Jewish liturgy has a deep, rich history, and for the first time, the sounds that emerged from the American tradition will be presented in a gala concert this week.
International singer Bat Ella, together with Senior Cantor Azi Schwartz the Park Avenue Synagogue (PAS) in New York, will bring their show Nusach America to Israel on March 27 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art under the auspices of the Felicia Blumenthal Festival. Nusach means Jewish liturgical custom.
“Israelis know what Nusach Ashkenaz, Nusach Sephard, Nusach Edat Mizrach, and Nusach Hassidish are. Now, it is an opportune time to introduce Nusach America, and enjoy this marvelous collection of Jewish music,” said Bat Ella.
The performance will include American Jewish songs written by America’s finest and famous composers in both classic and popular genres. These are melodies which have been introduced into Jewish liturgy and influenced by Broadway, by movies, newly composed melodies, Yiddish melodies, folk songs, and inspiring Jewish youth camp songs. She says they all have a special place in her heart.
“The world of American Jewish music is so diverse. It is constantly renewing itself as it embraces the circle of life,” she says, “Nusach America is a wonderful opportunity to bring their “taste” to Israel.”
Enthusiasm bubbles through her voice as she explains to The Jerusalem Post her involvement and gratitude to American Jewry for Nusach America. “It is our opportunity to share their kinship and understand their vibrant culture.”
As a girl growing up in Israel in the small community of Dimona, Bat Ella had very little connection to American Jews. Her family tree has roots in Aleppo, Syria, and Persia. After their aliyah many years ago, her ancestors lived in Jerusalem for many generations. She calls her parents “pioneers” in their move to Dimona.
Dimona for her was like a mini-Israel with Jews of all types and backgrounds and different styles of music. Her Sephardic family was respectful of religion and tradition, celebrated Shabbat and holidays, but had little connection with either synagogue or prayer.
Singing melodies together
HOWEVER, THEY sang the melodies of their community together. When Bat Ella joined the IDF, she was accepted by the music entertainment corps, the Israel Defense Forces Orchestra, and discovered the exhilaration of being onstage. After she finished her service, she decided to put music in her “back pocket” with thoughts that someday it would be a nice hobby and went on to get her BA in political science from Hebrew University.
Summers, nevertheless, provided free time, and through her affiliation with the Israel Scouts youth organization, and she was invited to the US as a member of the Scouts Caravan to be a music counselor in Jewish youth summer camps.
In her summers in the States, she met her future husband and later moved to the US where they raised their four children. It was in America that she started searching her identity as a Jew, as a woman, and as an Israeli.
At a summer workshop in for music counselors and community workers, she met the legendary Debbie Friedman, a vibrant guitar player, composer, and performer who revitalized Jewish camp music throughout the US. This songwriter of Jewish music was responsible in a big way for introducing folk music into the tefilla (prayer) of the synagogue.
“I met her at an important crossroads in my life, when I was searching for my identity as an Israeli and a Jew,” says Bat Ella. “I found her music spirited, catchy, and [its] interactive style captured my heart and led me to a closer connection to the American Jewish community.” Her dream was to translate Friedman’s songs from English into Hebrew and bring them to Israel. “It is a privilege for me to fulfill that and perform some of her music,” says Bat Ella.
Bat Ella lived in America for 10 years with her husband and children and relates her experience as very positive. “I learned there is “more than one way to be Jew.” The synagogue became more of a friendly place for her and her family; a place where they could sing, sit, and pray together. It was also a place where she could gain knowledge of her heritage. Judaism was no longer for her “all or nothing.”
Today, when she writes her own lyrics and composes her own music, she says she has the knowledge to go to the original sources for wisdom and inspiration. “As a teen,” she reflects, “I had no experience at all embracing the beauty of Judaism.”
WHEN SHE and her family returned to Israel, she began concertizing and sharing the beauty of international Jewish music with audiences worldwide and with students in the TALI schools. TALI is a Hebrew acronym for Intensified Jewish Studies Curriculum within the secular school system. “I discovered pride in being a Jew.”
“We are one people wherever we live. This is our strength. After October 7, we are “marching” as one people. The future of world Jewry is to be together. We must be united, and appreciate one another,” firmly states Bat Ella.
“I am so happy to bring Nusach America to Israel audiences and invite Cantor Azi Schwartz to come and be a part of this celebratory, awesome cultural evening. It will be an evening which celebrates the music of North American Jewry in addition to the music of composers and artists such as Leonard Bernstein to Sol Zim, Debbie Friedman to Lady Gaga whose melodies have become part of the tefilla in many liberal synagogues worldwide,” adds Bat Ella.
Starting as a soloist in the IDF Orchestra, today Schwartz is known as a world-renowned vocal and recording artist, reaching both Jewish and interfaith audiences internationally. An expert in Jewish liturgical music, he has been described as an artist who is emotionally moving, spiritually uplifting, and artistically dynamic.
Schwartz grew up in a traditional community in Israel. His grandfather, also a cantor, inspired him to pursue his passion and aptitude for singing. After graduating from Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute and studying under the top cantors in the world, Azi pursued his dream and continued his studies in classical singing and conducting at the Mannes School of Music in New York. He serves as senior cantor at the PAS, which is among the largest Conservative synagogues in the US and the flagship of Jewish liturgical music in North America.
Schwartz’s enthusiasm for bringing Jewish liturgy to the broader world is evidenced by performances at Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, Madison Square Garden, the US Capitol Rotunda, and Israel’s Knesset.
After the massacre on October 7, 2023, he was on one of the first flights to Israel to volunteer help in whatever way needed. He visited wounded civilians and soldiers in hospitals and raised their spirits through song. Now he has returned to Israel to sing with Bat Ella and company and share the music of Nusach America.
“I am optimistic we will not only increase the feelings of light and joy in Israel,” says Bat Ella, “but also the light in our world, and uplift our souls.”
For tickets and information: https://www.eventer.co.il/pjrv7
