Purim at Old Broadway, March 2-3, 2026

Please Join us for Purim at Old Broadway!

Monday, March 2, 2026

Minchah, 5:20, Maariv & Megillah, 6:20pm

and Purim Party Hearty!

$15 suggested donation

The fun continues...

Tuesday, March 3, 2025

After 8:00 Shacharis and Megillah,

Rabbi Avi Heller will give a shiur at breakfast.

Please join us!

KLEZMER RETURNS TO OLD BROADWAY! January 24, 2026

The Old Broadway Synagogue, Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center and Yiddish New York present:

KLEZMER RETURNS TO OLD BROADWAY!

Featuring music by Margot Leverett (clarinet), Aaron Alexander (poyk-drum, fiddle) & Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer)

Saturday Night, January 24, 8:15PM
at the Old Broadway Synagogue
(15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan)

Suggested donation: $10

A concert featuring three of the contemporary Yiddish music scene's leading performers - featuring the return to the Old Broadway Synagogue of acclaimed klezmer clarinetist Margot Leverett, percussionist Aaron Alexander and tsimbl (cimbalom/hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, Yiddish New York and the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center.

Biographies of performers:

Margot Leverett: Clarinetist Margot Leverett was a founding member of the Klezmatics in 1985 before moving on to start her own band "Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys", an all-star band combining the best of Klezmer and Bluegrass. They toured widely and their  music was choreographed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Margot has been featured as a guest soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, has toured Japan twice with The New York Ragtime Orchestra, and has been featured in several Off-Broadway productions. She was a staff instructor at KlezKamp for over 10 years and has also taught at Yiddish New York, KlezKanada, Klezkamp West, Klezmerquerque, and at colleges, music festivals, and Jewish organizations across the country and Europe. Margot lives in Kingston, NY.

Aaron Alexander is a drummer and fiddle player, has been playing klezmer music for 36 years and has been fortunate to be associated with many of the finest musicians in the klezmer and Jewish music field. He has been on Faculty at Yiddish New York, Trip to Yiddishland, Klez Kamp, Klez Kanada, Yiddish Summer Weimar, and in 2010 co-founded the NY Klezmer Series – a weekly concert, workshop, dance party and jam session series that features many wonderful klezmorim from around the world. Look for upcoming events by the NY Klezmer Series soon. Alexander has performed and recorded with Theo Bikel, Pete Sokolow, The Mazeltones, Greg Wall, Klezmerfest!, Alicia Svigals, Strauss/Warschauer Duo, The Klezmatics, Michael Winograd, Pete Rushefsky, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, and has released several recordings as a leader – The Klez Messengers, Midrash Mish Mosh, Blues for Sparky and more.

Pete Rushefsky - 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, Jake Shulman-Ment, Adrianne Greenbaum, Eleonore Biezunski, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Aaron Alexander, Margot Leverett, Alicia Svigals, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, Ira Temple, Lauren Brody, Avi Fox-Rosen 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.

We are grateful for the support of the Atran Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Magic of Klezmer Flute, March 23, 2025

The Old Broadway Synagogue, Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center present:

THE MAGIC OF KLEZMER FLUTE 

Concert featuring Adrianne Greenbaum (flute) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl)

Sunday, March 23, 2025, 7:30pm

at the Old Broadway Synagogue

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

Suggested donation: $10

A program of newly-discovered traditional klezmer repertoire alongside stunning original compositions. You'll also hear the stories behind this exciting music in a concert featuring two of the contemporary klezmer scene's leading artists.

Watch a sample here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10ZIDLrBCQo

Adrianne Greenbaum (flute) Professor of Flute at Mount Holyoke College, and recognized as the “Queen of Klezmer Flute,” Adrianne Greenbaum is the foremost purveyor of the klezmer flute tradition. Having reached International acclaim as both a klezmer and classical flutist, Adrianne performs on modern, traverso and 19th c. flutes. She has performed in many national and international festivals and conventions: as soloist with orchestra at the National Flute Convention, solo recitals at the British Flute Convention, full concerts in the KlezMore Festival in Vienna, tours in the U.S.A., Scotland and Poland. Having received her upper level degrees from the Oberlin College Conservatory and Yale University School of Music, she has held professorships at several colleges and universities - currently Mount Holyoke, and formerly Smith, Yale and Wesleyan. She began her career as a classical musician, maintaining her presence in the field performing recitals at universities, and conventions and as principal flutist of both the New Haven Symphony (recently retired) and Orchestra New England. Highlights of her presence in the classical arena included many years performing with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, performances with New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and as principal flutist with Berlin Ballet at the Met. She can be heard in recordings of her own classical solo album, Sounds of America, as well as several klezmer titles - Fleytmuzik, Farewell to the Homeland: Poyln, and Family Portrait, and final to be released summer of 2025 “Klezmer Flute Nisht Fargessen” 

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Pete 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, Ira Temple, Lauren Brody, Avi Fox-Rosen and Michael Winograd. Pete serves as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, one of 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 books and articles on traditional music and culture.

