In early August, Dayenu hosted a special Gathering for Song & Solidarity featuring live music from Yoni Battat and Rabbi Yosef Goldman.
It was a powerful hour of music, rest, and grounding in Jewish song and wisdom – with fellow Jews of Color, Indigenous Jews, and Sephardi & Mizrachi Jews.
Maetal Gerson, Dayenu’s former JOC Caucus organizer, returned to emcee the event with warmth and care and our featured musicians – Yoni and Rabbi Yosef – shared gorgeous (and often original!) music.
Yoni played beautiful pieces from his recent album “Fragments,” which focuses on his Iraqi-Jewish ancestry and features songs in Arabic, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. Rabbi Yosef shared moving liturgical and original pieces that drew on his Mizrachi-Ashkenazi lineage.
The musicians tag-teamed seamlessly and invited participants to join them in praying for healing, qualities of the world we want to see, and connecting to bring about that world with spirit and music. The evening was a moving mix of Iraqi, Mizrachi, and original participatory music and stories.
By the end, participants from across the country (many of whom are also involved in Dayenu’s JOC Caucus) were dancing in their seats, exchanging contact info, and exchanging abundant gratitude!
Our Jewish tradition knows how to hold us through devastating and terrifying times. Singing together can help regulate our nervous systems, and help us access and move through our feelings so that we can be ready to take action together.
Thanks to all who helped make this program a success, including Maetal Gerson; Dayenu’s Climate Music and Arts Manager, Aly Halpert; and Dayenu’s Director of Spiritual Activism & Education, Rabbi Laura Bellows.