An Arts Spectacular: The JFREJ Winter Fundraiser on December 7th, 2022 celebrates JFREJ’s cultural organizing. The event showcases how art and culture have a way of cutting through disconnection and despair, and help us create the world as it should be. The live-streamed program of artists includes virtual and in-person watch parties.
An Arts Spectacular: The JFREJ Winter Fundraiser
The 2022 JFREJ Winter Fundraiser celebrating JFREJ’s cultural organizing
An Arts Spectacular will feature performances by...
Laura Elkeslassy, whose musical exploration through Judeo-Arabic music aims to reclaim the cultural heritage of Jews from Arab lands from a feminist perspective. Laura will perform with the JFREJ House Band, under the musical direction of Ira Khonen Temple.
Marwan Allam: Bass
April Centrone: Percussion
Nizar Dahmani: Percussion
Laura Elkeslassy: Vocals
Mehrnam Rastegari: Kamancheh
Shahanna McKinney Baldon, who will perform an excerpt from her ongoing research and performance project inspired by the life and work of Gladys Mae Sellers-Smack (1889-1960), professionally known as Goldye Steiner. Steiner was one of the African-American vocalists who performed Jewish sacred music in and around New York during the "golden age" period of khazones (cantorial art music) and the only known woman to have been part of this cohort. McKinney-Baldon is raising funds to restore Steiner's headstone marker.
Dori Midnight, a community healing practitioner, ritual artist, writer, and deep listener oriented towards healing and liberation. For over two decades, Dori has practiced intuitive healing, rooted in and guided by Jewish ancestral traditions, feminist, decolonial and abolitionist scholarship, queer liberation, and disability and healing justice work. She will host the Great Jewish Amulet Make-Off!
Shoshana Vogel, a musician, activist who has studied classical guitar, Ghanaian drumming, opera and performed in chamber groups, rock groups and street bands. Her music is grounded in healing expression, movement work, and conscious uplift.
Jenny Romaine, vision and a visionary, presenting the Great Small Works original Three Graces piece, ft. Grace Kelly, Grace Paley, and Grace Lee Boggs.
Tomorrowland, artists from Gaza and New York who came together online to create and share art around four themes: Freedom, Solidarity, The Sea, Tomorrowland/the Future. They will perform a selection of pieces they created and share some words about the project. (Logo design by Sarah Sills).
If you are not familiar with Noam's work, consider watching this documentary short about her work, and reading this op-ed she recently published in the New York Times.
Thank you to our Host Committee!
Jen Abrams & Katherine Pradt
Sandra Abramson
Sonia Alexander
Sarra, Alana, Aaren, Adina, Merrill & Gregg Alpert
Amanda Altman
Anita Altman & Gil Kulick
Daniel Altschuler
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Phyllis Arnold
Andrea Arzt & Walter Tegtmeier
Steve Auerbach, MD
Rabbi Guy Austrian & Rabbi Jill Jacobs
Robert Bank & Alan Cohen
Ilana Berger
Eileen R. Blank
Lindsey Boylan
Naomi Braine & Margaret Reiff
Gale A. Brewer
Jessica R. Brown
Michele Burger & Tom Cramer
Lizzie Busch & Ruth Allanbrook
Briana Carp
Evan Casper-Futterman & Katherine Howitt
cesillylimb
Sarah Chandler
Alan & Ronda Channing
Miriam Cohen & Stuart Kivelowitz
Kathryn Conroy
Stosh Cotler
Carlyn Cowen
Naomi Dann
JD Davids
suzi dessel
Sandi DuBowski & Eric Rockey
Susannah Dyen
Rabbi Barat Ellman, Ph.D. & Jay Golan
Rebecca Ennen & Ari Weisbard
Hon. Harvey Epstein
Danielle Feris & Sarah Bernstein
Marjorie Fine
Deirdre Fishel
Adrienne Fisher
Jennifer Flynn & Bela August Walker
Deborah Friedman
Eleanor Friedman & Jonathan Cohen
Paula Galowitz
Sam Gardenswartz
Lisa Genn
Elspeth Gilmore
Sara Goldberg
Eve Goodman & Jonathan Hatch
