Teachers:

Aly Halpert

Aly Halpert is a queer Jewish musician, educator, and activist living on Lenni Lenape land in Philadelphia, PA, USA. A singer, pianist, drummer, and guitar player, Aly writes songs for building community, working for collective liberation, and visioning different worlds. Aly leads music and prayer for Jewish community, including Kol Tzedek Synagogue, Eden Village Camp, Let My People Sing, and Linke Fligl. Her songs have been sung in national gatherings, song circles, and quiet moments of personal prayer, and have moved people all over the world. Her first album, Nipple Confusion, has made fans of young people and adults alike. Her first full-band album Loosen was released in April 2022 with Rising Song Records. Whether her songs are serious or seriously goofy, Aly believes deeply in the power of music to awaken us to the loss and hope we carry, expand our sense of possibility, and connect us to each other and our collective strength.

Rabbi Tsipi Gabai

Rabbi Tsipi Gabai is the first female rabbi on record who is of Moroccan descent and is currently only one of four female Mizrahi – Sephardic rabbis worldwide. She is deeply versed in both Mizrahi and Sephardic sacred ancient song cycles (Piyut), prayers and Torah trope and incorporates her knowledge and love for piyutum in the classroom, during prayer, and in workshops throughout the Bay Area. In this video, Rabbi Gabai accompanied by percussionist Katja Cooper, brings together the melodies and original piyutim of her childhood.

Eli Conley

Eli Conley is a singer-songwriter, song leader, and teaching artist. As a queer transgender man from the South, his songs tell stories that aren’t always reflected in roots music. Eli offers music classes for LGBTQIA+ folks and allies, co-leads Tzedek Tirdof havurah in Sacramento, and is active as a song leader in Jewish direct actions for a ceasefire and other social justice movements. eliconley.com

Marv Zauderer

Marv Zauderer (he/they) leads the Joyful Voices Chorus and drop-in song circles on unceded Coast Miwok land in Marin County, CA. He loves the magic of singing together, magic that can connect us deeply with each other and uniquely bridge divides in this more-than-human world. He is passionate about co-creating spaces for singing that are safe, welcoming, and easy for anyone to join in and feel alive, well held, and uplifted. He is a graduate of the Community Choir Leadership Training program in Victoria, BC, Canada and the Littlebird Songleader Flight School training program. singwithmarv.com

Candace Goodwin

Candace Goodwin has worked as an early childhood education administrator, family engagement manager, teacher, events manager, singer/songwriter and song leader. Candace holds a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Santa Cruz. She is extremely passionate about community building and using the vast realms of creativity, especially music, for healing and spiritual guidance. She currently works as the Senior Program Manager at Jewish Studio Project.

Kohenet Elana Brody

Kohenet Elana Brody is a celebrated singer-songwriter, song leader, and Hebrew Priestess rooted in rural Appalachia, with a decade of Jewish life and leadership in New York City. Elana creates prayer spaces and musical experiences that move the soul with a deep love for the Divine and Mother Earth that resources all of her work. Elana attended Berklee College of Music, studying vocal performance and songwriting, is an ordained Hebrew priestess and graduate of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, and is a current student of Aleph Rabbinic Ordination Program. She leads healing, prayer and communal song gatherings, including the annual SING A NEW SONG retreat, and serves as a teacher of voice and creative empowerment. Elana also serves as the visionary prayer leader and founder of a blossoming ritual community for earth-based Judaism and song in Asheville, NC. elanabrody.com

Asaf Ophir

The son of an Israeli film composer, Asaf Ophir was exposed to many styles of music from an early age: His father’s love for jazz, the Jewish music of his heritage, a classical upbringing, and the Middle Eastern backdrop of his childhood. From the very beginning, he was drawn to many different sources and genres, as well as to different musical instruments. Ophir began his professional career in Israeli musicals while studying at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and later at the Jerusalem Academy. Arriving in the United States in 2014, he began to perform in musicals around the Bay Area. Finding a home away from home, Ophir can most often be seen in world music projects on Jewish, Arabic, and Balkan stages. asafophir.com

Kiki Lipsett

Kiki Lipsett is a current fellow in SVARA's Teaching Kollel, a Talmud teacher training program. She is an educator, musician, performer, and prayer leader in the Bay Area on Ohlone Land. She grew up at the intersection of music and Judaism, and her work over the past decade has revolved around music, performance, social justice, Jewish ritual and teaching, and community building. She currently directs the Urban Adamah Jewish Farming Fellowship. She loves words and delight in linguistic play in the Talmud (and in NYTimes word games).

kikilipsett.com

Bruce Bierman

Bruce Bierman is a celebrated Jewish dance master and theater maker here in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. He is co-artistic director of the multiple award-winning Yiddish Theatre Ensemble in Berkeley where he has directed and choreographed 'The Megilleh of Itzik Manger' for the Berkeley Jewish Music Festival, Sholem Asch's 'God of Vengeance'  and most recently 'Between Worlds'  conceived and starring Naomi Newman.  He served as Yiddish dance and theater dramaturg for Paula Vogel's Tony Award winning play, 'Indecent' at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage and the most recent production at the San Francisco Playhouse which YTE also co-produced.  Bruce was also a lead dancer and teaching artist with the Los Angeles Aman Folk Ensemble and along with Mike Perlmutter and Zina Posen, created the program 'Joy of Jewish Music & Dance' at the JCC of East Bay.

