The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture

Joshua Rose
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We are right at the beginning of what some have called "The 21st Century Jewish Cultural Renaissance," and The Genesis is the podcast watching it unfold, in real time and up close. Each week Rabbi Josh Rose has a conversation with a different Jewish artist or cultural figure to explore questions of artistic creativity, individual Jewish identity, Jewish expression and how Jewish arts are reshaping what it means to be Jewish. Our main focus in on the artists from Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts and Culture, and Jewish artists in the Pacific Northwest. Rabbi Josh also engages national leaders (Rabbi Shai Held of Hadar, Seth Pinksy of New York's 92nd Street Y) about the broader world of Jewish culture. So, if you're interested in 21st century Jewish life, Jewish ideas, Jewish arts or just good conversation, you're in the right place. *The Genesis was originally a podcast of Co/Lab, founded by Rabbi Josh. Today the Genesis is a production of Art/Lab where Rabbi Josh continues to shape its unfolding.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    S3E45 How Jewish Music is Creating a Space for Unity in Israel - and Right Here (with Zamru)

    Rabbi Josh hosts Amitai Man and Talia Erdal of Jerusalem's Zamru Ensemble, a Fuchsberg Center project, ahead of Zamru's June 8–10 Portland residency presented with ArtLab. They describe Zamru as a network that began as a fellowship for prayer leaders and musicians and grew into weekly prayer circles and a touring ensemble creating participatory musical-prayer spaces rather than performances. Amitai (Jerusalem-based clarinetist/singer/composer with Orthodox Mizrachi roots) and Talia (cellist/composer/prayer leader, principal cellist of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, raised secular and later Orthodox) discuss bridging Israeli religious–secular divides, finding spirituality and ecstasy in prayer, and how post–October 7 trauma intensified the need for communal vulnerability. They explain circle-based listening, facilitation, and music as living prayer, preview Portland workshops, movement improvisation, and a circle at East Side Jewish Commons, and Amitai recommends his album "Simanim," improvisations on Torah cantillation. Hey Portlanders: Don't miss Zamru live in Portland on June 9th at the Eastside Jewish Commons. Ticket links are below! The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Jewish Arts and Culture. Theme music by Rabbi Josh Rose.   Links Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts and Culture: artlabpdx.org  Tix for Zamru: https://events.humanitix.com/zamru-or-jerusalem-sound-portland-night Zamru: https://fuchsbergcenter.org/zamru/ Amitai Mann: https://www.amitai-mann.com Talia Erdal: https://www.taliaerdal.com

    51 min

  2. 29 APR

    S3E44 What is the Source of Jewish Musical Creativity? (with Yankl Falk)

    Welcome to The Genesis. I'm Rabbi Josh. My guest this week is Yankl Falk. We've been on a bit of a tear interviewing musicians—Michelle Alany, Yair Dalal, and now Yankl Falk, who is a fabulous klezmer musician and a wonderful person. If you live in Portland, Oregon, you may have heard Yankl playing around the city with his fabulous band. We talk not just about klezmer, but about growing up Jewish and growing up in a particular kind of Jewish world. We talk about Yiddish and Yiddish culture, and then, of course, we talk about music. One of the things that's wonderful about Yankl is that he is one of those artists who was an important part of creating the very scene he now inhabits: the klezmer music scene in Portland, Oregon. And that scene, it turns out, was an important part, in some ways, of the klezmer revival that went far beyond Portland. So we talk about all of that, and I think you'll enjoy this conversation with the wonderful Yankl Falk. Make sure to go to the show notes, where you can find out more about him and his great band, and where you can catch him playing around Portland. Yankl Falk will also be part of the Portland Jewish Music Festival, hosted by the Eastside Jewish Commons and co-sponsored by Art/Lab, along with several other Jewish organizations. So that should be on your radar—and this excellent musician and excellent person should be on your radar, too. If you love Jewish music, Jewish creativty and Jewish stories you will enjoy this conversation. The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Jewish Arts and Culture. Theme music by Rabbi Josh Rose. Links Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts & Culture: www.artlabpdx.org Carpathian Pacific Express (Yankl's Band): www.facebook.com/carpathianpacific Yiddish Book Center interview with Yankl: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/interviews/woh-fi-0001647/jack-yankl-falk-2024 Musicians mentioned in this episode: Naftule Brandwein Dave Tarras The Klezmorim / East Side Wedding Mickey Katz The Barry Sisters Don Byron / Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz Frank London / The Klezmatics  Robert Johnson Howlin' Wolf

