Batya Yehudit Shrager has a BA in Music Performance from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Upon graduating, she spent a year at Neve Yerushalayim seminary in Har Nof. That year, she joined the Ron Shulamit Conservatory Orchestra and helped form their Woodwind Quintet. Seeing all …
Batya (Taylor) Shachar is originally from Boston, but moved to Los Angeles for her formative years. In LA, she worked behind-the-scenes in the music industry. She also performed in a few plays and was a part of a sketch comedy group at Theatre East in …
Michal Shababo is an academically trained musician and composer who recently released her first international commercial album, Breathe it in. Her album is a work of love and passion, a collection of folk-rock original songs that tell a story of unity, hope and peace. She is proud to be a recording artist, music educator and mother of two.
Shaked was born in Israel and raised in Arizona and has been training in dance since she was 3 years old. After becoming baalat teshuva in college in arizona, and finishing her degree in education for the arts, and made aliyah with her husband and …
Emuna Bracha (Valentina) Recchia was born in Italy in 1983. She wrote her first poetry and short stories at the age of 12. Subsequently she devoted herself to the study of dance in various schools, including the Broadway Dance Center in New York. As a result …
Gitty Porgesz is a choreographer/Dancer and Founder of Carmia Dance Group.
Trained in classical and modern dance, contact-improvisation, choreography and Iyengar Yoga by some of the best teachers in the country. Gitty holds a diploma from Wingate Collage and has been teaching dance and movement for the past 13 years. Gitty has performed and participated as a creative dancer-choreographer for as many years. In 2011, as the director and choreographer for Carmia Dance Group, Gitty created her premier work “BishvilMe”, a powerful work which emphasizes, validates and empowers women from all sectors of Israeli society.
Since then Gitty has created a whole repertoire of work and performed with CDG in many festivals over the country.
“Pi” (2014), “The skirt” (2015), “On/off” (2016), “U-turn” (2017)
Carmia Dance Group
Carmia Dance Group is a uniquely Jewish contemporary dance group offering opportunities for creative female dancers to perform for women only audiences on a professionally artistic stage. Carmia Dance Group was founded in Jerusalem in January, 2011, under the guidance of dancer- choreographer, Gitty Porgesz. Its uniqueness lies in its goal and hope, to create national caliber contemporary Jewish performing art. Carmia Dance Group’s creative processes promote and strengthen the connection between members of diverse audiences in Israel and abroad, without compromising the beliefs and lifestyles of Jewish women. Each and every women in the group embodies an element of the ‘living being’ that is Israeli society, creating surprising and heart-stirring connections.
Contact info
gitty.carmia@gmail.com
9725280-6045++
Avital Macales is a singer, songwriter, actor, and improv comedienne, and has been performing for the past decade on various theater stages around Israel and on screen, in leading roles, including in Raise Your Spirits Theatre and WIT (Women-in-Theater) Modiin. She is a member of …
Since her immigration to Israel in 1989, Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson has been the Principal Cellist and frequent soloist of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA. German born, she studied with P. Fournier, S. Celibidache and E. Barenboim, after receiving her Soloist’s Diploma at the State’s Music …
Elisheva (Ellen) Horowitz was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She expressed an early interest in figure drawing and painting, coupled with an innate love of Torah and Israel. Encouraged by her parents, she took courses at the Cleveland Institute of Art and later went on to study painting and design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Elisheva’s paintings have been exhibited in Israel, New York, Boston, and San Francisco. She made Aliyah in 1986.
Elisheva finds inspiration in biblical themes, modern Jewish history, and in the landscapes of Israel. To be both an artist and mother living in Israel, in uncertain times, is often reflected in her work. Her worldview is one which combines a heightened visual awareness with maternal anxiety, and a healthy dose of optimism and humor.
Elisheva takes a bold approach to drawing and painting and is convinced that one can transcend politics and heal divisions through art. She advocates inspiration without provocation, and is not afraid to broach difficult subject matter.
In addition to being an experienced painter, art teacher, cartoonist and illustrator. Elisheva is a skilled writer, activist and speaker. She has worked for and co-founded nonprofit organizations in Israel, such as the Crisis Center for Religious Women. She has engaged in academic research and documentary production, authored an acclaimed book on the Oslo peace process, and has held administrative and creative web content positions.
As a speaker, Elisheva is dynamic and engaging as she explores “the agony and the ecstasy” of the creative process, and as she prompts the audience to view the concurrently fractured and cohesive personal, national and historic canvas of a Jewish woman living in Israel.
