
Gun violence has erupted in the City of Boston, erasing promising teen lives and countless others. These acts have called for community action with ALL FAITHS TOGETHER. The youngest victim murdered in Boston, Massachusetts in 2019 was just 16 months old, the oldest 74 years.
Join Hebrew College’s chamber choir Kol Arev and area choirs on February 14, 2023 (Valentines Day) for an evening of healing through song. Find your light and voice towards forgiveness and reconciliation. Renew your spirit. Stand with us. Sing with us. Be with us.
Once called the “BTI Choirfest,” this event, hosted in the historic Marsh Chapel at Boston University, in partnership with the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, has a mesmerizing line-up of praise and worship international performances.
On Friday January 13th, 2023, the Boston Jewish community will ally itself with the gathering of African American Civil Rights leaders, State and City officials, and a representative from the White House at the Embrace Boston Installation in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King. At a ceremony, to be held on Boston Common, Rabbi Dr Michael Shire of Hebrew College and Central Reform Temple, along with his congregation and other sponsoring Jewish communities including Congregation Mishkan Tefila of Brookline, will process with the Torah Scroll from Central Reform Temple at 15 Newbury Street to the Embrace Boston Installation.
The Embrace Boston memorial, dedicated to Dr. and Mrs. King, will be a major feature of Boston’s future commitment to racial justice and equality. Noting the partnership of Dr. King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in the fight for Civil Rights in the 1960s,
Rabbi Shire commented, “We aim to rekindle the Jewish Community’s solidarity with the African American Civil Rights Movement and our joint commitment to work for equality and justice together. As Rabbi Heschel marched in step with Dr. King and all those seeking justice, so we march with our sacred Torah to bring tikkun – repair – to our streets, our City, and our neighbors in an act of restoration of our historic alliance for justice”.
Jewish communities across the city and their rabbis (Rabbi Marcia Plumb, Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Brookline, Rabbi Or Rose, Director the Miller Centre for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College, will join with Rabbi Shire to process to the Embrace Boston Installation. Also participating will be Central Reform Temple’s Covenanted partner, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and its rector, The Very Rev. Pam Werntz
More Information
Noon: Gather at Central Reform Temple, 15 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02116 12:30: Program at Boston Common begins
The Journal of Interreligious Studies and its partners are leading a symposium and workshop led by educators, scholars, and experts in interfaith/interreligious studies and pedagogies. The symposium expands on the special issue (No. 36) on the same topic and features many of the same authors and respondents. Panelists will share concrete classroom exercises, assignments, and assessments along with learning goals, teaching philosophies, and pedagogical theories behind them.
During workshop sessions, participants will work with individual panelists to sharpen their own pedagogies, explore new ideas, ask critical questions, and examine the features that distinguish interfaith/interreligious pedagogies from pedagogies in the study of religion or theology classroom and how they can be integrated in varying institutional contexts.
Khyati Joshi, Ph.D. (Co-Founder of the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice and Professor of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University)
Younus Mirza, Ph.D. (Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University and the Founding Director of Global Virtual Learning at Shenandoah University)
Kate DeConinck, Th.D. (Director of Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College)
Hans Gustafson, Ph.D. (Director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas
Axel M. Oaks Takacs, Th.D. (Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Interreligious Studies and Assistant Professor of Religion at Seton Hall University)
Lucinda Mosher, Th.D. (Senior Editor of the Journal of Interreligious Studies and Faculty Associate in Interfaith Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace)
Please join us on Thursday evening, May 4, 2023 for the Hebrew College Annual Spring Gala! We are excited to celebrate this year on our new shared campus at 1860 Washington Street in Newton, MA.
Our program includes uplifting live music; delicious food; reflections from teachers and alumni on education, history, and hope; blessings for our honorees, Andy Offit and Dan Miller; presentation of the Esther Award to Nancy Schön, internationally-renowned public art sculptor; and live music with Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer, Hebrew College Rabbinical School, Class of 2014.
ANDY OFFIT
In the spring of 2017, Andy Offit embarked on a journey as Chair of the Board of Hebrew College. This was his goal: Hebrew College to be in a new home, debt free with a balanced and sustainable budget for the first time in over 25 years.