    45 min

  3. 23 APR

    SE43 Special Edition on Jewish Music: Israeli Master Musician Yair Dalal

    Welcome to The Genesis. If you heard my episode with Eric Stern, then you already know that today's guest will be performing at the Portland Jewish Music Festival on Saturday, May 16. If you have not heard that episode, go back and listen to it—you will hear about all the remarkable things happening at this year's festival. I was especially grateful to have the chance to speak with today's guest, Yair Dalal. Because I was able to talk with Yair before he comes to Portland next month, I thought it was only right to include a little of his music after our conversation. If you are watching on The Genesis YouTube channel, you will see Yair performing live in a video from his YouTube channel. If you are listening to the audio podcast, you will hear some of his beautiful music. Either way, I wanted to give you a sense of the kind of artist he is. Yair Dalal is a composer, violinist, oud player, singer, and teacher. Over the last several decades, he has released 12 albums that traverse a wide cultural landscape, drawing on Israeli, Jewish, and Middle Eastern musical traditions. His work reflects deep roots in classical European, jazz, and Arabic music, and we talk in this conversation about how he moved among those worlds and, in some sense, returned to his own roots. Dalal's family came to Israel from Baghdad, and his Iraqi heritage is deeply embedded in his music. Alongside his work as a performer and composer, he has devoted himself to preserving endangered musical traditions, especially the Babylonian Jewish-Iraqi musical heritage and the music of the Bedouins. We speak about his time with the Bedouins, and about the desert, which seems in many ways to be his truest home. Over the years, Dalal has performed in concerts and festivals around the world, including at major venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, at world music festivals from England to Australia and New Zealand, and also in far more intimate settings, including playing with Bedouins in their tents. Beyond his musical life, Yair Dalal is also a peace activist who has devoted much of his energy to building bridges of understanding and creativity among different cultures, especially between Jews and Arabs. In 1994, he performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Gala Concert honoring Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat. Dalal has received numerous Israeli awards in recognition of both his music and his contribution to Israeli culture. In 2021, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Ministry of Culture. He has also been honored by other organizations for his dedication to the oud and for his role in bringing its musical traditions to audiences in Israel and abroad. He was also nominated for a Grammy. He has made a profound impact on Israeli music, Israeli culture, and what we now call world music. I think you are really going to enjoy this conversation with Yair Dalal. And you do not want to miss him—or the other musicians performing at the Portland Jewish Music Festival, which is co-sponsored by Art/Lab along with a host of Portland Jewish organizations. Enjoy my conversation with the remarkable Yair Dalal. The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Jewish Arts and Culture. Theme music by Rabbi Josh Rose.   Links Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts & Culture: www.artlabpdx.org Yair Dalal: https://www.yairdalal.com Portland Jewish Music Festival: https://ejcpdx.org/pjmf26 Documentary About Yair, "Ain't Got no Jeep and My Camel Died": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AOSmzIPG7g Documentary about Iraqi-Israeli music and musicians (recommended by Yair): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=baghdad+bandstand

    47 min

  4. 16 APR

    S3E42 The Portland Jewish Music Festival: What to Expect (w/ Eric Stern of Eastside Jewish Commons)

