Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: The Catholic University of Korea Veritas Choir Sings "Hava Nagila"

We continue to be amazed by the number of countries where Hava Nagila has been performed. This is the 120th rendition of the popular Hebrew song that we've posted since starting Jewish Humor Central in 2009.

Here's the latest version that we just found, a concert performance a few days ago by the Veritas Choir of the Catholic University of Korea.

The Catholic University of Korea is a private Roman Catholic university  in Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. It was established in 1855. The Catholic University of Korea operates campuses in Seoul and in the neighboring Bucheon City. The university's school of medicine operates eight affilIated hospitals throughout the country.

Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Yigdal by Cantor Avi Davis and the Ohabei Shalom Choir

Temple Ohabei Shalom, “Lovers of Peace,” has been at the center of New England Judaism since it was founded in 1842 as the first congregation in Massachusetts. As an affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism, the Brookline congregation encourages people from all paths of Judaism to be a part of its community.

In this video, Cantor Avi Davis and the Ohabei Shalom choir sing David Sparr's arrangement of Yigdal, the liturgical poem that many congregations sing at the end of Friday night services.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: California's Bullis Charter School Choir Sings "Hinei Ma Tov"

Charter schools such as the Bullis Charter School in Los Altos, California are unique public schools that offer an additional educational choice to California families. 

Charter schools are allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. As a public charter school, BCS is free to innovate and implement new programs and teaching methods in order to provide the best education possible for our students.

The K-8 school has four choirs comprising more than 145 students. The Spring concert of their Cambiata choir included a virtual rendition of the Hebrew folk song Hinei Ma Tov.

Enjoy!

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Welcoming Shabbat with Oseh Shalom by the Ramatayim Men's Choir

Late in 1995, four enthusiasts gathered in the Ramot suburb of Jerusalem, to sing choral music they recalled from synagogue services in their youth. 

 

Since then the choir has grown to 40 choristers, native Israelis and Olim from 4 continents who share a love of the great tradition of Jewish liturgical music and of singing together.

 

The choir appears regularly at concert halls and synagogues throughout Israel. Their list of approximately 250 performances includes appearances alongside some of the finest cantors in the world as well as artists in different genres. They have appeared in concert with the Israel Symphonette Orchestra on national television and radio and have also performed at the residence of the President of Israel.

The choir's repertoire consists mainly of Jewish liturgical music and includes Chassidic and Israeli songs, pop, opera and folk music. All activities are performed on a voluntary basis. They perform regularly in support of various Israeli and Jewish charitable and social causes. A distinctive feature of the choir's activity is their active collaboration with ensembles of the same genre, inaugurating and hosting joint concerts in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The choir's name derives from Ramatayim-Tzofim, in the hill country of Ephraim, birthplace of Samuel the Prophet, mentioned in the Book of Samuel 1 (1:1) and associated with the suburb Ramot, Jerusalem.

 

In this video they sing Oseh Shalom, the closing sentence of the Kaddish and the Amidah. The choir is conducted by director Richard Shavei-Tzion. This performance was at the Keren Malki 7th Annual Concert at The Jerusalem Performing Arts Festival in the Jerusalem Theatre in 2018.

 

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

 

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"Hevenu Shalom Aleichem" Around the World - A Socially Distanced Version From Brazil

Hevenu Shalom Aleichem has traveled all over the world and has been played and sung in more countries than any Hebrew song except for Hava Nagila.

 Choral singing has been challenging to many choirs during the coronavirus pandemic, but some choral groups have persisted in singing while social distancing. A good example is the Coral Brigantino in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For our 18th post of this popular Hebrew song of greeting and peace, let's take a trip to Braganca Paulista, a municipality in the state of Sao Paulo and watch the safely separated members of the Coral Brigantino sing Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.

Enjoy!

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Yom HaAtzmaut Special: HaZamir Beit Shean Sings Prayer for the State of Israel

HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir is a youth movement that welcomes  musically talented Jewish teens from a broad range of cultural backgrounds and levels of religious observance.  

HaZamir offers high schoolers in 31 chapters across the United States and nine in Israel the opportunity to learn and sing Jewish choral music at the highest musical standard and on the world’s greatest stages.

One of the Israeli chapters is in the city of Beit Shean, a city in the Northern Region at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley. This year, with everyone staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic, members of HaZamir Beit Shean created a virtual choir to celebrate Israel's Independence Day, Yom HaAtzmaut.

Merging videos from nine indoor and outdoor locations around Beit Shean, the teenage singers posted T'filah L'Shlom Medinat Yisrael, their tribute to Israel's 72nd independence day on YouTube. 

Enjoy, and Chag Sameach!

