Contrary to its name, Crazy Block Cheesecakes in Oakland, opened in March 2025, has more than cheesecakes. It is also famous for its brisket (available in a sandwich on Grand Bakery challah) and crispy, dense latkes, though they have a rotating menu of 160 flavors of New York-style cheesecake. Writing...
Originally from Ukraine, Zina Pozen grew up in a family of classical musicians, playing piano from a young age. In her house, salty Yiddish sayings, contraband Barry Sisters, Stravinsky and Poulenc, traditional Ukrainian and Moldovan tunes, Utyosov and Dunaevsky weaved their sounds together. After moving to the U.S., Zina fell...
Klezmer clarinetist with the Klezmorim and the New Klezmer Trio.
Klezmer music & Yiddish songs for weddings, parties, street marches, bar/bas mitsveh celebrations, simkhes of all sorts. Leader Jeanette Lewicki
Linda Hirschhorn is a singer, songwriter, performer, cantor, wedding and other life cycle celebrant, composer, arranger, and choral conductor. She is founder and director of Vocolot and sole clergy at Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro. She offers week-long residencies to communities who wish to learn and perform much of...
Performers, Yiddish Choruses, Singers and Song Leaders / East Bay
Lectures on Russian and East European Jewish history. Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University
Yiddish singer, solo and with her sister as Di Shekhter-Tekhter.
Performers, Yiddish Choruses, Singers and Song Leaders / East Bay
The Kehilla Klezmer Band features members of Kehilla Community Synagogue of Piedmont (right on the border with Oakland), California. Members of Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band have been collaborating with Kehilla since 2017. The collaboration culminates each year with a Simkhes Toyre dance party.
This kosher grocery store features a butcher counter, sizable wine cellar, and a (new - Spring 2020) cafe serving deli fare. Menu includes pastrami, pulled brisket, house-made corned beef, pickles, and more. Abba’s Hummus, located inside of Oakland Kosher Foods, has a Hummus Bar and New York Deli serving corned...
Teaches and leads klezmer dance for all ages. Former performer and choreographer with Westwind and Jubilee dance companies. Also uses dance and theater for team-building and coaching in organizations.
Professor (retired), Department of Near Eastern Studies, U.C. Berkeley.
Vocolot, led by Linda Hirschhorn, brings a joyous fusion of folk, jazz and cantorial vocal traditions into the contemporary a cappella world. Their music, rooted in universal heart, social conscience and Jewish soul, communicates a powerful vision of world peace and reconciliation. Vocolot sings in English, Hebrew, Ladino, Yiddish, and...
Performers, Yiddish Choruses, Singers and Song Leaders / East Bay
This six-member band formed in 2013. The band studies music by ear, learning melodies in the Ashkenazi traditions of North Eastern Europe with a distinctly modern sensibility. A strong rhythmic brass band feel paired with a joyful and bittersweet melodic sensibility.
Band for adults and teens that rehearses weekly on Tuesdays, 7-9pm at Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley. Directed by Cantor Pamela Sawyer.