    My guest this week is Eric Stern. If you're a long time listener to the podcast, you may remember the episode that I did with Eric way back when, but that time it was really just a goal to get to know Eric as a musician and as a creative person, which he is. But this time I have Eric on because he is the Director of Programming and Cultural Arts Ambassador at the East Side Jewish Commons, which is hosting the festival.  It's coming up on from May 6th to May 17th Eric and I  and I use the time together on this episode basically to go through some of the highlights over the course of the festival. There are local talents and talents from elsewhere. A range of performances and styles of Jewish music, and also workshops for musicians and all kinds of really, really wonderful things. So Eric is really here to talk about that during this episode, as he and I do, we sometimes wander off to broader topics and what music means and the experience of listening to music. But by and large, this is a chance for you to find out about this festival, which just keeps getting better and better every year under Eric's leadership and the EJ C'S leadership. So Art Lab is a co-sponsor for the Jewish Music Festival, and we would love for you to benefit from this thing. So after you hear the episode, go to the show notes, get your tickets right away, and I look forward to seeing you there. In the meantime, enjoy my conversation with Eric Stern about the Portland Jewish Music Festival. The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Jewish Arts and Culture. Theme music by Rabbi Josh Rose. Links Art/Lab: artlabpdx.org Jewish Music Festival: https://ejcpdx.org/pjmf26 Yair Dalal (headlining the PJMFestival): https://www.yairdalal.com

    30 min

  5. 8 APR

    S3E41 Is Music the Purest form of Spirituality? (Michelle Alany)

    Welcome to the genesis. In this episode, I talk with violinist, vocalist, and composer Michelle Elani, who was part of the first art lab cohort way back when. She is a musician who weaves together different musical and cultural universes into a totally unique and beautiful fabric. Michelle has lit up a great many venues with her music. She's toured internationally with both her own music. And is a supporting artist in various capacities around Europe. She's toured with a fusion rock driven Viking blues band. She's played with the Trans Siberian Orchestra and then sold out theaters performing silent movie film scores in Texas, and she's brought music to packed jazz and blues Listening rooms in Austria led raucous jams and Chilean bars, as well as other international dives and halls. Not to mention an ongoing gig that she has at her current hometown of Portland, Oregon, where she plays regularly at the Laurelthirst. Flowing into her musical soul, into her sound is her background in classical music. Traditional and original Sephardic. That is Judeo Spanish music, Balkan in Israeli song, klezmer, jazz, blues, rock. It's all in there. Michelle and I talk about family musical calling and the search for a sound that feels rooted and free. We discussed the role that music played in her upbringing, how her Jewish identity finds its way into her work and her projects, and what it takes to find one's unique voice. As an artist, but for me, the core and the most delightful part of this conversation is our discussion about the spiritual quest that is part of musical expression. Take a listen. See what  the show notes contain so you can find her recorded music and take in a performance of hers here in Portland or wherever you might be listening here and beyond. Thanks so much for listening to the genesis. The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Jewish Arts and Culture. Theme music by Rabbi Josh Rose.   Links Art/Lab: artlabpdx.org Michelle Alany: michellealany.com, @michellealanymusic, facebook.com/michellealany, youtu.be/JHoX4USW_zE. , www.youtube.com/live/yzXBAX9tFdk?si=Zr89g-QzBlGLup0N, www.youtube.com/live/HVX3vjceVZ0?si=Hviveui1eOfKRtHa Michelle's Allbums: michellealany.bandcamp.com/ Barbès Brooklyn: barbesbrooklyn.com LaurelThirst Public House: laurelthirst.com

    43 min

  6. 1 APR

    S3E40 What is the Art of Exodus?

    Rabbi Josh offers a perspective on the artistic significance of the Exodus.

