Avi Hoffman's YILoveJewish presents
In person at the Levis JCC Sandler Center
$18, no member discounts (unless noted)
Wednesday, February 15, 7:30 - 9:30 pm
Israeli Play Reading - The Disabled (ISRAEL 75)
By Gur Koren
Translated and adapted to English by Alon Pdut
Comedy A theater group of people with disabilities does not manage to raise the funds it requires to represent Israel at a theater festival for the disabled in Macedonia. Help comes in the form of a crime family with drug smuggling interests that has to ship an especially large consignment to… Macedonia. The impossible partnership between the criminals and the disabled actors – who are in the middle of rehearsing Romeo and Juliet – leads to some zany and absurd situations.
Sunday, March 26, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Israeli Play Reading - It’s Going Around (ISRAEL 75)
By Yosef Mundi
Translated by Avi Hoffman
Drama "It's Going Around'' is an award-winning Israeli psycho-drama about idealism, identity and insanity. What happens when Dr. Theodore Herzl, the Father of Zionism and the concept of a Jewish State in Palestine, and Franz Kafka, noted author, playwright and assimilated Jew, meet in an insane asylum in modern day Israel?
Wednesday, April 19, 7:30 - 9:30 pm
Yom HaShoah: Last Survivor - Play Reading
By Eleanor Reissa
Drama This play is part of a published anthology by Tony Award-nominated director, playwright and actress Eleanor Reissa encompassing six decades of modern Jewish life in the United States, exploring the subtle and not-so-subtle effects of a post-Holocaust world on a modern American woman. Her plays are bound together by a unique slant toward life, death, God and love, depicting what is humanly and inhumanly possible.
Kultur Festival
Aaron Kula and the Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra
In person at the Levis JCC Sandler Center
Individual performances: VIP Reserved Seats: $40; General Admission: $30; Gold & Gold Plus Members: $25; Platinum Members: Free
Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra (KCJO) is a cross-genre ensemble that defies classification. Founded by music director Aaron Kula, KCJO debuted in 1997 with a mission to re-imagine music through stylized arrangements and improvisation. KCJO has received special recognition from the U.S. Library of Congress for their studio recordings. Aaron Kula is an internationally recognized conductor, educator, and accordionist, who received a Fulbright grant in 2018, has toured internationally, and has performed with world class artists. A graduate of New England Conservatory of Music, he has led professional orchestras throughout the US.
Sunday, February 26, 3:00 pm
Second Avenue to Broadway: A Jewish Legacy
Broadway Musicals began in the Lower east side of Manhattan on Second Avenue with the Yiddish Theater. The concert takes the audience on a musical journey from lower Manhattan to the lights of Broadway. Some of the greatest composers and writers of the Broadway musicals were created by America’s pre-eminent Jewish composers including Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerry Herman, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Bock, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, and John Kander. These remarkable songwriters were purveyors of what we think of today as the Broadway sound, but they were also telling America's stories of becoming American. The Lower East Side theaters ultimately led these composers to create a range of shows that tapped into the American consciousness including Porgy and Bess, West Side Story and Cabaret. This concert is performed with a 10-piece Broadway orchestra and four actors. Ensemble: Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra
Sunday, April 23, 3:00 pm
Israel 75 Celebration Concert (ISRAEL 75)
Celebrate Israel 75th Independence Day with a rock out performance of the biggest hits and winning songs from the Israel and Chassidic Song Festivals from 1969 through the present. KCJO and guest vocalists will perform favorite rock songs arranged exclusively for this concert including; Hallelujah, Oseh Shalom, Bashana habbah, Shir L’chadash, Noladti Lshalom, Yerushalyim Shel Zahav, songs by Shlomo Carlebach, Naomi Shemer, Yehoram Gaon and many more
