At the gate of the new year, I’m excited about all that 2022 can bring. The message of this song resonates clearly – that we will get through good times and bad together. I’m honored to collaborate with five-time Grammy-winning Christian artist Israel Houghton on this cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s cl

In his recent remarks to congress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of his countrymen and women, and of his land, in loving terms. I immediately remembered the poetry of Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934) set by David Nowakowsky (1848-1921), of the Brodsky Synagogue in Odessa, which evokes ...

The Festival of Lights calls us to light a candle, banish the darkness, say a blessing, and enjoy the miracle of light. While this song was written for the Eurovision Song Contest, not for Hanukkah, I couldn’t resist its imagery of fighting hopelessness by creating light together. And, it was origin

When Sophie Tucker began singing this song written by Yellen & Pollack in 1925, the Jewish experience in America had included many mothers dealing with privations to care for their families, all the while passing down values that their tradition holds dear. Whether or not you have a “Yiddishe Momme”

Three young cantors, all rising stars in the American Jewish music scene, are brought together in Amsterdam’s revered 17th century Portuguese Synagogue for a concert of Jewish sacred and secular music arranged for orchestra and choir. The New York Cantors, all serving synagogues in New York, are: Br

Celebrating Black History Month. Kaitlyn Saunders, @the.skate.kid on Instagram, improvises a figure skating performance on Black Lives Matter Plaza. Skating to “Rise Up” by Andra Day, Kaitlyn expresses her hope for the future admist the social unrest. She wants all people to feel “free” - the feeli

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has renamed part of a street near the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza."

This Sunday our community will observe Tisha B'av and turn our attention to the city of Jerusalem, mourning the destruction of its temples some two millenniums ago. Here is the most famous love song to Jerusalem, my hometown, sung with my amazing colleagues Cantors Netanel Herstik and Yaakov Lemmer ...

Sony’s RCA Records and Legacy Recording has released a never-before-heard solo version of Aretha Franklin’s collaboration with Mary J. Blige about faith and race. The song, called “Never Gonna Break My Faith” has arrived on Juneteenth to commemorate the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people were fr

Although we are lucky to be in our lovely environment in the Pines, we are aware of the Black Lives Matter movement and the fight for social justice by African Americans in the United States. Certainly, many of us can remember the hard-won battles that we fought in the LGBTQ community for safety and...