Embedded Files
Thank you for a fantastic season! We'll be back in the fall of 2026 with more amazing music.
Please consider making a tax deductible donation to keep the music going at the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music. It's your support that makes every concert happen. Thank you!
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
7:00 pm
The Burren Back Room
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
It's time for ELECTRIC HORA, Boston's best klezmer dance series, featuring a rotating cast of the top dance leaders and klezmer musicians from across New England.
August's ELECTRIC HORA features the following fabulous artists:
Adah Hetko - dance leader
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Eden MacAdam-Somer - violin
Yoona Kim - aejang
Pete Fanelli - trombone
Jim Guttman - bass
Grant Smith - drums
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
7:00 pm
The Boston Synagogue *Note different location*
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
It's time for ELECTRIC HORA, Boston's best klezmer dance series, featuring a rotating cast of the top dance leaders and klezmer musicians from across New England.
July's ELECTRIC HORA features the following fabulous artists:
Or Levinson - dance leader
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Pete Fanelli - trombone
Michael McLaughlin - accordion
Kirsten Lamb - bass
Grant Smith - drums
Jacob's Ladder Album Release
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
7:00 pm
Temple Israel of Boston
Join Jacob's Ladder to celebrate the release of their highly anticipated second album, HaMakom ("The Place"). A spiritual sequel to Beit El, this new album continue to explore the idea of space, both physical and sacred, drawing inspiration from the Makom in the Torah where Jacob dreamed.
Blending bluegrass with a with a wide-range of influences, from Mizrahi-Mediterranean sound and reggae to country, acapella textures and jam band energy, HaMakom is a 15 track journey that reflects the bands dynamic artistry and evolving voice.
Live Filming: Looking Back, Stepping Forward
Friday, June 12, 2026
7:30 pm
SomArt at the Hive
Join us for a special live filming of "Looking Back, Stepping Forward," the new production by choreographer Rachel Linsky's ZACHOR Dance Projects in collaboration with Nat Seelen and Ezekiel's Wheels Klezmer Band.
This is your chance to see the piece getting made and participate in a live filming session in preparation for the official premiere this coming December. (Keep your eyes out for news about that show. It's going to be pretty spectacular!)
Klezmer in the Park
Friday, June 5, 2026
6:00 pm
Hyde Community Center Bandstand
Join us for music, dancing, and fun for the whole family at the 4rd annual Newton Highlands Klezmer Dance!
We'll dance the evening away on the field in front of the Hyde Community Center Bandstand to the sounds of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music All Stars.
LEVYOSN
Thursday, June 4, 2026
8:00 pm
Club Passim
Join us for the Boston release of Levyosn’s Dream, the second album by Yiddish song ensemble, Levyosn!
Levyosn is a Boston-based Yiddish/klezmer ensemble, featuring Adah Hetko (vocals), Lysander Jaffe (violin/vocals), Raffi Boden (cello), and Lexi Ugelow (keyboard/vocals). Levyosn is celebrating the release of their second album, Levyosn’s Dream, featuring new Yiddish songs and klezmer compositions, innovative arrangements of archival folk songs, and a cappella vocal pieces. Levyosn’s Dream will be released by Borscht Beat Records in 2026.
NADAV
Thursday, May 28, 2026
7:00 pm
The Boston Synagogue
Come celebrate Nadav & friends with this epic farewell concert!
After playing music in Boston for the last 4 years, this is going to be my ‘Farewell concert’, a final live performance before moving back to Haifa. It will feature a new collaborative band with Itay Dayan, Debuting new music and old favorites from both our repertoires
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
7:00 pm
The Burren Back Room
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
It's time for ELECTRIC HORA, Boston's best klezmer dance series, featuring a rotating cast of the top dance leaders and klezmer musicians from across New England.
May's ELECTRIC HORA features the following fabulous artists:
Adah Hetko - dance leader
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Rebecca Mac - violin
Zach Mayer - baritone sax
Kirsten Lamb - bass
Grant Smith - drums
Sing out, fight back!