Richard Greenspan
Meghan Grover
Chris Hammett
Jennifer S. Hirsch & John Santelli
Michael J. Hirschhorn
Neal Hoffman & Andrew Ingall
Dawne Hood & Stefan Goldberg
Howard Horowitz & Alisse Waterston
Claudia Horwitz
The Hummingbird Family
Avigail HurvitzPrinz
Beth Jacobs
Rabbi David Jaffe & Janette Hillis-Jaffe
Greg Jobin-Leeds
Rabbi Andrue Kahn
Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky
Mitchell Karp & Barry Katz
Brian Kates & Jonathan Cohen
The Katz Whitfield Family
Zachary Katznelson & Isabel Burton
Donna Katzin & Alan Altschuler
Dove Kent & Theo Luebke
Pippi Kessler & Jules Skloot
Gayle Kirshenbaum & Ira Yankwitt
Jason Gary Klein
Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark & Alisa Solomon
Tania Kravath
Talia Kravitz
Alana Krivo-Kaufman & CB Stewart
Meir Lakein
Bill Leavitt
Libby Lenkinski
Autumn Leonard
Congressman Andy Levin
Elana Levin
Anne Lessy & Alexander Rabb
Jeyn Levison
Grace Lile
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann & Dr. Kathryn Conroy
Megan Madison
Nissa & Elise Mai-Rose
Michael Mandel
Ruth Messinger
Nancy Meyer & Marc Weiss
Nikki Morse & Em Rosenfield
Lisa Ochs
Susan Ochshorn
Open Society Foundations
Alexis Ortiz
Cheryl Paradis
Karen Pittelman
Judith Plaskow & Martha Ackelsberg
Jacob Plitman
Ethel Raim & Catherine Foster
J. Read
Jacob Remes and Mari Armstrong-Hough
Rabbi Mira Rivera
Annette Rotter & Joel Laitman
Anya Rous
Kate Rubin & Franklin Romeo
Toby & Robert Rubin
Susan Quinn & Daniel Jacobs
Bobbie Sackman
Yasmin Safdie
Julia Salazar
Jay Saper
Linda Sarsour
Audrey Sasson
Diane & Robert Sasson
Dana J. Schneider & Kathleen Pequeño
The Schneiderman/Drach Family
Rachel Schragis
Cantor Lisa B. Segal & Ari (Arthur) Strimling
Shifra Sered
Odelia & Ronen Sharon
Pamela Shifman & Lee Schere
Rafael Shimunov
Margot Siegle
Micah Sifry & Leslie Lieman
Dara Silverman & Mary Sokolowski
Franny & Mike Silverman Newman
W Mae Singerman
Marilyn Sneiderman & Stephen Lerner
Keren Soffer-Sharon & Natasha Roth-Rowland
Rabbi Felicia Sol
Paul Sonn & Martha Lees
Janice Steiber-Rous
Naomi Sunshine & Jill Szuchmacher
Sam Tabet & Milo Chesnut
Emily Tamkin
Katie Unger
Shoshana Vogel
Rachel M. Weinstein
Erica Weinstein & Donna Lichaw
Laura Wernick and Lori Brooks
Marilyn Williams
Devera & Michael Witkin
Ari Wohlfeiler & Gabe Freiman
Helena Wong
Sondra Youdelman
Zahara Zahav & Laynie Soloman
Simone Zimmerman
E.Y. Zipris & Ira Blumberg
Lisa Zucker
Produced by
Anna Jacobs
Shifra Sered
Ira Khonen Temple
Performances featuring the JFREJ House Band, Dori Midnight, Audrey Sasson, and Three Graces were filmed on location at Building Stories/Great Small Works studio with the following production team:
Director
Charlotte Glynn
Cinematographer
Dave Katz
2nd Camera Operator
Katie Mlinek
Video Editing
Daniel Mejia
Sound Recording and Mixing
Gabriel Sanderson
Set Design
Jenny Romaine, Boxcutter Collective
Why are we are hosting An Arts Spectacular: The JFREJ Winter Fundraiser in lieu of the Mazals this December?
Two and a half years into the pandemic, it’s hard to get excited about yet another virtual gala. At the same time, hosting the same type of mass in-person and indoors gathering that we did in The Before Times is simply not aligned with our values as an inclusive and caring community. But to be fully transparent, the Mazals also serves an important fundraising purpose at the end of the [Gregorian] year to help close JFREJ’s budget and ensure our financial stability. So, we made the decision to move the Mazals to late Spring 2023 so the event can be in-person and outdoors (with an option for virtual attendance, of course), and to hold an art-and-culture-focused Winter Fundraiser this December instead! The exact date for the Mazals is TBD and you can expect all of the things you love about the Mazals: music, honorees, ruckus, old friends and new!