We are grateful for the support of the Atran Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

KLEZMER NIGHT ON OL' BROADWAY, DECEMBER 10, 2022

KLEZMER NIGHT ON OL' BROADWAY

with Bob Cohen, Jake Shulman-Ment & Pete Rushefsky 

Saturday, December 10, 8pm

at the Old Broadway Synagogue

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

Suggested donation: $10

Join us for the new klezmer music series at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) at 8pm on Saturday night, December 10, 2022. 

We'll be featuring three of the contemporary klezmer scene's leading performers - Bob Cohen (violin) Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) and Jake Shulman-Ment (violin). For decades, an important milestone for aspiring young klezmorim has been to make a pilgrimage to see Bob Cohen of the ensemble Di Naye Kapelye in Budapest. Or even better, to accompany Cohen on a tour of Transylvanian villages in search of the last Roma musicians who played with Jewish bands before WWII. Two such pilgrim over the years have been violin virtuoso Jake Shulman-Ment, now recognized as one of the contemporary klezmer scene’s finest fiddlers, and tsimbl (cimbalom/hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky. Join the trio for a night of rediscovered melodies, Hasidic spirtuals and rollicking dance tunes. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and Yiddish New York.

Biograpies of performers:

Bob Cohen (violin) was born in New York in 1956 to a Hungarian mother and Moldavian father. In the late 1980s, he commenced his research on Hungary’s Jewish musical heritage, including songs, dances, and musical instruments. In 1993, he founded the influential Budapest-based ensemble Di Naye Kapelye (The New Band) with accordionist Christina Crowder and bassist Géza Pénzes. The musicians present klezmer music in the style in which it was originally performed in Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century. Their 2008 release Traktorist ranked high on Songline World Music Magazine’s “Top of the World” list of best new albums. Cohen served as a consultant, speaker and featured artist at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. He is currently touring as part of the Brothers Nazroff ensemble, which recently released their first album on Smithsonian Folkways; the band is featured in the 2016 documentary by Hungarian filmmaker Csaba Bereczki entitled “Soul Exodus.”

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.

The Klezmographers: Klezmer Music from Around the World, 8:00pm November 19, 2022

THE KLEZMOGRAPHERS: Klezmer Music from Around the World

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) & Eleonore Biezunski (violin)

Please join us for our second klezmer melaveh malkah concert!

Saturday, November 19, 8pm  at the Old Broadway Synagogue

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

Suggested donation: $10

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl, banjo) 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.

Eléonore Biezunski is an award-winning Parisian singer/violinist now living in NYC. An avid collector of Yiddish music, she co-founded and is a member of Ephemeral Birds, Yerushe, Lyubtshe, Shpilkes, Shtetl Stompers and Klezmographers and has collaborated with a large number of well-known Jewish performers here and abroad. Her recordings include Yerushe (IEMJ, 2016) and Zol zayn (2014). She won a Bubbe Awards in 2021 for her song "Tshemodan" in the category Best New Yiddish Song. As YIVO’s Associate Sound Archivist, Eléonore is the Project Coordinator for the Ruth Rubin Legacy online exhibition (ruthrubin.yivo.org). She is also a member of the Klezmer Institute's KMDMP and Klezmer Archive Project. She has a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and has published several academic articles about Yiddish music and Yiddish theater. She is a recipient of a NYSCA Folk Arts Apprenticeship. She appears in several documentary films about Yiddish culture and music.

KLEZMER MUSIC - Oldish n' Newish, 8:00pm on October 29, 2022

 

CONCERT OF KLEZMER MUSIC: Oldish n' Newish

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) & Jake Shulman-Ment (violin)

Saturday, October 29, 8pm  at the Old Broadway Synagogue

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

Suggested donation: $10

Join us for a swinging melave malkah and the kickoff of a new klezmer music series at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) at 8pm on Saturday night, October 29, 2022. We'll be featuring two of the contemporary klezmer scene's leading performers - Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) and Jake Shulman-Ment (violin). From Hasidic spirituals to rollicking dance tunes, Rushefsky and Shulman-Ment breathe life into musical treasures from the past and present new melodies from klezmer's cutting edge. This program is presented by the Old Broadway Synagogue in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

Pete Rushefsky*** (tsimbl, banjo) 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.