A Besere Velt with Golden Thread Ensemble
Sunday, May 10, 2026
2:00 pm
The Somerville Armory
Sing Out, Fight Back! Yiddish Songs of Social Change
A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus of Boston Workers Circle
Derek David, Music Director
and Golden Thread Ensemble
Golden Thread Ensemble is a pioneering new chamber-klezmer group led by Craig Judelman, featuring The Klezmatics’ frontman Lorin Sklamberg, Latvian chanteuse Sasha Lurje and a virtuosic string quintet made up of leading klezmer musicians. Combining a deep grounding in klezmer, Yiddish theater, classical and contemporary art music, this new project has already received rave reviews at North America’s premiere klezmer festivals for its program celebrating the power of music to carry and communicate the human experience, and its critical role in the important struggles for improvements in the living and working conditions for millions of people over the last 150 years.
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
7:00 pm
The Burren Back Room
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
It's time for ELECTRIC HORA, Boston's best klezmer dance series, featuring a rotating cast of the top dance leaders and klezmer musicians from across New England.
April's ELECTRIC HORA features the following fabulous artists:
Rachel Linsky - dance leader
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Rebecca Mac - violin
Pete Fanelli - trombone
Michael McLaughlin - accordion
Jim Guttmann - bass
Grant Smith - drums
Mark Rubin
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
7:00 pm
The Boston Synagogue
Jew of Oklahoma
Mark Rubin, co-founder of the legendary Bad Livers, is a folk singer and cultural activist who proudly bills himself as the “Jew of Oklahoma.” A pioneer of the Americana movement and lifelong genre-bender, he fuses bluegrass, klezmer, country, punk, and blues into a sound that’s equal parts tradition and rebellion.
Called "one of the great Jewish musicians of our time" by the Weitzman Museum, Rubin's plainspoken songs mix sharp humor with a protest singer’s bite, carrying forward both his Jewish heritage and his Oklahoma roots. On stage with his banjo and guitar, he’s as comfortable in a honky-tonk as a synagogue social hall, always delivering raw, unvarnished truth.
Klezmer fans have probably heard Mark with Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars, The Other Europeans, or Andy Statman. Now's your chance to hear him in an intimate solo set right here in Boston.
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
7:00 pm
The Burren Back Room
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
It's time for ELECTRIC HORA, Boston's best klezmer dance series, featuring a rotating cast of the top dance leaders and klezmer musicians from across New England.
March's ELECTRIC HORA features the following fabulous artists:
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Abigale Reisman - violin
Zach Mayer - baritone sax
Michael McLaughlin - accordion
Kirsten Lamb - bass
Grant Smith - drums
Kedmah
Sunday, March 15, 2026
7:30 pm
The Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge
Kedmah is an ensemble of Musicians and prayer leaders excavating the power and beauty of Mizrahi Jewish expression through ancient poetry and song. Led by Rabbi Yosef Goldman and Yoni Avi Battat, Kedmah honors the artists’ Iraqi, Syrian, and Yemenite ancestry in conversation with their intersecting musical influences.
From Temple times to today, piyyutim utilize complex and beautiful poetry to infuse spirit and meaning into both sacred and ordinary moments of human experience. The stirring melodies are rooted in the illustrious tradition of maqam- a distinct system of musical expression found exclusively in the music of the Arab world - with similar systems in places like Turkey, Iran, and North Africa.
Kedmah honors and reinvents these living sacred traditions rendered with deep reverence for tradition and boldly adapted with an ear towards our modern musical world.
Schedule
6:30 - 7:15 Pre Concert Lecture / Text Study with Rabbi Yosef Goldman Sponsored by Hadar Boston
7:30-9:30 Performance
The Rebecca Mac String Band
ALBUM RELEASE SHOW
Thursday, March 12, 2026
8:00 pm
Club Passim
Led by Boston-based Rebecca Mac (of the award-winning klezmer ensemble, Mamaliga), the Rebecca Mac String Band plays intricate and off-beat arrangements of original fiddle tunes, drawing inspiration from the traditional soundscapes of Klezmer and Eastern-European folk music. With their debut release scheduled for March 2026, the Rebecca Mac String Band is one of the most exciting new klezmer groups on the scene today.