Elisheva lives and has a studio in Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem. She is a grateful and very proud mother and grandmother with a growing family all living in Israel.
“My painting is a quest for Jewish authenticity, so to speak. I strive to achieve this through synthesizing the great personalities and episodes of our past with the words from our Sources, and the landscapes and colors of Eretz Yisrael. This allows for a visually moving experience- an encounter with the Jewish soul. By taking a bold approach to color and expression, and daring to explore the heights and depths of Judaism’s essence, we can reawaken imagination and hope – a key to the survival of the Jewish spirit.”
Suggested topics for speaking engagements
Exhibitions, Studio Tours and Workshops
Elisheva’s work is available for exhibition. Her original acrylic paintings and pastel drawings are transportable. Her paintings and signed limited edition fine art prints are available for sale.
Elisheva is also happy to accommodate groups, by appointment, in her home for studio tours, lectures and workshops.
Art by Elisheva 050 909 0598
Rabbi Yehoshua Gerzi, the leader of the Pilzno Shul, spent six years with the Pilzno Rav, and received from him a tremendous amount of Torah learning and practical exercises that form part of a direct mesorah from the Baal Shem Tov. He plays 13 different …
Rebbetzin Judith Gerzi, the soul-singer/songwriting sensation, is now touring with her début album, ‘Awakening.’ Originally from London, England, she now lives in Israel with her large family. With the voice of an angel, she has been called ‘ the Jewish Adele’ and ‘the white Whitney …
Sharona Florsheim is a choreographer and improvisation artist based In Israel.
In her choreographic work she brings together complex structures of improvisation and set material, emphasizing the relationships formed in real time between space, performers, and audience. Her recent work includes: The Big Game (2012), Connectivity Practices (2014), Noa’s Secret of Infinity (2015) Fragile Formation (2016) and The One Hand Sound (2017).
Her artistic work, presented in Europe, Africa and regularly performed in Israel, is deeply inspired by individual uniqueness and identity and how they both relate to a larger whole. Over the years she has collaborated with musicians, video artists, and theater directors from Israel and around the world to create her unique and poignant style of work.
In addition to her own choreographic work, Sharona has been the artistic director of Noga Dance Company since its establishment in 2009: a unique professional framework for religious women to choreograph and perform. She teaches in the dance department at Orot Israel College, and is an associate director. She initiates and guides Design in Motion workshops for artists and students from various art disciplines, focusing on somatic learning and experience in creative processes.
Sharona graduated from the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem, and holds a BA in psychology from Haifa University and an MA in choreography from the Dance Unlimited program in the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, Holland.
She is a devoted student of the body.
Adina is a Singer/Songwriter/Choreographer/Director and teacher with a successful career as a performer in the U.S. and Israel. Adina has performed everywhere from New York’s Town Hall to the Israel Festival in Jerusalem and has created three highly successful one-woman shows. In March of 2013, …
Ana Elya writes, composes, arranges and performs original texts and melodies, along with traditional songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino. Born near Paris, Ana Elya was raised in a secular French culture touched by a Hassidic spirit. As a cheerful and athletic little girl she …
Kerry Bar-Cohn, aka “Rebbetzin Tap” teaches children to love being alive and being Jewish! Kerry has been singing and dancing since childhood. Together with her husband Rabbi David, she creates educational videos with catchy songs catchy and life affirming messages. They have touched thousands of Jewish children’s lives, inspiring them and bringing them joy. They currently live in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel and are the proud parents of four sons: Daniel, Ilan, Bentzi and Yeshaya. Kerry is also a doctor of chiropractic and teaches tap dance. In the past two years, she formed the Kol Isha group on Facebook which has attracted over 5,500 women and girls expressing their creative abilities in a safe space online, and has also created Kol Isha Radio, a 24/6 radio station for women-only music.
Hannah has been singing, dancing, and acting since before she can remember. She grew up in Agoura Hills, California amidst a very musical family. Hannah attributes almost everything she knows about singing and acting to her mother – a classically trained singer and actress, who’s …
Miriam is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts, the mother of B’H nine children and numerous grandchildren.
Marilyn Golomb Selber (Morah Michal), a practicing attorney, is a graduate of Stern College for Women, of Yeshiva University, and New York University School of Law. She has studied at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration of Yeshiva University and has studied drama at Herbert Berghof Studio in Greenwich Village. She has been a classroom teacher in Limudei Kodesh and has brought K’eelu: Torah Theater to schools, Jewish centers and, for the past six years, to Camp Regesh in Monsey, New York. Ms. Selber also gives teacher training sessions in K’eelu.