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Welcoming Shabbat and Shavuot with Oseh Shalom by HaZamir

This week Shabbat, which starts at sundown tonight, leads directly into the Shavuot holiday, in which the giving of the Torah is celebrated for two days around the world and one day in Israel.

One of the most distinctive customs of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot is Tikkun Leil Shavuot, an evening-long study session held on the night of Shavuot. 

Tikkun means a “set order” of something and refers to the order in which the texts are read. The custom originated with the mystics of Safed in the 16th century, and today, many Jews stay up all night on Shavuot reading and studying a variety of sacred texts. Traditionally, readings from the Torah and Talmud are included. 

Many synagogues hold a Tikkun Leil Shavuot. Some host programs that go on all night, fueled by cheesecake, sushi, and other delicacies, culminating in morning services at sunrise. Other congregations gather for a few hours of study. Whether one is planning to attend an all-night session, study for a few hours, join with others, or study on one’s own, Shavuot is a wonderful time to encounter sacred text.

 

To welcome this holiday weekend, we're sharing a performance of Nurit Hirsh's iconic Oseh Shalom as captured at the HaZamir 2019 Gala Concert in David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center. 

 

Oseh Shalom is conducted by Dr. Marsha Bryan Edelman, conductor of HaZamir Philadelphia and arranged and accompanied on piano by Matthew Lazar, founder of HaZamir and founder and director of the Zamir Choral Foundation. Soloists for this piece are Shani Chamovitz from HaZamir HaSharon and Yosef Nelson from HaZamir DC.

We'll be attending synagogue services on Sunday and Monday, so Jewish Humor Central is taking a two-day break. We'll be back on Tuesday with our usual mix.

Shabbat shalom and Chag sameach!

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Getting Ready for Rosh Hashanah with Psalm 150 (Halleluyah) Sung by Zamir Chorale

 

With Rosh Hashanah starting on Sunday evening, we're taking a break from pop music songs about the holiday and getting in the liturgical mood with a selection from the Shofarot section of the Musaf service.

It's a beautiful rendition of Psalm 150 (Halleluyah) with music by Louis Lewandowski. It's sung by the participants of the 28th Annual North American Jewish Choral Fesitval conducted by Maestro Mathew Lazar, Founder and Director of the Zamir Choral Foundation.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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‘One Love’ Video Released from Koolulam Singdown at Tower of David

On June 14th, in honor of the historical visit to Israel by Indonesia’s religious leader Sheikh Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, Koolulam invited 1000 people who had never met before to a special event at the Tower of David in Jerusalem, to sing one song, in three languages and in three-part vocal harmony. 

The event was produced in conjunction with the Tower of David museum and Jerusalem.Com.

The song was Bob Marley’s iconic “One Love,” in English, Arabic, and Hebrew.

We previously posted the Koolulam performance of Al Kol Eleh to celebrate Israel's 70th anniversary in April. 

The musical engine behind Koolulam is Ben Yefet, a gifted music educator and conductor. He creates arrangements for the songs, teaches them in about 45 minutes, and then conducts the humongous ad-hoc choirs for the recordings. As the events have grown in size, Yefet has been joined by co-conductors and musicians.

Koolulam was established with the goal of bringing together people from all walks of life by means of a collaborative musical creation. In each event, a new rendition of a well-known song is taught to participants and is immediately thereafter performed.

Enjoy!

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16 Choirs Sing Oseh Shalom to Start the Israel 70th Birthday Countdown

Tomorrow and Shabbat are the last two days of Pesach this year in the diaspora, and tomorrow is the seventh and last day in Israel. 

There's not as much singing on these days as there is at the beginning of Pesach, but Jewish choral groups around the world have been busy preparing for a major event that starts in 13 days -- Israel's 70th birthday celebration.

Richard Shavei Tzion, the South Africa-born director of the Ramatayim Men's Choir in Jerusalem, came up with the idea of getting 16 Jewish choral groups from 12 countries to sing Roman Grinberg's version of Oseh Shalom in unison.

This video brings the choirs together for a rousing rendition of the song that we hope you'll enjoy as we finish off the last of the matzot. We'll be celebrating the end of Pesach through Shabbat and we'll be back with more of our usual mix at Jewish Humor Central on Sunday.

Chag sameach and Shabbat shalom!

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350 Hazamir Teenagers Salute Israel's 70th Birthday at Lincoln Center

Last Sunday we attended the 25th annual HaZamir gala concert at David Geffen Hall in New York's Lincoln Center. In previous years the performance was at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and The Metropolitan Opera.

