There can be chavurahs for all kinds of interests, from science fiction to cooking. What brings these people together is love of Hebrew and Yiddish music. The chavurah is separate from the Temple Sinai choir, but many members of the chavurah also sing in the choir, which performs for the Jewish New Year, the Day of Atonement and sometimes other events. Really, it s a social gathering, singer Shelly Lescott says of the chavurah. The first 20 minutes or so of the evening are spent with the members talking to each other.
Libations range from bottled water to wine.
Then they spend the next 90 minutes to two hours attacking some musical composition or song, said Lescott, who as a child was a professional singer on the Borscht Belt, the Jewish resorts in the Catskill Mountains. They may sing traditional songs or try complex harmonies of a new song. Someone might bring a recording of Jewish music from Uganda. Or they might try a song in Ladino, the language spoken by Jews in Spain before the Inquisitions. We eat and drink and socialize.