Currently, Michal teaches an ongoing class at HIR in Riverdale “Find Your Way in the Davening” on Fri mornings at 9:30 am. The class, whose goal is to help familiarize people with the order and meaning of the prayers, including the Torah Service and special readings throughout the year, and concentrates on improving our Hebrew through finding the “Shoresh” (root) of the word. She also organizes Sing Your Heart Out Womens Group on Shabbat afternoons and can be contacted at Keeluproductions @aol.com.
Jessica is an NYU graduate and holds a B.S. in Educational Theatre and a double minor in Dramatic Literature and Studio Art. She is a certified theatre teacher in New York State and has been teaching, directing, and running drama programs for over seven years. …
Miriam Sandler never planned on becoming a professional singer but at the tender age of 18, she began touring as a background singer/dancer with numerous American and Hispanic recording artists. After receiving a Jazz Vocal Performance degree from the world renowned program at the University …
Esther Rachel Russell MA, is a screenwriter, performer, producer, laughter therapist and the creator of the Comedy Improvisation Workshop: To Break Through Barriers. Most recently, she performed in the acclaimed off-Broadway comedy, A Match Made in Manhattan – The Interactive Jewish Wedding Experience where she played the role of Rivky Lowenstein, mother of the bride. Her improv comedy career began at the famous Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles where she wrote and performed in numerous comedy sketches. Esther Rachel is the writer/producer of the internationally acclaimed one-man show Gathering the Sparks starring her husband, actor/comedian Reuven Russell and has recently written and directed the cutting-edge documentary Shame, Shanda & Silence. Currently Esther Rachel is teaching Screenwriting at Stern College in New York City. In her previous incarnation, she worked on various television sets in Hollywood as a producer of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, Benson and Wheel of Fortune. She received her Master’s degree in Theater at NYU.
Chabad Speakers Circuit
By Esther Rachel
About Esther Rachel:
Leslie Gold Ruder spent ten years stage managing, casting, and producing plays off-Broadway and in regional theatres, followed by ten years of an acting career, with training from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the Walnut Street Theatre School and the Wilma Theatre in …
Jazz Pianist. Since 1969, Mirele has taught music to dancers and accompanied their dance classes on piano and percussion in various colleges and universities, some of which are University of Maryland, Julliard Schools of Dance, Drama, and Opera, Sarah Lawrence College, Purchase University, N.Y.U., and …
Shari Rosen earned her Masters in Music in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in 1991. While attending the Peabody, Shari performed numerous operatic roles with the Opera Theater and Workshop programs, as well as soloing with the Peabody Symphony and Peabody/Hopkins Chorus and winning first prize in Peabody’s Sylvia Green Voice Competition. A native of Long Island, NY, Shari returned to her home state for three summers during her college years as a recipient of a full scholarship to the School of Voice at the Chautauqua Institution. After her college years, Shari sang as a soloist and chorister for numerous area churches and synagogues, eventually landing happily in a career as a Cantorial Soloist for Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Temple Beth Israel (York, PA) and Congregation Shalom Aleichem in Columbia, MD. Having made a personal, spiritual journey to Orthodox Judaism, she now sings solely for women (and her husband!). Since making teshuvah, Shari has organized and performed on a women’s benefit concert for the Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Living and Learning in Baltimore, served on the voice faculty of Camp Tizmoret Shoshana, wrote an article about her Jewish/musical experience for the “Where, What, When” in Baltimore and just this past Shabbos presented that article in a motivational talk at Congregation Knesseth Israel in Annapolis, MD. Ms. Rosen is incredibly honored to perform this evening for the women of ATARA.
Keri Roth (nee Saltzman) has over 20 years of experience in the dance world, has taught throughout Toronto, competed and performed internationally, and has extensive training in jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, hip-hop, and flamenco. Keri’s energetic approach to teaching fosters a safe, fun and challenging …
Yocheved Polonsky is a dancer, dance educator, and founder of the Creative Learning Institute of Dance in Cleveland, OH, a Judaic dance and movement arts studio to provide a holistic Jewish environment for the study of dance. Yocheved studied classical ballet, modern dance, jazz, at …
Michelle Penn started dancing at 3 years old. At 14, she joined the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Ballet Theater, under the direction of Angela Mauti. There, I was privileged to dance soloist and principal roles, including the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty and the evil stepsisters in Cinderella. She attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL as a Psychology and Dance Major, where she began exploring modern and contemporary styles, and had many opportunities to perform as well as choreograph, and interned with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, a contemporary dance company. Upon graduation, Michelle studied at Neve Yerushalayim as an Abraham Scholar, and while there created the Neve Dance Company with Devon Stern, and began performing, often for 1,200 women at a time at different venues, began lecturing at different schools across Jerusalem, and co-created a show with Mrs. Lisa Marcus titled “Behind the Masks” in May 2013. In 2013, she moved Silver Spring, and opened the doors to LaZooz in January 2015, with 45 students in the first session, ages ranging from 3-18, in a variety of styles, culminating in a professional performance at the American Dance Institute, with an audience of over 100 women. We hope to expand our program in the 2015 by offering more classes in more styles, instituting a women’s program, and becoming more involved in the community schools.
