With these recordings, Mechon Hadar has aimed to capture the davening styles of experienced prayer-leaders in high quality audio, edit the recordings to precise marking points in the siddur, and then present the material in a well-organized system. Mechon Hadar has been lucky to have had the opportunity to record and present the nusah (prayer chant) and nigunim (melodies) of some of the greatest and most creative ba’alei teffilah (prayer leaders) around.
In our growing music and tefillah library, we have a variety of shabbat recordings already uploaded, with Eliezer Diamond's and Aviva Richman's weekday services. Chaim Kranzler's Rosh HaShanah recordings are also up, along with some tunes from Aryeh Bernstein, Julia Andelman, and Dena Weiss. More, for festivals and more, will be added in the coming months so stay tuned!
Artists
Julia Andelman
Rabbi Julia Andelman is the Director of Community Engagement at JTS, where she oversees adult learning programs across North America, digital learning, continuing rabbinic education, and other expressions of JTS’s mission to be a leading educational resource for the Jewish community. She has been leading High Holiday services for twenty years, including several years at Kehilat Hadar. She has made two audio CDs, Pri Eitz Hadar and The Bedtime Sh'ma. She previously served as the rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zedek in Manhattan, the director of adult education at Park Avenue Synagogue, and the director of the iEngage Project at the Hartman Institute of North America.
Aryeh Bernstein
Aryeh Bernstein, is the Coordinator of the Back-to-Basics program at Mishkan Chicago. He has served as Director of Alumni Affairs & Recruitment at Mechon Hadar, Director of Activist Learning for the TAKUM beit midrash, and Editor-Translator the Koren English edition of the Steinsaltz Talmud. He has taught at Drisha, the Hartman High School, and at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, where he co-founded and directed the Northwoods Beit Midrash. He is Editor of Jewschool.com, board member of Jewish Public Media, has led High Holiday services at New York's Kehilat Hadar since 2002, and has been involved in the founding and nurturing of egalitarian learning and prayer communities throughout Israel and the U.S.
Eliezer Diamond
Eliezer Diamond is the Rabbi Judah Nadich Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Diamond teaches courses in rabbinic literature and introductory, intermediate, and advanced Talmud studies. He was ordained at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and received his doctorate in Talmud from JTS. He serves on the Mechon Hadar advisory board.
Alyssa Elbogen
Alyssa Eliza Elbogen is a certified Holistic Health Practitioner, having formally studied Ayurveda, Herbal Medicine & Aromatherapy. Born & raised in Brooklyn, Alyssa spent a total of 7 years in Israel where she studied in 2 seminaries followed by a 2-year Ashlagian Kabbalah leadership program, ‘Tovanot,’ while also completing a B.A. at the University of Haifa in Jewish Thought & English Linguistics. See more on her website “Holistic Health Wisdom.”
Chaim Kranzler
Dr Chaim Kranzler has been a Baal Tefilah for the High Holidays for almost 50 years, the last 37 years for the Drisha Minyan.
Elli Kranzler
Dr. Elli Kranzler, a well-known practicing psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, is also the Chazzan at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Dr. Kranzler has been involved in composing and performing Jewish music since his teens. He has recorded numerous albums with D'veykus and Journeys and recently released a new CD, "Ki Ata Imadi," with his daughter Ravital. He has performed throughout the US as well as in other countries.
George Mordecai
Cantor George Mordecai weaves his rich cultural heritage into his work as a performer and cantor. Born in Sydney, Australia to Iraqi and Indian Jewish immigrants, he was immersed from an early age in the musical and liturgical traditions of his family. He went on to help lead services at the Sephardic Synagogue in Sydney and appeared at various multicultural music festivals around Australia. Prior to receiving his Cantorial investiture and master’s degree in sacred music from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2000, Cantor George worked for many years at the Emanuel synagogue in Sydney where he was lovingly mentored by Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Cantor Michael Deutsch, and Rabbi Brian Fox. He went on to work as a cantor in Philadelphia, Miami, and Stamford and is currently the Cantor at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York.
National Havurah Committee
The National Havurah Committee ("NHC") is a network of diverse individuals and communities dedicated to Jewish living and learning, community building, and tikkun olam (repairing the world). For over 30 years, the NHC has helped Jews across North America envision a joyful grassroots Judaism, and has provided the tools to help people create empowered Jewish lives and communities. The NHC is nondenominational, multigenerational, egalitarian, and volunteer-run. Visit www.havurah.org.
Aviva Richman
Rabbi Aviva Richman is a faculty member at Yeshivat Hadar, and directs the Winter Learning Seminar. Aviva has taught at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and is a past Rosh Kollel of the Bet Midrash at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. She has also taught at the National Havurah Institute. She studied in the Pardes Kollel and the Drisha Scholars' Circle and was ordained by a private teacher. Particular interests include Halakhah, gender and sexuality in Judaism and niggunim. A Wexner fellow, Aviva is currently pursuing a doctorate in Rabbinics at NYU.
Shoshi Rosenbaum
Hazzan Shoshi Rosenbaum is the Director of Teen Engagement at the Westchester Jewish Center in Mamaroneck, NY and the Hazzan in Residence at Shaare Zedek in Manhattan. Before moving to the suburbs, Shoshi was the Student Hazzan at B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, where she also directed their Teen Program. Shoshi graduated in 2009 from Barnard College and the Albert A. List College at JTS with majors in Music and Talmud. During college, Shoshi founded and directed the Jewish women’s a cappella group, S’madar, and she led services frequently at Kehillat Hadar. From 2010-2011 and in the summer of 2009, Shoshi was a fellow at Yeshivat Hadar. Shoshi is married to Cantor Ethan Goldberg, and she is also a first year rabbinical student at JTS.
Ramon Tasat
Hazzan Dr. Ramón Tasat is the Cantor of Shirat HaNefesh (Song of the Soul), an emerging Jewish congregation in southern Montgomery County, MD. He is also the president of Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music. In addition, he is the musical Director of Kolot HaLev, a Jewish Community choir in the Greater Washington area. He can be reached via email, or at his personal website.
Dena Weiss
Dena Weiss is rosh beit midrash at Mechon Hadar, where she teaches Talmud, Midrash and Hasidut. Dena earned a BA in Religious Studies from New York University and an MA in Theology from Harvard Divinity School. She has studied and taught in a variety of Jewish educational settings including Drisha, Midreshet Lindenbaum, and Pardes. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Mima'amakim journal of Jewish religious art.
Copyright
Carlebach Copyright
All Carlebach songs © Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, BMI. Used with the permission of the Estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. For further information, please email neshamacarlebach@gmail.com
General Copyright
The Creative Commons license covers all recordings and texts produced and presented by Mechon Hadar on this website. At the same time, much of the music recorded here is copyrighted by others, and we cannot license their creations. We have made our best efforts to attribute and license all melodies to their composers. If you are the owner of a piece of intellectual property on this website and would like to claim it, please contact us. Our most sincere hope in creating this platform is that it will lead to the spread of important ideas and music, to the mutual benefit of individuals, communities, and artists.
