Music: Our Heritage
Music is at the heart and soul of our outreach and it is a key component to the prayer experience. Poles regard music, both performance and participatory, as indispensable to communal life. Our “Shir Aviv” choir performs a unique and compelling combination of pre-World War II synagogue music and contemporary Israeli songs.
Many musicians stop by Beit Polska to participate in concerts and services. World beloved musician Theodore Bikel appeared one year!
Our Beit Polska members are accomplished musicians in their own right.
Board member Nina Stiller performs Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish folk songs, as well as jazz and cabaret professionally. She was invited to sing at a Kristallnacht memorial concert in Bytom. Cantor Anna Silverman, Rabbinical Student Menachem Mirski, and prayer leaders Iza Rifka Foremniak and Avigail Geniusz have performed in concerts around Los Angeles for the past several years.
Prayer leader Anna Jagielska-Riveiro brings Sephardic music to our worship services as well as music of the contemporary Reform Movement. Anna and prayer leader Piotr Kondrat developed a libretto based on the biblical legends of Samson.
Theodore Bikel in concert
at Beit Warszawa
Members of the Shir Aviv Choir perform at Beit Warszawa
Cantor Ana Silverman
“On the Threshold of Freedom”
Santa Monica, CA 2019
CANTOR DAVID WISNIA
Well known Cantor David Wisnia and family visited Beit Polska in January of 2020. They traveled to Poland for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Cantor Wisnia, a survivor himself, sang at the national commemoration ceremony.
Cantor Wisnia Sings at the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
LOS ANGELES CONCERTS
Alumni Beit Polska Prayer Leaders rabbinical student Menachem Mirski and Cantor Ana Silverman joined Los Angeles musicians in our Spring 2019 concert series.
