Elana Arian has always associated Jewish music with summer camp.

From the time she was a little kid at Kutz, a summer camp affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism where her parents were on faculty, to when she was a camper at URJ Camp Harlam, Arian liked singing songs, playing guitar and, eventually, leading music for the entire camp.

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t connect to Judaism through song sessions in the dining hall,” Arian said. “As a kid, that’s what being Jewish meant to me.”

Now an accomplished composer, prayer leader and faculty member at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Arian tours full-time to congregations across North America. She is also the music director behind a special event: a hootenanny, a communal sing-along of Jewish music taking place at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan.

Tickets are on sale now for the Nov. 13 event, both for in-person attendance and via livestream.

“In a moment when fear and division too often drown out harmony, the hootenanny reminds us that song can still unite what the world tries to tear apart,” said Rabbi Ben Spratt, senior rabbi at Rodeph Sholom. “Judaism is strongest when every voice is lifted together — in joy, in resilience, in hope. We’re proud to carry forward the courage of past generations and to shine as a beacon of Jewish pride and belonging.”

The event is a benefit for Eisner Camp and Crane Lake Camp, two URJ camps in the Massachusetts Berkshires. Proceeds from the event will benefit the camps’ scholarship fund, making it possible for more families with financial need to give their children a transformative Jewish summer experience.

The hootenanny will feature a who’s who of Jewish musicians who not only have become regulars on summer camp playlists, but whose work is familiar to tens of thousands of Jews across North America. In addition to Arian, the event will feature Noah Aronson, Michelle Citrin, Dan Freelander and Jeff Klepper (Kol B’Seder), Alan Goodis, Jacob Spike Kraus, Joanie Leeds, Naomi Less, Dan Nichols, and Julie Silver. The artists are donating their time for the hootenanny, and the musicians will be on stage together for the entire show.

“The spirit of this is a group of friends and musicians who are playing together and enjoying themselves,” Arian said.

The is the second hootenanny that Rodeph Sholom, a congregation of approximately 1,900 members, has hosted. The first, in late 2022, came as COVID restrictions were being lifted. More than 650 people attended the concert in person, with roughly 300 more watching online.

“People wanted to sing with each other and wanted to come together,” recalled Shayna De Lowe, Rodeph Sholom’s senior cantor. “Being in that room was pure magic. It reminded us why music mattered so much in that moment — and how much it still matters now.”

Those two ideas form the basis of the hootenanny, which has its roots in American folk music. The legendary singer Woody Guthrie led hootenannies — open-mic-style communal singalongs — in the 1940s, and they were further popularized in the 1960s by such folk luminaries as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger.

Many of the songs to be performed at this hootenanny will stem from the Jewish music revival launched by the late Debbie Friedman, who began writing melodies in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Jewish camps. Friedman’s songs, including her setting for “Mi Shebeirach,” the Jewish prayer for healing, are staples in synagogues across America.

The spirit Friedman ignited still resonates today, carried forward by a new generation of Jewish musicians. 

The upcoming hootenanny will feature both the camp-inspired sacred music Friedman popularized — some played by Friedman’s contemporaries — as well as newer Jewish music. In addition, a group of New York-area teens will take the stage as songleaders after participating in a master class the previous evening with Goodis and cantor Rosalie Will.

Watch parties are also planned at congregations in Albany, N.Y., and Boston. At Rodeph Sholom, an in-person after party will follow for those in their 20s and 30s.

The presenting sponsor of the event is the Off-Broadway one-man play “Other,” with New York Jewish Week as media sponsor and numerous congregational partners across New York and New England serving as co-sponsors.

Debby Shriber, executive director of URJ Camps, said the importance of Jewish music at URJ camps cannot be overstated.

“The music is the soundtrack of our lives,” Shriber said. “It’s embedded in everything we do at camp.”

(Tickets for the Nov. 13 hootenanny at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, for the livestream, and for the after party are available.)

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Comedian Gibran Saleem had never met a Jewish person until starting his graduate studies at New York University more than a decade ago. The child of Pakistani immigrants, Saleem was raised in a Muslim household in northern Virginia where, he said, he was mostly surrounded by people with a similar cultural background.

“I knew about the Holocaust, and that was it,” Saleem said. “I didn’t know anything about the [Jewish] religion, culture, any of that until I moved to New York [City], which is pretty wild to me.”

Things have changed drastically since then. Today, Saleem is part of a loose collective of about a dozen comedians known as Comedy for Peace, an international, interfaith comedy project that brings together Jewish, Muslim and Christian comedians. On Saturday, Saleem, along with four other comics, will perform a one-night-only show, “Comedy for Peace,” at the Upper East Side’s Comic Strip Live as part of the New York Comedy Festival.

“It’s a very simple idea,” said the group’s founder, Jewish Israeli comedian Erik Angel, who is also performing Saturday. “It’s to bring, under one roof, different communities and show how easy it is to have fun.”

