by Music Director David Brown
In my 36 years at MLUC, I have never seen so many people here at once. This past Sunday, our third illumine concert of the season featured renowned high-energy, virtuoso, Ukrainian Klezmer (Ashkenazi Jewish music) band Kommuna Lux. In partnership with local Ukrainian and Jewish communities—and thanks to Sam Levine’s technical wizardry facilitating extremely complex A/V needs—we raised nearly $20,000 for Common Man for Ukraine, an organization that delivers supplies and toys directly to children in orphanages and safe houses in Ukraine. Every seat in the Main Meeting Room was filled. We put chairs out on the patio. We put chairs in the Atrium. There were well over 300 people clapping, dancing, and beaming with joy in defiance of the atrocities of Putin’s invasion. For a few hours on a Sunday night, we went from UU to Jew-U! It was a profound, effervescent celebration to ring in Rosh Hashanah. In case you missed it, you can view the concert here!
Now that we find ourselves between the advent of the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur—and riding the wave of last weekend’s electrifying concert—I figured it was time for an MLUC Band Klezmer combo! Joined by Jodie on the keys, Carr Everbach on trombone, and Jay Wiley on the set, I’ll lead an array of my favorite Klezmer tunes, including the “Araber Tanz” (“Arabic Dance”), Naftule Brandwein’s “Fern Di Mekhutonim Aheym” (“Escorting the Parents of the Bride and Groom”), “Dybbuk Shers” (“Demon Dance”), and to close our service, the exhilarating “Odessa Bulgarish” (“Bulgar from Odessa”). Together we will sing hymns #400: “Shalom Havayreem” and #146: “Soon the Day Will Arrive.”
See you Sunday!