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.
Mike Perlmutter has been performing klezmer, Balkan, and ceremonial Jewish music on saxophone and clarinet for over twenty years with groups such as Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band, Inspector Gadje, Zoyres Eastern European Wild Ferment, and the Chochmat Halev Sacred Music Ensemble. He organizes periodic street music parties at Saul’s Deli...
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...
Badkhn Duvid is the Bay Area’s badkhn (wedding emcee), who provides the theatrical flair at weddings. Comic relief, acrobatics, and profound poetic/musical improvisations are his specialty – along with dance leading, juggling, and general antics. His services work best with a klezmer band, but he can also provide an old...
NOTE: The website for Sadie's Babkas is no longer public (checked 7/14/21). If you know the status of Sadie's Babkas, please write nu@klezcalifornia.org. When the pandemic cut hours at her new dream job at Chez Panisse, Sara Eisen launched her babka business. Eisen is mainly keeping it traditional, with cinnamon...
Honors the Jewish immigrant culture while emphasizing fresh, seasonal fare. Special meal events and catering for Jewish holidays. I
Cantor available for wedding ceremonies, synagogue services (High Holy Days and other events), composing and arranging for a wide variety of ensembles and situations.
Performers, Yiddish Choruses, Singers and Song Leaders / East Bay
Yiddish singer, solo and with her sister as Di Shekhter-Tekhter.
Performers, Yiddish Choruses, Singers and Song Leaders / East Bay
Professor (retired), Department of Near Eastern Studies, U.C. Berkeley.
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.
Cookie Segelstein received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, Viola Performance from the University of Missouri in 1981, and a Master’s Degree in Viola from Yale University in 1984 where she studied with Raphael Hillyer (founding member of the Julliard String Quartet) and the late Jesse Levine. In 1984, Cookie joined...
Naomi Seidman is the Chancellor Jackman Professor of the Arts in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016, and a National Jewish Book Award in 2019. Her books include...
Lectures on East European Jewish music and culture, the klezmer revival, Jewish music revival in Poland, Polish-Jewish history and relations, as well as Israel-Palestine: a dual narrative approach. Former Director, Jewish Music Festival. Has taught at the Graduate Theological Union, New Lehrhaus, Congregation Beth El (Arcata, California), Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva,...
Participatory workshops in Jewish crafts for adults, children, and/or families. Make mezuzes, amulets, hamsas, challah covers, and other ritual objects in diverse media (paper cutting, polymer clay, story quilts/fabric, and metal foil). Creates ceramic sculptures and Jewish ritual objects, including spice boxes, mezuzes, khanike menoras, and amulets. Following graduation from...
Lectures on music and synagogue life, the meeting of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Italian and other Jewish musical cultures in Italy and the Mediterranean (past and present), Jews and Opera, Jewish musical revivals. Curator of Collections, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, U.C. Berkeley. Editor, Italian Jewish Musical Traditions (2002...
Klezmer performances with California Klezmer and solo. Composing and performing Yiddish children's songs. Provides musical direction of performances. Leads Yiddish sing-alongs, plays mandolin and guitar. Offers presentations to adults and kids (in grades indicated) on: Intro to Yiddish Language & History (for adults or grades K-12). Learn A Bisl Yiddish (for...
Lecturers, Performers, Yiddish Choruses, Singers and Song Leaders / East Bay
Klezmer music & Yiddish songs for weddings, parties, street marches, bar/bas mitsveh celebrations, simkhes of all sorts. Leader Jeanette Lewicki
Thursdays 10 – 11:30am Turn your morning into dance. Discover the beauty and rejuvenating force of this ancient ecstatic dance as the moves of the ancestors are tailor fit to each individual body and unique expression. Glorious Jewish World Beat and Middle East grooves are our soundtrack as the whole...
Exhibit space, lunchtime, and evening programs. No charge. For almost half a century, the Judah L. Magnes Museum offered exhibitions and public programs on the history and the cultures of the Jews in the global diaspora and the American West. In 2010, the collection was donated to U.C. Berkeley and...