For two hours, 350 teenagers from 31 chapters of HaZamir Jewish High School Choir across the United States and in seven cities in Israel performed to a packed house, singing traditional and contemporary songs in Hebrew and English.

HaZamir, the International Jewish High School Choir, is an international network of choral chapters for Jewish teens. Local HaZamir chapters meet weekly in cities across America and Israel to rehearse and perform Jewish choral music. 

HaZamir provides Jewish teenagers the unique opportunity to sing at the highest performance level, build pluralistic community, and create strong Israel-Diaspora relations in the next generation.

Each local HaZamir chapter is directed by a talented conductor whose devotion to the highest standard of Jewish music-making helps to inspire the next generation of Jewish choral singers.

This year the group paid tribute to Israel in its 70th birthday year and to Hazamir's own 25th anniversary. 

Today we're posting a short clip of their theme song, with which they begin and end their concerts, and Psalm 97 (Adonai Malach), composed by Steve Cohen and conducted by Chris Mason, conductor of HaZamir Westchester, accompanied by Scott Stein, conductor of HaZamir Manhattan on piano. Soloists are Benjamin Sokol, HaZamir Boston; Maya Behiri, HaZamir Long Island; Sam Joffe, HaZamir Silicon Valley; and Chloe Brown, HaZamir Miami.

Enjoy!

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The Great Yiddish Songs Revisited: A New and Fun Version of "Rumania Rumania"

The Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus is part of a modern Yiddish renaissance -- more than forty members strong, from students to retirees, a good number of whom speak or are learning Yiddish. 

Their repertoire spans a century -- exciting oratorios and operettas, labor anthems, folksongs, and popular tunes -- all in Yiddish. Committed to strengthening Yiddish as a living language, they have commissioned and premiered new Yiddish choral works by half a dozen composers.

In July we posted their Yiddish version of The Star Spangled Banner.  Today we're sharing their fun version of the Yiddish classic Rumania, Rumania, by Aaron Lebedeff. The musical arrangement is by Binyumen Schaechter, with his daughter Temma as soloist.

Schaechter is a member of a leading family in Yiddish language and cultural studies. His father, Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter, was an influential linguist of the Yiddish language, writing and editing many articles, magazines, journals, terminologies and textbooks in Yiddish and on Yiddish. His mother, Charlotte (Charne) Schaechter, spent much of her life as an accompanist to Yiddish singers. His aunt, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, was a Yiddish poet and songwriter and spiritual guide to many of the Klezmer musicians in the world today. 

Among his three sisters, Rukhl Schaechter is a journalist with the Yiddish Forward, and host of the on-line Yiddish cooking program, Est gezunterheyt! (we posted 24 episodes of this cooking program during the last 8 years); Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath is a Yiddish poet and editor, and she sings in the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus; and sister Eydl Reznik teaches Yiddish among the ultra-Orthodox community in Tsfat, Israel. Schaechter and his sisters all speak only in Yiddish with their children, giving their parents 16 Yiddish-speaking grandchildren. Binyumen's cousin, Itzik Gottesman, was an editor of The Yiddish Forward and the Tsukunft, and is continuing his work as a scholar of Yiddish folklore. 

Enjoy! 

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Musical Showcase: Meet the Ramatayim Men's Choir Singing a Jerusalem Medley

Music is an important part of our mix at Jewish Humor Central. In our sporadic series bringing new musical groups to your attention, we're introducing you to the Ramatayim Men's Choir of Jerusalem.

Late in 1995, four enthusiasts gathered in the Ramot suburb of Jerusalem, to sing choral music they recalled from synagogue services in their youth. Since then the choir has grown to 40 choristers, native Israelis and Olim from 4 continents who share a love of the great tradition of Jewish liturgical music and of singing together.

The choir appears regularly at concert halls and synagogues throughout Israel. Their list of approximately 250 performances includes appearances alongside some of the finest cantors in the world as well as artists in different genres. They have appeared in concert with the Israel Symphionette Orchestra 'eers Sheva, on national television and radio and have also performed at the residence of the President of Israel.

The choir's repertoire consists mainly of Jewish liturgical music and includes Chassidic and Israeli songs, pop, opera and folk music. All activities are performed on a voluntary basis. They perform regularly in support of various Israeli and Jewish charitable and social causes. A distinctive feature of the choir's activity is their active collaboration with ensembles of the same genre, inaugurating and hosting joint concerts in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The choir's name derives from Ramatayim-Tzofim, in the hill country of Ephraim, birthplace of Samuel the Prophet, mentioned in the Book of Samuel 1 (1:1) and associated with the suburb Ramot, Jerusalem.

In this video they sing a medley of songs about Jerusalem at the International Rabbinical Conference in 2014.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom !

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