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Shared
Experience
Anne Frank cast bonds
over Holocaust
center visit.
Tony Targan
Special to the Jewish News
Musician, composer and teacher Joey Weisenberg specializes in building singing communities.
W
Power Of Singing
At Beth El Shabbaton, Joey Weisenberg will empower
guests to unlock their musical and spiritual potential.
Stacy Gittleman | Contributing Writer
T
o harness the community-build-
ing power of singing, Temple
Beth El of Bloomfield Township
welcomes the young and the young at
heart to lend voices both harmonious
and imperfect to a Shabbaton featuring
renowned musician Joey Weisenberg.
The uplifting event will be Feb.
26-27 at the Bethel Community
Transformation Center (BCTC), 8801
Woodward Ave., the former home of
Temple Beth El in Detroit.
Weisenberg, 34, the creative director
of the New York-based Hadar Center
for Communal Jewish Music and author
of Building Singing Communities, will
introduce melodies and methods of
singing that blend Old World Chassidic
niggunim with old-time American flair.
Working in the context of Renewal
Judaism, Weisenberg has worked for the
past decade to empower communities
around the world to unlock their musi-
cal and spiritual potential, and to make
music a lasting and joy-filled force in
shul and in Jewish life.
Now residing in Philadelphia with
his wife and four young children,
Weisenberg grew up in Milwaukee in a
family with Midwestern roots that trace
back to before the Civil War. His parents
were both trained musicians, and he
grew up listening to classical piano from
his mother as well as classical flamenco
guitar from his father.
Raised in a multi-generational tra-
ditional Jewish home, he remembers
going to Shabbat services with his
grandfather in nine different syna-
22 February 18 • 2016
gogues that spanned the spectrum of
Jewish observance.
“My grandfather taught me there is
something to be taken and learned from
every denomination of Judaism,” said
Weisenberg, who ditched a pre-med
program at Columbia University to pur-
sue the life of a professional musician,
composer and teacher.
“Above all, people connect to music
because it does not speak in dogma but
instead speaks in the language of the
soul. [Singing] is the way we all become
a collective heart, and we all become
strings of David’s Harp in harmony.”
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
Weisenberg’s musical career started with
playing guitar as a studio recording ses-
sion artist and then touring the country
and parts of the globe with musicians
playing Brazilian samba, American blues
and Klezmer. After a while, he wanted to
see what would happen if he moved the
singing and playing music offstage to be
where the people are, and to bring the
audience into joining in with song.
As he travels around the country
teaching Jewish communities how
to energize prayer through singing,
including pockets of Jews in Alaska,
Weisenberg wants to dislodge the notion
that music and singing is just for kids.
“Some of the best teachers I have
learned music with are two and three
generations older than me,” Weisenberg
said.
Rachel Rudman, 28, Temple Beth El
program director, says the Shabbaton,
the first of its kind in Detroit, is a way
to “create bridges between suburban
synagogues and younger, urban Jews.”
She said hosting the Shabbaton in the
historic Beth El building enables TBE to
reach out to millennial Jews seeking a
neutral space to practice a highly spir-
ited form of Jewish prayer. Weisenberg
can deliver just the thing, she said.
“I have had several opportunities
in my life to learn from and sing with
Joey,” said Rudman, who recently
returned to her native Detroit in 2014
after living in New York. “When ser-
vices are conducted in a tight circle and
everyone is looking at each other and
investing their voice in the prayer, you
feel the energy coming from the people
next to you. It really becomes a spiritual
experience.”
The Shabbaton will begin with
Kabbalat Shabbat services at 5:30 p.m.
on Friday and finish with Havdalah,
plus an extended song session on
Saturday evening. Participants are
welcome to bring sleeping bags and
air mattresses to spend the evening.
Services on Friday and Saturday will
be a cappella style, but Havdalah and
beyond will include drumming and
strumming of guitars so participants are
welcome to bring their instruments as
well as their voices.
Cost is $36 for the entire Shabbaton
or $20 per day and includes home-
cooked vegan meals and lodging at
BCTC. For more information, contact
Rachel Rudman at rrudman@tbeonline.
org or (248) 325-9706.
*
hen Maureen Mansfield
set out to direct The
Diary of Anne Frank at
the Farmington Players, she faced
an interesting challenge: She and
Gary Weinstein, both of Farmington
Hills, were the only Jews in the
entire cast and crew.
Nancy Cooper of Farmington,
who plays Petronella Van Daan, had
“never even met a Jew” before col-
lege after growing up in a very small
Ohio community in the 1970s. In
fact, World War II ended more than
50 years before some of the younger
cast members were even born.
To bridge this cultural and gener-
ational gap, Mansfield embarked on
a crash course in Jewish history. In
addition to pronouncing the Hebrew
text in the script, she also taught
the cast about Jewish traditions in
an effort to make them “honor-
ary Jews.” The culmination of this
lesson was a visit to the Holocaust
Memorial Center in Farmington
Hills, which was intended as both
an educational and a bonding expe-
rience.
“I thought the more they learned
about the Holocaust, the greater
insight they’d have as to what their
characters endured,” Mansfield said.
“There are so many layers to the
story, and each individual character
can be better portrayed only by hav-
ing a good understanding of what
really occurred.
“The pain and devastation con-
tained in the museum are astound-
ing. The strength and courage we
learned of are inspiring. When we
left, we felt like we had experienced
something difficult — together.
Most were horrified by what they
learned — all were moved. The trip
intensified their commitment to
bring the story of the annex dwell-
ers to our stage. It has now become
more than just another production.