BTogether: A Pre-Rosh Hashanah Community Shabbat Dinner

Join us for an exciting and music-filled evening! We begin at 5:00 p.m. with an intimate performance by Jewish-Moroccan singer and Ashkenaz Festival’s artist-in-residence Neta Elkayam, alongside her husband and musical collaborator, Amit Hai Cohen, bridging Persian, Bukharian, North African and Ashkenazic traditions.

At 6:00 p.m., we transition into an inspiring, musical Shabbat on the Floor-style service led by Aviva Chernick, Cantor Chaim Stern and Cantor Sidney Ezer who will be joined by Neta and Amit.

Following services, we will gather for a delicious community dinner featuring a special performance by the High Holy Day Choir conducted by Asher Farber alongside Cantor Chaim Stern.

Neta Elkayam is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural leader whose work reimagines the musical traditions of North African Jewish communities through a contemporary lens. Leading ensembles across Morocco, Europe, Jerusalem, and New Orleans, she blends Andalusian, Chaabi, and Amazigh traditions with jazz, electronic music, and original composition. Developed in close collaboration with musical director and producer Amit Hai Cohen, her work is rooted in archival research, oral histories, and rare recordings while maintaining a distinctive artistic voice shaped by migration, memory, and belonging. Singing primarily in Moroccan Arabic, Elkayam creates powerful connections between ancestral heritage and contemporary expression. Alongside her musical work, she creates installations, performance art, and paintings exploring memory, displacement, and women’s narratives.

Neta Elkayam has performed at leading festivals and venues worldwide and has received a number of honours, including the ACUM Music Prize, the Sami Michael Award for Social Equality, the Salam Contemporary Arts Forum Prize, the American Sephardi Federation’s Pomegranate Award, and the Trophée Marocains du Monde. She currently teaches at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans.