Sunday, March 17, 2024

Celebrate Purim at Old Broadway!

 

OL' BROADWAY PURIM PARTY!
Featuring music by Avi Fox-Rosen (guitar/mandolin) & Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) 
Saturday Night, March 23, 8:30PM Megillah Reading, 9:15PM Party at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)
Admission Free!

Join us for the Old Broadway Synagogue's Purim Service and Party (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) on Saturday, March 23, 2024. After reading the Megillah, we'll feature music by two of the contemporary Yiddish music scene's leading performers - Avi Fox-Rosen (guitar/mandolin) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer). Plus food, friends and fun! This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York.
The fun continues on Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 8:00am with Shacharis, Megillah and a festive breakfast!
Biographies of performers:

Avi Fox-Rosen is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn, NY, equally at home in theater, rock, Yiddish, klezmer or improvisational music worlds. He’s collaborated with many of the leading lights in Yiddish music over the last 20 years including Adrienne Cooper, Daniel Kahn, Sarah Gordon, Michael Winograd, Basya Schechter, Matt Darriau, Frank London and many others, including his brother, bassist and singer Benjy Fox-Rosen. Avi’s a member of .357 Lover, whose dynamics include power-chord riffs and densely-packed, narrative structures, a homunculus of Queen and Tiny Tim. As a songwriter, Avi makes music with a sardonic sense of humor, dense and dark lyrics, and enchantingly twisted melodies. New York Music Daily has heralded Avi’s work as “consistently excellent”.

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Klezmer Concert, March 3 at 7:30pm

 

The Old Broadway Synagogue, 

Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York present:

KLEZMER RETURNS TO OL' BROADWAY

Abigale Reisman (violin), Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) 

& Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer)

Sunday, March 3, 7:30pm at the Old Broadway Synagogue

(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)

Suggested donation: $10

Join us as klezmer music returns to the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) at 7:30pm on Sunday, March 3, 2024. We'll be featuring three of the contemporary klezmer scene's leading performers - Abigale Reisman (violin), Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) and Jake Shulman-Ment (violin). A rare opportunity to see three of klezmer's leading string musicians performing together in a special program of klezmer melodies new and old. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York.

Biographies of performers:

One of the Boston area's leading klezmer musicians, Abigale Reisman (violin) has established herself as an expressive and thoughtful fidl player with a lot to say. She is particularly interested in mimicking the human voice through the violin and connecting her playing to the rhythms and accents of the Yiddish language. Abigale is a performer, composer, and arranger with the International Jewish Music Festival award winning band, Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band. She regularly performs in a duo with renowned klezmer scholar and performer Hankus Netsky. Abigale is also a co-founder of Thread Ensemble, an experimental trio that creates music out of interactions with their audiences. She recently received The Iguana Grant from Club Passim to create a series of videos showcasing the klezmer violin. Abigale earned her Bachelor’s degree at The Manhattan School of Music in Classical Violin Performance and went on to receive her Master’s degree at The New England Conservatory in Contemporary Improvisation. Abigale lives by the sea with her two Hemingway cats and her husband Charles.

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) is at the helm of a new generation of Klezmer and Yiddish music performers. He tours and records internationally in addition to being a widely sought-out teacher of the klezmer fiddle tradition at festivals around the globe. He collected, studied, performed, and documented traditional music in Romania as a Fulbright scholar, and has lived and traveled in Hungary and Greece, learning traditional violin styles. In 2018 he received the prestigious NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Folk/Traditional Arts. He was a featured subject of Csaba Bereczki’s full-length documentary film Soul Exodus, and appears on HBO’s Succession, Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, and a host of other film and theater productions. Jake’s debut solo album, A Redele (A Wheel) (Oriente Musik, 2012) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. His new group, Midwood, released its first album, Out of the Narrows, (Chant Records) in May 2018

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Chag Urim Sameach!

Please join us for a

Freylikhn Chanukah Simchah

at the

Old Broadway Synagogue

With latkes, sufganiyos and the rocking music of...

Lauren Brody (accordion) & 
Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer)


Saturday, December 9, 7:30pm

at the Old Broadway Synagogue
(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)

Free Admission

Sponsored by the Old Broadway Synagogue, State Senator Cordell Cleare and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance
 and Yiddish New York

Join us for a hopping Hanukkah Party at the Old Broadway Synagogue. There will be food, good cheer, not-so-competitive dreydl-spinning, great music and wonderful people sharing the holiday spirit. Music will be provided by klezmer revival pioneer Lauren Brody (accordion) and tsimbl (cimbalom/ hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky.