Andy enjoys a steep learning curve and a good challenge. He also demands hard-working and high-energy partners, honest reflection for necessary adjustments, vision, detailed plans, and collaboration with an eye on the numbers. Andy is a numbers guy. Andy also likes to accomplish his goals. And he did. Hebrew College affirmed his skillset—and an opportunity to learn many new skills!!
He chaired the Hebrew College board while taking the LSAT, applying, attending and graduating from law school, and passing the bar. And as Hebrew College stepped into its strong and healthy future, so did Andy as a lawyer, his third professional iteration.
Andy’s passion for learning includes voracious reading about American history, United States presidents, his beloved New England Patriots, the criminal justice system, and anything his three adult sons are also interested in. He loves boats, trucks and bicycles. He has dedicated energy and time to understanding and mitigating the structures that create inequality and instability in this country. Andy’s other past board work includes Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston, Social Innovation Forum, My Life My Choice, Courageous Parents Network, and Beaver Country Day.
Andy was born and raised in Pikesville, MD, surrounded by a big, warm and loving family. He attended Emory University, and with his CPA, worked in public accounting for three years in Atlanta. He attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania followed by 13 years at Fidelity Investments as an analyst and portfolio manager. He enjoyed 12 wildly successful years as a partner at Wellington Management. He left the investment business after 25 years influenced by his wife’s soulful and meaningful work as a second career, Hebrew College Rabbi. Andy then graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a MPA degree, followed by working for the City of Somerville as special assistant to Mayor Joe Curtatone for seven years. The eye-opening experience led him to believe that change in the system happens in the courtroom. In spring of 2021, he graduated from Suffolk Law School. He is admitted to the bar in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Andy is adored by and devoted to his three sons, Adam, David and Yoni, and his wife, Rabbi Suzanne Offit `09.
Among his other philanthropic interests, Dan is a long-time supporter of the Rashi School, where he sits on the Board of Trustees and is a member of its Budget & Finance Committee. Dan helped establish the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Jewish Healing at Jewish Family & Children’s Service, also named in memory of his late wife. He has also been a long-standing member of the Investment Committee of the Squam Lakes Association, one of the country’s earliest non-profit conservation organizations dating back well over 100 years.
Dan is a Partner and Director of Equities at GW&K Investment Management in Boston where, for the past 14 years, he has managed all aspects of the firm’s global equity business, including portfolio management, research and trading. This follows a career of over two decades at Putnam Investments, where he was the Chief Investment Officer of the firm’s Specialty Growth Equity Group and managed the mutual fund of the decade in the 1990s. He began his career in the late 1970s as an analyst at Morgan Stanley. Dan received a BS with highest honors from the University of California Berkeley in 1979 and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1983. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1986 and is a member of the CFA Society Boston and the CFA Institute.
Dan spends his weekdays in the Boston area, although he and his partner, Deborah Ancona, spend as much free time as possible at their lake home in New Hampshire where they particularly enjoy hiking and biking. Dan’s two sons, Adam and Matthew, attended the Rashi School, and were Prozdor students in their teen years.
Esther Award and Dedication of Sculpture
International sculptor Nancy Schön’s newly commissioned sculpture will live in the Hebrew College Courtyard to honor generations of Hebrew College donors. Schön created the famous “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture in the Boston Public Garden (and another one in Moscow) and has created over a dozen prominent public sculptures and many for private collections.
Proudly Featuring
Jessica Kate Meyer 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.
Reservations and sponsorships of certain levels (see below) include the opportunity to celebrate our community with a digital tribute “ad” or message. The deadline for sharing your predesigned tributes, text, and/or logos is April 17. Kindly submit your materials to mtavan@hebrewcollege.edu.
One ticket and one-line tribute message:
$500 – Our Cup Runneth Over
$360 – Join Us & Support Us
$180 – Join Us
Student price:
Current Hebrew College student: $54
Corporate Sponsorships
Support an incredible community while gaining exposure to over 11,000 households. All Corporate Sponsors at or above $1,800 receive a full-page ad with the giving level banner in our virtual tribute book, recognition at the event and online, entrance to the in-person celebration, and access to the livestream link.
