Ashir shirah
Singing Kabbalat Shabbat and Reading Torah in Moroccan Nusach
Join Laura Elkeslassy for a 4-month deep dive into the liturgy and melodies for Kabalat Shabbat and Teamei Hamikrah (Torah trope) in Moroccan Nusach. Ashir Shirah is being offered in collaboration between Egalitarian Sephardi Mizrahi Kehilla of NYC and Let My People Sing! and is open to all, with a focus on equipping Sefardi/Mizrahi/JSWANA community leaders on the margins with the skills to lead and participate in prayer in their own communities. In the first phase of the series, we will learn Moroccan Nusach for Shir Hashirim, Psalms, Kabbalat Shabat, and Arvit shel shabbat (Shabat evening prayer). In the second phase, we will learn to decipher and sing Teamei Hamikrah (Torah tropes) in Moroccan Nusach. At the end of the series, participants will have a thorough grasp of Kabbalat Shabbat and will have the opportunity to present a passage of Torah of their choosing sung in Maghrebi Nusach. Come learn in community with others who are invested in this spiritual work!
Course Details
Fridays on zoom | 10:30 am -12 pm EST / 9:30-11 am CST / 7:30-9 am PST /4:30-6 pm CET
15 class course, February 7 - June 6 (with two week break for Pessah/Passover, April 11 & 18)
Reading Hebrew recommended, but not required.
Sliding scale $150-$540, no one turned away for lack of funds. Email info@letmypeoplesing.org for discount code if cost is a barrier for you. Classes will be recorded for participants. Automated Captioning provided.
Gratitude to Osnat Bensoussan and Natalie Haziza who led the original Shir Hashirim program in 2020, and to Rise Up for resourcing this offering.
meet your teacher & Partner Organization
Laura Elkeslassy, Course Teacher
Laura Elkeslassy (she/her) is a singer, theater maker, spiritual leader and educator based in Brooklyn. Born and raised in France, with Moroccan and Israeli roots, Laura’s work focuses on reclaiming the North African Jewish folk and liturgical musical heritage from a feminist standpoint. In 2021, she released the multimedia project Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile. Developed in collaboration with Ira Khonen Temple, Ya Ghorbati weaves together the music and stories of Judeo-Arab divas from mid-century North Africa.
Laura has performed music at countless venues including Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the World Music Institute. She was the lead singer of the New York Andalus Ensemble for 5 years, where she started performing in Hebrew, Arabic, Ladino in 2015. In the theater, she has worked at the National Opera of Paris, the Venice Film Festival, La MaMa ETC, Here Arts Center, Target Margin among others. As a spiritual leader, Laura has been active in developing Egalitarian Sephardi practice in New York, Boston and Paris over the last 5 years. Laura has taught sacred and folk music across the country, including at Yale University, Pratt University, Hebrew Union College, as well as internationally at Segal Performance Center, Limmud UK and beyond.
Laura holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University and is a multiple-time recipient of the Rise Up! Fellowship, the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, the Rising Leader Fellowship with the Open Society Foundation, a multi-year grantee of Brooklyn Arts Council and a member of the first cohort of the Mandel Institute Cultural Leaders Fellowship. Learn more at www.lauraelkeslassy.com
Egalitarian Sephardi Mizrahi Kehilla of NYC, Partner Organization
We are building something new - a space where folks who are often marginalized from traditional Sephardi spaces can be their full selves: centering women and queer&trans leaders and liberatory politics, and our ancestors' Sephardi religious traditions.
To date, our community has offered dozens of cultural and spiritual programs including High Holiday services, liturgy workshops, Mimouna celebrations, as well as ancestral and cultural learning.