Biographies of performers:

Lauren Brody (accordion) is an accordionist, singer, researcher, professional piano tuner/technician and Fulbright scholar from New York City. She is a pioneer of the klezmer music revival in the United States and a founding member of the groundbreaking band “Kapelye”, formed in 1979. She has toured, recorded and appeared on TV and film with Kapelye, and with the seminal all-female ensemble “Mikveh”. Lauren has played the with The Klezmatics, Andy Statman, Michael Winograd, David Krakauer, Alicia Svigals, Frank London, Merlin and Polina Shepherd and many other klezmer luminaries. She was a trailblazer in the domestic Balkan music scene and was the first female gadulka player in the United States. Lauren was an original member of the first Bulgarian traditional folk orchestra “Pitu Guli”, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1970 and has taught and performed at EEFC’s Balkan Camp, Klezkamp, KlezCalifornia, KlezKanada, Ashkenaz, Yidstock, Yiddish New York. Lauren was the recipient of a Bulgarian Government stipend to study Bulgarian folk music during the Communist period, from 1971-73, at the Bulgarian Conservatory of Music in Sofia. As a Fulbright scholar to Bulgaria in 1990 she conducted research on the commercial recording industry and folk music, and released two acclaimed reissues of 78 rpm recordings. Lauren continues to perform, with a particular accent on composing new music for her own Balkan/Klezmer-inspired solo project “Lauren Brody’s Accordion Bytes”, as “Tsoyber” with Yiddish singer Susan Leviton, and with the Bulgaria-based accordion duo Brody-Stoikov.

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Selichos and High Holidays at the Old Broadway Synagogue, 5784


YAMIM NORAIM 
AT THE OLD BROADWAY SYNAGOGUE

First Night Selichos
Motzoei Shabbos Sept 9/10 12:30am
Please join us in inaugurating the yamim noraim with 
Selichos led by Orrin Tilevitz
Orrin has been leading Selichos for us for 
over the past 30 years.


HIGH HOLIDAY SERVICES

Rosh Hashanah
September 15-17, 2023 

Friday, September 15, 2023
Minchah and Maariv (First night) 6:47pm

Saturday, September 16, 2023
Shacharis (First day)  8:30am
Minchah  6:45pm
Maariv (Second night)  after 7:44pm

Sunday, September 17, 2023
Shacharis (Second day)  8:30am
Blowing of the Shofar 10:30am
Minchah  and Tashlikh 6:00pm
Maariv 7:43pm

YOM KIPPUR
September 24-25, 2023

Sunday, September 24, 2023 
Kol Nidrei and Maariv  6:20pm

Monday September 25, 2023
Shacharis 8:30am
Yizkor 10:30am
Minchah 4:50pm
Ne’ilah 6:20pm
Fast ends 7:29pm

We are delighted to announce that services
 will be led by the talented baalei tefilah
Rabbi Reuven Hoff and Mr. Yosef Tannenbaum.

Purchase your High Holiday tickets now!
Reservations are $100 per person.

To reserve please click here to pay by PayPal
or send a check for the appropriate 
amount made out to 
“Old Broadway Synagogue,”and send it 
to the shul at 15 Old Broadway, 
New York, NY 10027.

!לשנה טובה תכתבו ותחתמו

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Zikhronah li-Vrakhah: Pearl Ziffer Diamond

Dear Friends,

Pearl Ziffer Diamond, who grew up in the Old Broadway Synagogue, passed away earlier this year. Matthew, one of her children, sent the following sketch of Pearl's life. May her memory be for a blessing!

Pearl Ziffer Diamond passed away peacefully on January 30, 2023 just three weeks shy of her 98th birthday. She was a treasured mother, grandmother, aunt, friend and revered matriarch of her family for decades. Pearl lived a Jewish life punctuated by a kosher home, celebrations of every Jewish holiday and presided over a family defined by her haimische warmth, good humor and abundant love.

Born Pearl Ziffer on February 24, 1925 to her loving parents, Louis and Sarah Ziffer, she was their youngest child, basking in the adoration of her older brothers Yossi and Irving and her sister, Beatrice. A member of Old Broadway Synagogue from birth, Pearl had a lively childhood on nearby Vinegar Hill. She jumped rope avidly, played basketball (despite being five foot two inches tall) and made lifelong friends among all the children of her neighborhood.

Pearl and Irwin Diamond, 1940s

During World War II Pearl met a handsome soldier stationed at a school on her block, Irwin Diamond. They dated and, after he returned from Europe and recovered from his war wounds, they married, settling in Queens. She loved her new name, Pearl Diamond.

They became the parents of three extremely lucky children, Dennis, Matthew and Cori-Sue. As the years passed Irwin and Pearl became the acknowledged Matriarch and Patriarch of their extended family. Their home was filled with laughter, delight, warmth and generosity. Every celebration was hosted there, including Seders, Purim, Thanksgiving, and Hanukah. It was a joy to live through.

Pearl with Dennis, Cori-Sue and Matthew 

In 1966 Pearl’s mother, Sarah, suffered a debilitating stroke rendering her paralyzed and unable to speak. Rejecting the mediocre care given by the nursing homes of that time, Pearl and Irwin created a hospital room in their home where her mother was cared for preciously for four years until she passed peacefully. It was, quite honestly, a saintly act.

Eventually, after Irwin’s passing, Pearl moved to Atlanta to be near her son and daughter and grandchildren. In her heart this lifelong New Yorker never left New York City. 

Magically, and deservedly, Pearl never had a real sickness in her life. Literally, she was out at a restaurant having dinner until two nights before her passing. Until the end she was lively, conversational and kept track of every family member, including what each member was getting for Hanukah. She also maintained her membership in Old Broadway synagogue through the end.

Pearl at her 95th birthday party
Pearl Ziffer Diamond was treasured throughout her life and will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered for many decades to come.