Band members:
Rebecca Mac, violin
Ira Khonen Temple, accordion
Akiva Jacobs, bass
Giulia Haible, cello
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
7:00 pm
The Burren Back Room
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
It's time for ELECTRIC HORA, Boston's best klezmer dance series, featuring a rotating cast of the top dance leaders and klezmer musicians from across New England.
February's ELECTRIC HORA features the following fabulous artists:
Rachel Linsky - dance leader
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Pete Fanelli - trombone
Michael McLaughlin - accordion
Kirsten Lamb - bass
Grant Smith - drums
Baymele
Sunday, February 22, 2026
2:00 pm
The Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA
Baymele's debut instrumental album, Sapling, embodies the idea of new growth from old roots. It’s a celebration of diasporic Jewish folk music, Polish folk music, and the band’s attempts to blend the two styles.
ELECTRIC HORA
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
7:00 pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Rd, Boston, MA
Boston's Klezmer Dance Series!
January's ELECTRIC HORA is hosted by our friends at the Boston Synagogue and features the following fabulous artists:
Or Levinson - dance leader
Nat Seelen - clarinet
Rebecca Mac - violin
Jim Guttmann - bass
Grant Smith - drums
The Somerville Chanukah Party
Wednesday, December 17th, 2025
7:00 pm
The Somerville Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA
Welcome to the third annual Somerville Chanukah Party!
Join the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music and all of your friends to dance the night away and celebrate Chanukah (Hanukkah, Janucá, Khanike...) the best way we know how: with music, dancing, and joy.
This year, we are delighted to feature the release of Tanz! Live in NYC with Michael Winograd and his band.
ELECTRIC HORA
Thursday, November 20th, 2025
7:00 pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville, MA
Join us for the launch of our MONTHLY klezmer dance series at the Burren. Featuring the best of Boston's klezmer musicians and dance leaders, ELECTRIC HORA is the place to be for live klezmer dancing.
Zach Mayer - Zeh HaYom
Wednesday, October 29th, 2025
7:00 pm
The Boston Synagogue, 55 Martha Rd, Boston, MA
Boston-based saxophonist, vocalist, and composer Zach Mayer presents his new album. Zeh Hayom is a joyful collection of original Jewish music, rooted in the healing power of nigunim and song.
Opening Night at the BFNJM
Sunday, October 5th, 2025
Workshops 1:00-4:30 pm at Tufts University's Granoff Music Center, 20 Talbot Ave, Medford, MA 02155
Concert 7:00pm att he Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street, Cambridge, MA
It's Opening Night at the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music!
Join all your friends and neighbors for an epic day of klezmer music featuring three genre-defining ensembles: Veretski Pass, Adrianne Greenbaum's Fleymusik, and Jake Shulman-Ment & Abigale Reisman's Two Strings.
Schedule
1:00 - 4:30 pm - Workshops with the artists at Tufts
Learn about klezmer music from the very best! We'll explore the intricacies of performing, interpreting, understanding, and dancing to klezmer with Abigale, Adrianne, Jake, and the musicians of Veretski Pass. Workshops are perfect for students, professional musicians who want to learn more about klezmer music, and interested members of the public.
Co-hosted by the Tufts University Department of Music
Granoff Music Center, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
7:00 pm - Opening Night concert at the MCA
CD release extravaganza for Jake Shulman-Ment & Abigale Reisman's Two Strings and Adrianne Greenbaum's Di Klezmer Flute Nisht Fargesn, featuring special guests Veretski Pass and Jim Guttmann of the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Multicultural Arts Center, located at 41 Second Street, Cambridge, MA 02141
Ira Khonen Temple - Strange Tongue/Mistame Loshn
Saturday, October 11th
12:00 pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville, MA
Release tour for Ira Khonen Temple's debut album: "Strange Tongue - Mistame Loshn."
Featuring Ira Khonen Temple (accordion/voice), Zoë Aqua (violin), and Raffi Boden (cello).
