Bring your families to our beautiful Main Sanctuary for an afternoon of infectious Klezmer energy for all ages! Whether you’ve heard it before or not, Klezmer music is the heart and soul of Eastern European Jewry, and brings joy and celebration to any room. Spend your afternoon at Eldridge, and then perhaps head out into Chinatown for a traditional Jewish Christmas dinner!

Bring in the last night of Chanukah with us as we sing and dance along to lively Jewish tunes and Chanukah songs with Litvakus Collective led by Zisl Slepovitch, in collaboration with Off-Broadway and National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene actor and singer Maya Jacobson! The concert will conclude with Maya leading us in the lighting of one of our historic menorahs from our ongoing exhibition, LIGHTING THE WORLD: Menorahs Around the Globe.

Litvakus is an innovative klezmer collective, “one of the more unusual bands on the New York klezmer scene” (The Jewish Week), and “forefront of contemporary Jewish music” (Jewcy ). The band brings together roots music from its artistic leader Zisl Slepovitch’s home country Belarus and wider. They bring an authentically modern feel to traditional music of “Litvakland,” the cultural homeland of the Litvak Jews and their neighbors in North-Eastern Europe, to the meeting point of the “hip” and “HIP” – historically informed performance. Litvakus’ 2014 album Raysn was heralded as “an extremely welcome arrival on the Jewish music scene” (Songlines, 11/2016).

D. Zisl Slepovitch (woodwinds, vocals, artistic direction), Joshua Camp (accordion), Larry Eagle (percussion), Dmitry Ishenko (double-bass), Jake Shulman-Ment (violin).

Zisl Slepovitch (Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch) is an internationally renowned multiinstrumentalist (clarinetist, saxophonist, flutist, pianist, keyboardist, singer), conductor, composer, arranger, translator, and music and Yiddish educator. Zisl is the Musician in Residence at Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. He is the founder and artistic director of the Litvakus Klezmer Band, Zisl Slepovitch Trio, Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble, The Beary Brothers Project, Assistant Music Director / Music Director / Music Coordinator and woodwind player in many productions by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, including Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish directed by Joel Grey. Zisl has taught Yiddish language, music, and culture at multiple prestigious institutions, including The New School, Brandeis University, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Some of Slepovitch’s theater, film, and TV contributions include consulting and acting in Defiance (Paramount), Eternal Echoes (Sony Classical), Rejoice with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot (PBS), original scores for the documentary Funeral Season, children’s musical The King of Chelm, ballet Di Tsvey Brider, and many more.

Maya Jacobson is an actor, singer, and writer based in Brooklyn. Most recently, she played Chava in the highly acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof directed by Barrie Kosky at The Lyric Opera of Chicago. Prior to that, she originated the role of Myra Nadell in A Walk on the Moon, a new musical directed by Tony-nominated Sheryl Kaller, starring Jackie Burns and Jonah Platt. TV credits include Mordeo (Crypt TV) and My Life As A Doormat (Pilot). Maya is also a member Yiddish trio, “The Mamales” (featured in Kveller and The Forward) that performs around New York City and the tri-state area. Currently, she is working on a one-woman show titled The Cantor’s Daughter. Maya was the 2013 National Finalist in the Great American Songbook Competition, and a proud graduate of The Boston Conservatory. @_mayajacobson

**Cited from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/music-at-the-museum-celebrate-chanukah-at-eldridge-tickets-446180226067?aff=ebdssbdestsearch**