Shutafim/Partners: $10,000 to $19,999 Haverim/Friends: $5,000 to $9,999 Yedidim/Companions: $1,800 to $4,999 Supporters: $1,000 to $1,799
Additional levels and benefits are available. Please contact Mia Tavan at mtavan@hebrewcollege.edu with questions or to submit your high-resolution logo and tribute book text. Thank you!
Geraldine Acuña Sunshine and Gabriel Sunshine
Julie Altman and Alex Sagan
Deborah Ancona
Rabbi Sharon and Shimon Cohen Anisfeld
Mark Atkins and Miho Sato
Rabbi Marc Baker
Beverly Bavly
Chester and Diane Black
Michelle and Darren Black
Rabbi Danny Burkeman
Harvey and Marsha Chasen
Carol and Carl Chudnofsky
Carol and Stephen Cohen
Lisa Popik Coll and Arieh Coll
Leslie and Alan Crane
Karen and Robert Deresiewicz
Suzanne and David Diamond
Rabbi Jevin and Dr. Janine Eagle
Deborah and Ronald Feinstein
Renée and Steven Finn
Fern Fisher and Jack Eiferman
Ronald Gluck and Liz Brody Gluck
Shira Goodman and Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
Lillian and Richard Gray
Louis Grossman and Amy Gerson
Beryl and David Hoffman
Elizabeth and Daniel Jick Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Inc.:
Nancy and Mark Belsky, Susan B. Kaplan, Scott K. Belsky, Gila Belsky Modell
Rabbi Jamie and Harold Kotler
Debbie and Todd Krasnow
Lizbeth and George Krupp
Lydia and Bernie Kukoff
Alice and Rabbi Van Lanckton
Sara Lee
Marcia and Alan Leifer
Anne and Rabbi Rim Meirowitz
Yael Miller and Stuart Cole
Tara Mohr and Eric Ries
Beth and Michael Moskowitz
Sara Moss and Michael Gould
Myra Musicant and Howard Cohen
Rabbi Suzanne Offit
Suzanne G. Offit Priebatsch Family: Suzanne G. Priebatsch, Seth Priebatsch, Daniella Priebatsch Place
Amy and Bob Rands
Cantor Hollis Schachner
Susan and Bob Schechter
Pamela and James Schwartz
Ellen and Steven Segal
Nancy Antonacci Shaich
Susan Shevitz and Lawrence Bailis
Amy and Ross Silverstein
Myra and Robert Snyder
Sarah Sonnenfeld Noked and Ori Noked
Carol and Steven Targum
Diane Troderman and Harold Grinspoon
Stephen and Susan Wilchins
Arnee R. and Walter A. Winshall
Rose Zoltek-Jick
Let’s celebrate Jewish learning together! Our Hebrew College community of learners will come together on Monday evening, February 27 at 7:30 pm on Zoom with Rabbi Toba Spitzer for a reading and conversation about her new book God Is Here: Reimagining the Divine. God is Here explores how metaphor shapes our experience of the divine. With a rich palette of metaphors from Jewish tradition, seekers and doubters alike can begin to understand and access the sacred in new and powerful ways.
Rabbi Toba Spitzer has served Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton since 1997. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, and the co-chair of the Massachusetts chapter of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. She is a popular teacher and writer on a wide variety of topics, including new approaches to Jewish theology, the sacred use of money in our everyday lives, and changing the conversation around Israel-Palestine. More information about Rabbi Spitzer and God Is Here is available at www.rabbitobaspitzer.net.
This special event is hosted by Hebrew College and campus partner Jewish Arts Collaborative (JArts).
Myra Musicant & Howard Cohen
Myra Musicant & Howard Cohen
About Divahn
About Divahn
ANDY OFFIT
DAN MILLER
International sculptor 
Jessica Kate Meyer 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.
Let’s celebrate Jewish learning together! Our Hebrew College community of learners will come together on Monday evening, February 27 at 7:30 pm on Zoom with 
Rabbi Toba Spitzer has served Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton since 1997. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, and the co-chair of the Massachusetts chapter of