Learn with Cantor Ayelet Porzecanski in the first class of a three-part music series, presented by renowned musician and educator, Robert Cohen, at BHS. In this course, we’ll explore the rich contributions of women to American Jewish music, from early 20th-century hazzantes to today’s synagogue cantors. Together we’ll listen to a wide range of music, including settings of Biblical texts, new spiritual melodies (niggunim) for prayer, Yiddish and Ladino folk songs, and vibrant a cappella, klezmer, and fusion ensembles. How are the voices of Jewish women shaping Jewish music today? Join us to find out!

About Robert Cohen: Robert has been lecturing on Jewish music and American folk and popular music for some 30 years — including at the Fifth Avenue New York Public Library (Jewish Division Lectures), the New England Conservatory of Music, New School University in New York and Hebrew College in Boston, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Cantors Assembly, and Boston College's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and School of Theology & Ministry, and at numerous libraries, JCCs. and synagogues — including, numerous times, at this Synagogue! (For some fifteen years, he was also one of the most sought-after presenters in the Speakers in the Humanities and Speakers in the Schools programs of the New York Council for the Humanities.)  He has produced and hosted over 100 radio programs on Jewish identity and culture; wrote the NPR documentary "One People, Many Voices: American-Jewish Music Comes of Age" (now in the permanent collection of the Paley Center for Media in New York); and produced the compilation CD Open the Gates! New American-Jewish Music for Prayer.

Click below to learn more about the class and register.