"This is an exuberant and irreverent entanglement with Yiddish protest music, love songs, and anthems. It’s queer, trans antifolk music that is informed by klezmer and Romanian dance. It’s totally bilingual and an amazing gateway into a defiant tradition of survival and solidarity. Raucous and intimate in turns, this music makes as much space for joy as it does for grief. It's what I need right now and it might be what you need too." - Ira
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Get Involved
Volunteer
Behind every incredible event is a crew of wonderful volunteers helping everything run smoothly. Volunteers support the #BFNJM through checking audience members in at the front, setting and striking the room, monitoring the live stream, and more. If you're interested in joining the team, fill out the form below and we will be in touch soon.
Perform
Our success depends on our community of amazing musicians. If you would like to be considered to perform for an upcoming season, fill out the form below and we will respond as soon as we are able.
Donate
Our concerts are free to attend but not to produce. In fact, they're rather expensive, because we're committed to compensating our artists and technical staff appropriately for their work. If you believe that bringing great music to the people of Boston is a worthwhile endeavor, consider making a tax-deductible donation to the #BFNJM today.
Join our mailing list
Because you might not want more emails, but you want ours!
About the #BFNJM
The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music was created by local musicians who believe that:
People find meaning and joy in art and community, and communities come together around shared experiences, especially regular meetings over time.
We all benefit from hearing great concerts and musicians benefit from the opportunity to develop and present new works to people excited to hear them.
A strong cultural ecosystem is part of what makes the Boston area so vital and strong.
Great Jewish music is great music. You don’t need to be from the South Bronx to love hip hop or from Panama to love reggaeton; why should you need to know the difference between the Torah and the Talmud to fall in love with Abigale Reisman’s violin or Zach Mayer’s saxophone? Our music is from a certain cultural place, but it’s for everyone.
Art should be accessible to everyone in our broader community. Especially after the past 18 months has made hearing live music so difficult, we are doubling down on accessibility. Concerts are free and live-streamed for folks who can’t attend in person. For those who can, the venue is totally handicapped accessible and an easy walk from the Red Line, Orange Line, Green Line, and BlueBike stations.
If you believe any of these things, or just want to hear some amazing concerts, join us for this season of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music.
Partners
Special thanks go out to our partner organizations for believing in and supporting live music at such a difficult time for musicians.
The Boston Synagogue
A wonderful spirit is alive at The Boston Synagogue. We are a warm, small, neighborhood shul, and the only synagogue located in the heart of downtown with Shabbat and Holiday Services 52 weeks per year.
Our Mission is to serve the needs of the diverse community of Jews in downtown Boston, whether through joyful participatory worship, Friday Night Dinners, Saturday morning Kiddush, or Holiday celebrations, as well as with a slew of Cultural Events and other fun and engaging opportunities to connect with our open, vibrant community. The Shul also offers dynamic learning experiences for everyone, from our growing Hebrew School to Adult Education programs.
JArts Boston
JArts™ brings people together to explore and celebrate the diverse world of Jewish art, culture, and creative expression.
We believe in the unique power of arts and culture to build connections. Art, food, literature, music, and more allow us to better understand the life experiences of others as well as our own, and help to build a vibrant and more tolerant future for both our Jewish and Greater Boston communities.
JArts™ creates programs that bring people together — in the Greater Boston area and around the world — to celebrate and elevate the diverse world of Jewish art, culture, and creative expression. Let culture connect us.
CJP - Combined Jewish Philanthropies
At CJP, we are working every day to make our world a better place. We’re raising and investing money, building relationships and growing partnerships to address our community’s greatest challenges, and offering diverse opportunities to build a meaningful Jewish life.
Thank you to our sponsors and supporters!
NEFA
Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.
Boston Cultural Council
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture.
Newton Cultural Council
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Newton Cultural Council, a local council that is supported by the Mass Cultural Council and the City of Newton
Mass Cultural Council
CJP
JArts
The Beker Foundation
You?
Donate to the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music at https://paypal.me/bfnjm.
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