Linda Hirschhorn

Linda Hirschhorn is a renowned singer, songwriter, performer, cantor, composer, arranger, choral conductor, life-cycle events facilitator, and director of Vocolot. She travels around the country working with community choirs. She has released 10 original recordings. lindahirschhorn.com

Ben Kramarz

A Bay Area native, Ben Kramarz grew up from infancy at Camp Tawonga, the son of long time director Ken Kramarz z’’l. Sprouting from a childhood immersed in and enamored with communal music making at camp, Ben’s love of music and songleading blossomed into a passion for uniting and uplifting communities in song and helping to empower leaders within communities to build sustainable musical cultures. He has been a student of Debbie Friedman z’’l, Joey Weisenberg, Jeff Klepper, Isaac Zones, Jonathan Ferris, and many others. After earning a master’s degree in folk music from UC Berkeley and writing a thesis about music and leadership at Jewish summer camp, Ben published A Guide to Songleading and Communal Singing. He then established SingJam - an all ages immersive music experience and Sacred Music Fellowship - an interfaith organization that uplifts and builds bridges between communities of faith through music programs. You can jam with Ben on a regular basis at Thursday Night Music Mishmar, a weekly sacred music jam that

Eva Orbuch

Eva Orbuch is a musician, community organizer, coach, consultant, and yenta. One of Eva’s deepest passions is drumming, and she began hand drumming at age 15, inspired by years of tap dancing as a child. She had the privilege to study with a variety of master teachers, and attended classes, drum circles, and intensive workshops such as the annual women’s drumming camp “Born to Drum.” Eva plays frame drum, djembe, dum bek, cajon, conga, and a variety of other percussion- accompanying both Jewish and non-Jewish music contexts. She supports people, especially womxn, to develop their relationship to drumming- in a type of coaching she calls “Drum Doula.” She also loves to organize music communities, which inspired her to found the Thrive Street Choir and the Kol retreat! evaorbuch.com

Elan Loeb

Elan Loeb is a musician and educator based in the Bay Area on Muwekma Ohlone land. She is the Music Specialist and Songleader for the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. Elan is the creator of Tzedakah Songs: Jewish Songs for Justice, a project that hosted musical fundraising events for social justice causes, and Matriarch Magic, a zine & oracle deck Midrash project celebrating the matriarchs. Elan is on the organizing team for Kol, a retreat for Jewish music across the diaspora. Elan is also proud to be a Jewish Studio Project facilitator. elanloeb.com

Eva Miriam Chaia Lyons

Eva Miriam Chaia Lyons is a multilingual devotional soul singer, poet and mystic of Hebrew and Anatolian descent who specializes in the art of song catching. She has received hundreds of original songs in various languages and styles, which she has offered in contexts of prayer and healing since 2009. Her songs of praise are an invitation into reverent relationship with ourselves, the Earth, and all of Creation. To her music she brings her ancestral tradition of ritual leadership, and fifteen years of experience as a ceremonial singer and facilitator, community leader and bridge-builder. Eva is founder and visionary of Becoming The Instrument, The Language of Creation, the Weekly Well, and Mother Tongue Revival. Inspired by her own transformative journey of ancestral reconnection, she is an advocate and guide for others to do the same. She is dedicated to supporting individual and collective healing and liberation through the pathways of music, creativity, and the ritual arts.

Natael Dukhan

Natanel (Nat) Dukhan started studying sacred texts and exploring spirituality at a young  age. It's with him all the time, guiding him throughout life. He diversified his experiences and learnings, reflecting in what he shares. He always seeks to  understand the common denominator of everything rather than the differentiator.  Natanel feels at home in the Jewish texts while frequently visiting other traditions  and modalities. He feels a deep connection to his Sephardic roots, to which he connects through  music, learning, and food!

Jen Myzel

From spoken word protest music to ritualistic hymns, folk ballads to sultry lullabies about love and the cosmos, Jen Myzel’s music is medicine for these times. Her three studio albums and one children's sing-along book are created to inspire, activate and soothe all who listen. Jen's music reflects her ten years of study with deep ecologist, Joanna Macy. In addition to her songwriting, Jen is an elementary school music teacher, Work that Reconnects Facilitator, and author. Jen's children’s sing-along book, Yellow Lotus Flower, has been praised by Joanna Macy as “a story for our times”. jenmyzel.net

Elaina Marshalek

Elaina Marshalek (she/her) serves as Urban Adamah’s Ritual and Community Director. She was born, raised, schooled, and remains rooted in the Bay Area. She was previously Director of Programs and Talmud Teacher at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva that brings the spiritual study of Talmud to the masses as a tool for radical changemaking. When not on the farm, she’s Senior Educator at Base Bay Area, building vibrant, rooted, and resonant Jewish community for young adults out of her and her partner’s home in Oakland.

Aaron Goldstein

Aaron Goldstein is an architect, freewheeling architectural historian, illustrator, klezmer, and Yiddishist from San Francisco. He started learning Yiddish by singing. In 2017, Aaron organized a weekly song-learning circle with a few friends, then went on to study Yiddish formally at the Yiddish Book Center’s Steiner Summer Program. Aaron has led numerous Yiddish singing workshops since then, and he currently sings, translates, and plays drums and percussion in the klezmer band Krekhts. His far-reaching love for Jewish music spans the klezmer hits, forgotten gems on scratchy 78’s, the sounds of the Borscht Belt and Yiddish radio, and 60’s and 70’s Mizrahit and Yemenite LPs.