Cantor's Concert!

The Great Eli Schliefer addressing the crowd before the cantorial concert Thursday night.

The C-Squad taking our bows along with Monica, our pianist, after a successful concert.

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well. Sorry for the lack of posting this week; finals are quickly approaching and my workload is becoming increasingly heavier by the day. BUT---I am officially less than 3 weeks away from coming home, which provides a beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. Don't get me wrong--I love being in Israel--but I'm super excited to come home to my family and my dog and the plethora of friends coming to visit me.

This past Thursday night, the cantors were involved in the annual Cantor's Concert. We put on a show of Yiddish, Ladino, and liturgical art song in both solo and ensemble arrangements. The show went on beautifully; all of us sang well, we blended as a group (which is difficult to accomplish, not only because we're all sopranos) and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it. The concert was held in the synagogue at HUC, and it was packed to the brim with HUC students and faculty, many of our families (sadly, not my family), my voice teacher, and many community members. It was so wonderful to look into the crowd and see so many happy faces supporting all of us.

I sang 2 pieces, one Ladino and one Yiddish. The Ladino piece was a fun song called "Yo men amore dun aire", or "I Feel in love in with an air." It had a lot of tra-la-la's and required a good bit of performance, so it was incredibly fun for me to sing. The Yiddish piece I sang was called "Fun Vayte Teg", or "From far away days" and was a powerful song about reconnecting with Gd. Both pieces really allowed me to show what I can do as a singer, and brought back such good memories of preparing for and performing recitals. It's been awhile since I've performed anywhere else than the bimah, so it was amazing for me to reconnect with the energy and excitement of a good, live performance.

BTW, Steph took video of the Yiddish piece I sang, and she's working on putting it online. I'll post it as soon as it's available.

In other news, this Saturday I met up with some old friends who are here on a Birthright trip. I haven't seen Jessica or Allyson in a long time, so we sat in their hotel (Birthright trips keep a very tight leash on their participants for obvious security reasons, so they weren't allowed to leave the hotel) and chatted for 2 hours. It was neat to hear about their trip and their first experience in Israel, and even nicer to see some people from home. Rabbi Franken is leading a trip here next week, and I am hoping to not only see them, but to participate in leading a Shabbat service with my friend Jen for them. Not only is Rabbi Franken leading, but my cousin Bryan is in his group, as is my friend Marti's daughter Marissa. I'm very excited to see all of them and be a part of their Israel experience. I hope their time here is as fulfilling and meaningful to them as mine was to me.

Anyways, other than that my life is reading and writing and homework and studying and stressing and preparing for finals and saying a lot of prayers. Thanks for the support and good wishes, everyone...I can't wait to see you all when I get home in 19 days!!!

I get to come home to the Noah-dog, the most amazing dog on the face of the planet, in 19 days!!! And my family still thinks I'm coming home to see them...yeah right :)