Yiddish music has seen our people through thick and thin. It laughs and dances with us. It weeps with and comforts us. It fills our hearts with a spirit of joy and resilience no matter the challenge of the times.

Come drink in the best of Klezmer and Yiddish music as true masters from New York City join our own Cantor Smolash for an uplifting concert of the very best of Yiddish and Klezmer music. Featuring Broadway and TV star Daniella Rabbani and music director of B’nai Jeshurun, NYC, Dan Nadel.

Admission is free and open to the community! Please make a reservation below to guarantee a seat.

Questions? Please connect with Maya at Maya@temple-israel.org.

Sponsored in loving memory of Sarah & Harry Laker.

REGISTER HERE 
 

Cantor Michael Smolash

Michael Smolash is honored to be serving as a cantor at Temple Israel since 2004 with the finest clergy team in the world. He sits proudly in the Stephen Gottlieb z”l Cantorial Chair. He has coproduced four albums of Temple Israel’s music. He has coproduced four albums of Temple Israel’s music, which were featured on the URJ’s Ruach CD, JKids Radio, and the Biennial Convention album where Michael led Friday night services. A pioneer of the use of YouTube videos for synagogue outreach, Cantor Smolash’s produced videos have garnered two million views and counting. He is also a student of Australia’s Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf, one of the foremost Kabbalah teachers today, and has taught Jewish mysticism at Henry Ford Hospital’s Provider Health Summit, Legacy Heritage’s OnBoard program, the Interfaith Leadership Council, and more. The Winnipeg Sun raved that Michael “KNOWS HOW TO BRING DOWN THE HOUSE WITH HIS SHTICK, SONG AND DANCE”. Raised in a Yiddish speaking family, and a fifteen year veteran of professional music theater, Cantor Smolash is always thrilled to combine these two loves in concert.

Daniella Rabbani

Daniella Rabbani loves Yiddish language and song. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette called Daniella, "the living embodiment of this fun, often sensuous music". Music that has taken her across the country to venues like Jazz at Lincoln Center, Town Hall, Summerstage all in NYC and The State Theater in Warsaw, Poland with The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene. Off Broadway with The Folksbiene, Daniella left audiences "twirling in the streets" (NYTimes) in the Drama Desk nominated The Golden Land and many other productions. Her TV and Film work includes WB's Oceans 8, CBS' God Friended Me, FX's The Americans and more. She is the host of the podcast Mom Curious and can be found on Instagram (@daniellarabbani). More information at daniellarabbani.com.

 

Dan nadel

Dan Nadel is an Israeli born guitarist and composer, whose personal style combines flamenco, jazz, and Middle Eastern influences. His debut album, Brooklyn Prayer, was released in 2005 to critical acclaim, and was followed by recordings and performances as a bandleader, a solo performing artist, and an in-demand collaborator.

A busy musician on New York’s scene, Nadel has also worked with many world-renowned artists, including jazz musicians Chico Freeman, Dave Liebman and Anat Fort, Israeli-French pop star Yael Naim, jazz vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli, opera soloists Chen Reiss and Maya Lahyani, and genre-crossing musicians from around the world. Dan is the music director for Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in Manhattan and director of the 92NY's new program Bridges in Sound.

Nadel attended the jazz program at the prestigious "Thelma Yellin" High School of the Arts in Tel Aviv, before completing his three-year army duty as the guitarist for the IDF's Air Force Band. He is a graduate of the BFA jazz program at The New School in NYC and has studied with jazz masters Billy Harper, Hal Galper, Cecil McBee in NY, and flamenco guitarist Antonio Moya in Seville, Spain.

Ismail Lumanovski

The extraordinary clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski is a musical force of passion and dynamic virtuosity. Already of international distinction, Lumanovki has launched a major career as a soloist, chamber musician in both classical and cross-over repertoire. His synergistic blend of natural talent and training combines the spirit of folk music with the discipline of classical music.

Lumanovski’s performances throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Brazil, Korea and China have received critical acclaim. Lumanovski has mesmerized audiences across the globe. He is proud to have been the soloist of his New York début of the Carter Clarinet Concerto with musicians from New Juilliard Ensemble and the Lucerne Festival Academy with Maestro Boulez.

Shoko Nagai

Shoko Nagai is a versatile musical artist who improvises and performs with world-renowned musicians on piano and accordion and composes original scores for films and live performances. Since moving to the U.S. from Japan and studying classical and jazz music at Berklee, she has adapted her mastery of the keyboard to prepared piano, accordion, Moog synthesizer, and other instruments. Whether she is performing Klezmer,

Balkan or experimental music, Nagai is a charismatic presence onstage, who hypnotizes audiences with her intense focus and virtuoso sound. A veteran of the New York downtown music scene, she performs with John Zorn, Erik Friedlander, Marc Ribot, Frank London, Dan Nadal, Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Satoshi Takeishi, Elliot Sharp, Jeremiah Lockwood and many eclectic performers. www.shokonagai.net

Satoshi Takeishi

Satoshi Takeishi, drummer, percussionist, and arranger is a native of Mito, Japan. While at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he developed an interest in the music of South America and went to live in Colombia following the invitation of a friend. He spent four years there and forged many musical and personal relationships. One of the projects he worked on while in Colombia was “Macumbia” with composer/arranger Francisco Zumaque in which traditional, jazz and classical music were combined. With this group he performed with the Bogota symphony orchestra to do a series of concerts honoring the music of the most popular composer in Colombia, Lucho Bermudes. In 1986 he returned to the U.S. in Miami where he began work as an arranger. In 1987 he produced “Morning Ride” for jazz flutist Nestor Torres on Polygram Records. His interest expanded to the rhythms and melodies of the middle east where he studied and performed with Armenian-American oud master Joe Zeytoonian. Since moving to New York in 1991 he has performed and recorded with many musicians such as Ray Barretto, Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson, Eddie Gomez, Randy Brecker, Dave Liebman, Anthony Braxton, Mark Murphy, Herbie Mann, Paul Winter Consort, Rabih Abu Khalil, Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band, Erik Friedlander and Pablo Ziegler to name a few. He continues to explore multi-cultural, electronics and improvisational music with local musicians and composers in New York.