A 10-year resident of the Upper West Side, Angel, 50, grew up in Petach Tikvah. He founded Comedy for Peace in 2019, just a few years after he entered the comedy circuit following a career as a musician. After two successful interfaith shows early that year, “Comedy for Peace” became a recurring event that aims to promote tolerance. Since then, the group has played more than 200 shows across North America, where they’ve helped raise money for various causes, including helping nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting the Parents Circle Families Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian group that brings together families who have lost relatives on both sides of the conflict.

And now, the group’s latest gig will take place in a tense New York City, with many local Jews worried about the forthcoming mayoral leadership of avowed anti-Zionist Zohran Mamdani. As such, Angel thinks Saturday’s show will be “very important,” adding that he hopes cross-cultural comedy will help alleviate “all the fear, all the things coming from this separation” between Mamdani’s supporters and detractors. 

“Even in Israeli media, people online, and I think the panic is — I understand where they’re coming from, and I also have my concerns,” said Angel. “But on the other hand, it’s democracy.”

Despite their lofty ambitions, Angel sees “Comedy for Peace” as a brief respite from politics. “We say to you, ‘OK, you want to fight before? You want to fight after? With us, we’re gonna chill [for] two hours,’” he said. “’We’re gonna chill.’” 

Saturday’s “Comedy for Peace” lineup includes Iranian comedian Tehran Ghasri, who is also Black and whose family is Muslim, Zoroastrian and Jewish; lesbian Jewish comedian Liz Glazer, who recently made her “Tonight Show” debut; and Texas-born Ashley Austin Morris, who is Christian. 

“The ultimate goal is just unity and shared compassion,” Saleem said. 

“Comedy for Peace” will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. at  Comic Strip Live, 1568 Second Ave. Get tickets, $36.60, here.

Other Jewish shows at the NY Comedy Festival

With more than 100 shows across the five boroughs, the annual New York Comedy Festival runs through Sunday, Nov. 16 this year. Here are a few Jewish highlights from the fest:

Anna Roisman co-hosts “Celebrity Drop-In” on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at The Stand West (407 West 15th St.). Roisman is the creator of the one-woman show “Jewish American Prodigy” and known for her impressions and characters on Instagram and TikTok. Get tickets from $29.

Eli Leonard presents “Good Showbiz,” an experimental show exploring the history of Jewish comedy, on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at iconic Jewish restaurant Barney Greengrass (541 Amsterdam Ave.). Tickets here from $72.

“Alex Borstein Is Thirsty” plays Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at The Bell House (149 7th St., Brooklyn). The Jewish comedian and actress is best known for her voice work on “Family Guy” and as Susie Myerson in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and this solo show is part of her national tour.  Tickets here from $38.

“The Jackie Mason Musical” will have three showings, on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at the Triad Theatre (158 West 72nd St.) on the Upper West Side. Mason’s daughter, Sheba, who was not publicly recognized by the late comedian until she was 18 years old, stars in this story about her parents’ relationship. Get your tickets here from $30.

“Good Neighbors: A Fundraiser for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice,” hosted by comedians Orli Matlow and Marcia Belsky, will be performed on Wednesday at 9 p.m. at Brooklyn Art Haus (24 Marcy Ave.). Tickets start at $23.

“Hysterical,” presented by stand-up comedian Hannah Lieberman, will be performed on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at QED Astoria (27-16 23rd Ave.). The one-woman comedy musical is about Lieberman’s experience learning she has the BRCA-1 gene. Get tickets, $10, here. 

“Natan Badalov: Chosen Fam” will be performed Friday at 8 p.m. at Astoria’s Grove 34 (31-83 34th St.). Badalov, a Bukharian comedian, debuted his first stand-up special, “Connect The Dots” at the New York Comedy Festival in 2023. Get your tickets for “Chosen Fam” here from $23. 

“Alex Edelman: What Are You Going To Do” will be performed on Saturday at 6 p.m at Carnegie Hall (881 Seventh Ave.). Edelman is the creator of the very Jewish, award-winning special “Just for Us,” and now stars on the Peacock show “The Paper.” (Tickets for this show are sold out.)

“Talia Reese and Friends: Kosher Style” will be performed Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Rodney’s Comedy Club (1118 First Ave.). Reese, an Orthodox Jewish woman and a former lawyer, is known for her insider-y Jewish comedy. Tickets here from $22.

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Imagine aerial acrobatics accompanied by a dreamy melody on fiddle and cimbalom. A juggler maneuvering seven bouncing balls at once to the beat of a klezmer band. A saxophonist charming a suspiciously human-looking snake with a terkisher (a type of klezmer dance) — and all this interwoven with Yiddish songs and poetic stories of distant hometowns and faded Jewish circus traditions. Above all, suitcases, serving as seats, drums, and, of course, containers for circus equipment.

