The program will be held on Sunday, Dec. 11 at The Emanuel Synagogue

By Cindy Mindell ~

There’s nothing like hearing 50 voices raised in harmony, says Cantor Emily Sleeper Mekler. What happens when there are 100 or more singing together? The first area-wide Zimriyah aims to find out.
“It’s all about making music as ’klal Yisrael,’ the Jewish people,” says Mekler, one of many Greater Hartford cantors organizing the event.
The program will be held on Sunday, Dec. 11 at The Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford. A series of workshops on various aspects of singing will be followed by a group rehearsal, supper, and an evening concert.

Mekler is the long-time cantor at Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor and for three years had helped lead a small annual Jewish choir festival with two cantor colleagues in the Greater Hartford area. Two years ago, when her husband returned from the Zimriya World Assembly of Choirs in Israel, Mekler has inspired to revive the local tradition.
With the encouragement of fellow area cantors, she approached David Jacobs, executive director of the Mandell JCC of Greater Hartford, who signed on as sponsoring organization and helped secure a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford.
The grant makes possible the inaugural Zimriyah. If the event draws enough community interest and participation, the Foundation will consider awarding a two-year grant for the creation of the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Chorus.

Cantor Emily Sleeper Mekler

“My vision is to create an opportunity for Jews of all backgrounds and denominations, affiliated and unaffiliated, spiritual, cultural, peripheral, ‘in name only,’ and prospective Jews – everyone who loves to sing – to lift their voices together in Jewish song,” says Mekler. “This is a one-day opportunity with the vision of leading to the creation of a Greater Hartford Jewish community chorus.”
Participating congregations include Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown; Beth El Temple, Congregation Beth Israel, and The Emanuel Synagogue, all in West Hartford; Beth Sholom B’nai Israel in Manchester; Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation/Emek Shalom in Simsbury; Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor; and Congregation Kol Haverim in Glastonbury.
Featured choruses include Mak’hela: The Jewish Chorus of Western Massachusetts, directed and conducted by Kayla Werlin, and HaZamir Hartford, a chapter of HaZamir: The International Jewish High School Choir, directed and conducted by Cantors Joseph Ness of Beth El Temple and Sanford Cohn of The Emanuel Synagogue. (HaZamir is a program of the Zamir Choral Foundation, directed by Matthew Lazar.)
The program will also feature two pieces that all participants will sing together, conducted by guest cantor and composer Erik Contzius of Temple Israel in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Unaffiliated singers are also welcome, and will receive sheet music for the two pieces after registering.
To register as a participant or a concert-goer: www.mandelljcc.org / (860) 236-4571. For more information, contact Cantor Emily Sleeper Mekler: zimriyah@mandelljcc.org.