Rivka Nahari has had many years of training and performing experience in both music and dance. She began her ballet training at the age of 3 and studied in the pre-professional program at the Academy of Nevada Dance Theater where she continued until her graduation …
A native New Yorker, Laura has been playing cello since the age of 6. Currently in her senior year of undergraduate study at the Mannes College of Music, Laura started keeping Shabbos in her freshman year of college. While continuing to perform at classical music …
Lori Leifer is a devoted artist, friend, sister, database programmer and community organizer. She is a proud eynikle (direct descendent) of the great Ndvorna chasidim (of Premishlan) who were known for their chesed and skills on the fiddle. Raised on a farm in upstate, NY, she is only now studying Yiddish intensively and hopes to be fluent one day. Lori has a small business using Jewish folk music to entertain elderly Jews at assisted living centers around NYC. She also sings and acts occasionally for the National Yiddish Theater Folksbeine and spent many years as both student and director of the Drisha Arts Fellowship at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in NYC, where she learned some Talmud, and started writing an album of folk songs based on Talmudic aggadot (a project which she hopes to return to one day!). Lori spent several years singing with choir director Binyumen Schechter in the Jewish People’s Philharmonic (Yiddish) Choir and for Benajmin Gruder with the Rottenberg (Hebrew) chorale. At the moment Lori is quite satisfied honing in on her skills as a vocalist, piano player and actor gigging around NYC. You can listen to and find updates about Lori on her.
Leslie Ginsparg Klein is the founder and director of Girls’ Night On!, an organization that promotes Jewish women in music and the arts. She was inspired to pick up the guitar after going to a women’s open mike night in Israel and started singing/songwriting a …
Rachel is a singer/songwriter from Brooklyn, NY. Working as an Acupuncturist by day, on her free time she performs and writes music. Music has always been one of her greatest passions and more recently, began performing within the women’s Jewish music world, aiming to inspire …
Polina Imas is the director of Kinor Center, Chicago IL. Polina began playing the violin when she was six, she studied at the Music Institute of Chicago and pursued a double major in music performance and engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston IL. She is a recipient of Winnetka Music Club Scholarship, Bel Canto Foundation, National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Society of American Musicians awards. While observing an Orff music class Polina noticed how naturally children absorb information presented in a musical context which led her to explore music education as a means of helping children develop language, literacy, focus and group participation skills. With this goal in mind she started Kinor Center to serve the Jewish community of Chicagoland. Since then, Polina has designed and directed fine arts programs at several Chicago Jewish day schools, where she taught Suzuki Violin, choir and Music Literacy classes based on Orff, Kodaly and Eurhythmics approaches. As a part of Kinor center’s effort to use Jewish music as a basis for music education, she worked with Chicagoland musical professionals to develop music curriculums for a variety of instruments as well as group music literacy classes based entirely on Jewish musical material.
The Kinor Center – Music School in Chicago
Batya has over twenty years of experience in choir direction, harmony composition and guitar accompaniment. She currently heads two choirs that meet weekly and perform. The Teaneck PeniNote Choir and Passaic NaShira Choirs, Directed by Batya M. Harris are wonderfully varied groups of women in …
Abby Harris composes original classical music on piano, and especially loves baroque music. A music conservatory professor who is mentoring her has put her on a strict “Bach Daf Yomi” schedule. She has been composing since she was eight, and she is both a classical …
Leah Gottfried started acting at an early age in various films, commercials and stage productions. She has appeared in Yamaha ATV and Time Warner Cable commercials, the TV show Distant Roads and the feature film Operation: Candlelight. Stage credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs (Nora), Lost …
Elisheva (Raichman) Golani attended The University of Houston. She began dancing ballet at the age of six, at the JCC of Houston, TX. She continued to dance even after leaving home to attend a religious boarding school for girls in Florida. In Florida, Elisheva has …