This is just a glimpse of the show “Tshemodan,” performed by what may be Germany’s first Yiddish circus company, Tsirk Dobranotch. The word tshemodan, Yiddish for “suitcase,” is the company’s second production. The ensemble consists of the klezmer band Dobranotch, joined by circus artists Sam Gurwitt and Eliana Pliskin Jacobs.

 

 

Jacobs, an aerialist and singer, has been dreaming of creating a klezmer circus ever since she entered the Yiddish scene in Berlin and other cities in Germany around 2018. In 2022, she met Sam Gurwitt, and they soon realized that they shared not only a background as circus artists but also a connection to the Yiddish and klezmer world: Gurwitt is trained both as a clown and as a klezmer fiddler. Creating a klezmer circus together was the obvious next step.

A few months later, Jacobs, a longtime fan of the band Dobranotch, pitched the idea to its members who have long been known for including comedy and stunts in their musical performances. “We like to do entertainment and eccentric, funny things, and with the circus company we tried to put it on another level,” said Mitia Khramtsov, the band’s fiddle player.

Tsirk Dobranotch’s first show, “Das Fliegende Balagan,” (Yiddishized German for “flying bedlam”) premiered in Dresden in 2023. For their second production, the group decided to incorporate a more coherent “thematic glue,” as Gurwitt calls it, focusing on the theme of migration as reflected in the title “Tshemodan” and to use the suitcase as a recurring element.

Migration — whether voluntary, pressured, or forced – is an experience that runs through all the ensemble members’ family histories or personal biographies. Jacobs and Gurwitt both grew up in the United States as grandchildren of German and Eastern European Holocaust survivors and moved to Germany in their twenties. Dobranotch members Mitia Khramtsov, Germina Gordienko, Ilya Gindin, and Evgenii Lizin are from St. Petersburg and fled to Germany after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. They were joined by Paul Milmeister, who was born in Ukraine and migrated to Germany as a teenager. Some of the Tshemodan shows feature Bertan Canbeldek, an acrobat who was born in Germany to Turkish parents, as a guest artist.

Aside form the overall theme of migration and wandering, the company’s mission is to recall the almost forgotten history of Jewish circuses in pre-Holocaust Europe. In one of Jacobs’s solo acts, she tells the story of Jewish families, among them the Blumenfeld, Lorch, and Straßburger families, who had been running circuses in German-speaking Europe since the 17th century. She then asks herself whether her German-Jewish grandmother might have seen one of the pre-war Jewish circuses.

Comparing herself to “a ghost connecting the living with the dead, the past with the present,” Jacobs swings on a trapeze in a pensive, elegant aerial performance to the delicate sound of a slow hora played by Khramtsov and Gordienko.

Tsirk Dobranotch is aware, however, that these German and Western European Jewish circuses were historically not closely related to Eastern European Yiddish culture or klezmer music. This incongruence makes it difficult to justify why klezmer and circus would go together, Gurwitt admitted. On the other hand, as Jacobs pointed out, “the theme of wandering works well with both circus and klezmer.”

In fact, there is evidence that the klezmer musicians who played at weddings in different shtetls may have been accompanied by jugglers and acrobats. In fact, Khramtsov said, the old tradition of badkhonim (wedding jesters), certainly had historical connections to medieval Jewish jesters known as leytsonim.

While these links between Yiddish culture and the circus world did exist, Jewish culture and religion didn’t play much of a role in the Jewish circuses traveling throughout the German-speaking regions. As Jacobs put it: “They were normal circus performers who happened to be Jewish.”

According to Jacobs and Gurwitt, Jews joining and running important German circuses was evidence of their assimilation into the broader society, even though it eventually failed. Under the Nazi regime, Jewish circus artists were boycotted and persecuted; forced into hiding or exile, and many were eventually murdered.

But there was one circus performer that did not try to hide his Jewish identity. That was Siegmund “Zishe” Breitbart, also called the Iron King and allegedly the “strongest man on Earth.”  Born in 1897 and raised in the Yiddish-speaking community of Lodz (at that time part of the Russian Empire), Breitbart overtly expressed his Jewishness on stage. Many of his advertisements and costumes, and even the chariot on which he entered the arena, were adorned with Magen David decorations.

In “Tshemodan,” Gurwitt brings Breitbart’s heroic figure to life by wittily constructing an entire mime act around a muscleman displaying his physical strength. Accompanied by a klezmer march, using only a kitchen towel as a prop, he keeps the audience in laughter and suspense, throwing an imaginary elephant up in the air.

As Tsirk Dobranotch celebrates its third year, it’s clear that audiences have come to love the show, as seen by their cheers and standing ovations. Many audience members even join in the dance leading the troupe offstage after the show.

As the company plans a new show for 2026, their fans can only guess what they’ll continue to unpack from their suitcases. 

The post A Yiddish circus in a suitcase appeared first on The Forward.