    10 min

  7. 27 MAR

    S3E39 Making Jewish Art & Making Jewish Community ? (w/ Eddy Shuldman)

    In this episode, I speak with Portland fused-glass artist Eddy Shuldman, co-founder of ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists, about the long path by which art, teaching, and Jewish life became inseparable for her. Eddy describes how she first turned to art not out of artistic ambition, but as a discipline of humility while working with at-risk youth: she wanted to keep learning hard things, failing publicly, and modeling perseverance for her students. That path eventually led her from stained glass to fused glass, where, as she puts it, the medium finally came alive for her. We talk about the technical unpredictability of glass, the spiritual intensity of working in a fragile medium, and the way Hebrew letters, liturgy, Torah, and Jewish memory become visual form in her work We discuss the (impossible question of) what makes art Jewish, how artists nourish one another in community, and why ORA has mattered so much in Portland Jewish life. Eddy reflects on ORA's origins, its role in creating exhibition and community space for Jewish artists, and the more elusive but more important work it does in helping people connect Jewishly through creativity. We also talk about a powerful piece she created during COVID in response to anti-Black violence, the spiritual process behind her work, and the way Jewish phrases, texts, and experiences can surface in art even when the Jewish content is not overt.  Enjoy this conversation with Eddy Shuldman.   Links Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts and Culture: artlabpdx.org ORA Northwest Jewish Artists: https://www.northwestjewishartists.org Eddy's Blogspot: https://sparksofspiritglass.blogspot.com Rabbi Goldie Milgram: http://www.reclaimingjudaism.org/

    40 min

  8. 18 MAR

    S3 E38 An Iranian Jewish Painter Beyond Labels (with Dana Nehdaran)

    In this episode, I speak with painter Dana Nehdaran about art, memory, and the complexity of Jewish-Iranian identity. Dana resists being reduced to a label and prefers to think of himself simply as a painter, but our conversation shows how deeply history and identity can still inform an artist's work without confining it. We discuss his upbringing in Iran in a traditional but not especially religious Jewish family, the Jewish community of his hometown, and the way he came to create Esther's Children, his series based on archival photographs of Iranian Jewish life. Dana describes how those images allowed him to explore both his own connection to Jewish history and a broader claim: that Jewish history in Iran is inseparable from Iranian history itself. We also turn to Dana's more recent self-portrait work, especially his "Interrogation Room" series, in which he repeatedly paints himself under stark light as a way of asking, again and again, "Who are you?" That opens into a rich conversation about painting as self-examination, the tension between talent and technique, and the painter's way of seeing color, shadow, and form. Throughout, Dana emerges as both fiercely individual and deeply rooted: an Iranian-born Jewish artist who is wary of identity categories, yet whose work preserves, reimagines, and complicates Jewish-Iranian memory in striking ways. The Genesis: Conversations About Jewish Arts and Culture is conceived of and created by Rabbi Josh Rose, and is a program of Art/Lab: Jewish Arts and Culture. Theme music by Rabbi Josh Rose. Links: Art/Lab: artlabpdx.org Dana's website where you can also encounter the work of his brother Darius Nehdaran: https://www.nehdaran.com/ Dana's Instagram (@dananehdaran_studio):  https://www.instagram.com/dananehdaran_studio/ Dana's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dananehdaran1030 Esther's Children catalogue on Dana's site:  https://www.nehdaran.com/assets/pdf/dana-nehdaran-esther%27s-children-dubai-exhibition-catalogue.pdf Esther's Children (the Book): https://www.facebook.com/houman.sarshar

    37 min
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About

We are right at the beginning of what some have called "The 21st Century Jewish Cultural Renaissance," and The Genesis is the podcast watching it unfold, in real time and up close. Each week Rabbi Josh Rose has a conversation with a different Jewish artist or cultural figure to explore questions of artistic creativity, individual Jewish identity, Jewish expression and how Jewish arts are reshaping what it means to be Jewish. Our main focus in on the artists from Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts and Culture, and Jewish artists in the Pacific Northwest. Rabbi Josh also engages national leaders (Rabbi Shai Held of Hadar, Seth Pinksy of New York's 92nd Street Y) about the broader world of Jewish culture. So, if you're interested in 21st century Jewish life, Jewish ideas, Jewish arts or just good conversation, you're in the right place. *The Genesis was originally a podcast of Co/Lab, founded by Rabbi Josh. Today the Genesis is a production of Art/Lab where Rabbi Josh continues to shape its unfolding.

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