2024 Year in Review!
2024 has been a big year of growth and program expansion. Check out what we’ve been able to achieve as a result!
IN PERSON Programs
Participant shares an song at North Caroline Sings!, May 2024
2024 summer retreat participatory concert
We grew in person programming X3!
650+ in person program participants, up from 220 in 2023. In person programs included our signature Summer Retreat, new Regional Day Long Gatherings, and one-off local song circles.
10 workshops led by Program Faculty such as: The Nondual and Nonbinary in Prayer, Ana Elekh: Entering the World of Maqam and Piyyut, Singing Truth to Power: Songs of Resilience and Joyful Resistance, and Wade in the Water: The Possibilities of Black Music in the synagogue.
22 participant-led song workshops such as: Unlocking the Power of Nusach, Voice: Crafting Nigunim Drawing from Ancestral Lineage(s ), Stargazing and Singing the Cosmos Into Being, Trans Voices - Shevarim: Singing Our Whole Selves, Be'zochreinu et Tziyon: As We Remember Tziyon, and Sefardi Folk Songs.
10 community sings facilitated, 100+ songs shared
RESULTS
96% of participant respondents expressed having a transformative experience through the practice of Jewish communal singing.
83% of summer retreat respondents said they were more likely to lead Jewish song or prayer at a future gathering or in their home communities after the retreat
99% of participant respondents said they would return to a similar gathering in the future.
97% of regional gathering respondents said they felt more connected to Jewish community after participating in this program.
New: Virtual Programs
We successfully piloted identity based virtual workshops!
For the first time, we ran a number of culturally specific virtual workshops with great success. In total, we had over 120 participants from across the country participate. One Songs for the Soul participant shared that “being with JoC and discussing our identities, heritage, culture and lineage through music was profound!”. A Singing the Mother Letters participant described the series as profoundly life changing.
2024 Playlist Recap
LMPS Playlists continue to nourish and sustain us.
3 new playlist came out this year:
48,000 listens!
Hub for Jewish musicians
We hired 30 cultural workers and facilitated 8 new collaborations.
This year, we worked with more musicians, artist and cultural workers than ever before! At Let My People Sing!, we deeply value cultural work, and strive to well compensate our artist. In 2024, $50k (> 1/4 of our budget) went to paying cultural workers.
Our programming - both in person and virtual - facilitates new collaborations between artist. Our summer retreat followed by our winter concert provided consecutive opportunities for a new group of 10 musicians to create masterful music together, and deepen over time. Virtual co-facilitated programs provide the opportunity for teachers to work together, often for the first time, and co-create original content.
This was all possible because of the support of our community to resource this work! Make a donation today to ensure LMPS can continue to expand our much needed offerings in 2025 and beyond.
“Let My People Sing has been life-changing for me; this sweet community has nourished me so much and has made me feel empowered to teach songs. I lead a Sefardi song circle that meets every month, and I would never have had the courage to lead something like this it not for LMPS.”
“Teaching at Let My People Sing is a chance to be completely met by a community of participants who show up with full hearts and voices. I can’t overstate the impact of LMPS in creating and sustaining the culture we need to help us survive the world as it is and work for the world as it should be.”
“Let My People Sing rocked my world, expanded my mind, and bandaged up my broken heart. This four-day slice of Olam Haba (the World to Come) was completely unlike any other Jewish space I’ve been in before. In this radical, queer, accessible, pluralistic, intergenerational, and joyful space I felt able to bring my whole self, and able to practice Judaism on my own terms. LMPS is more than a retreat, it is an intentional community that connects Jews from all over the world through Shabbos, sunshine, and song.”
“LMPS’ regional gathering offered an ideal way for me to connect to and build with Jewish community. It not only offered new possibilities of Jewish practice for me, but also helped me create the connections to co-create a Jewish future. ”
“MPLS Sings! opened (and softened) my heart, made space to breathe deeper, to lean into myself and Jewish community, and woke me up again to the medicine in everyday that i often overlook. thank you all!”
