The Old Broadway Synagogue, Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center present: Hanukkah Klezmer Concert & Party Featuring: Jake Shulman-Ment (violin), Alicia Svigals (violin) & Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer) Saturday, December 5 Concert at 7PM, Party at 8PM at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) Suggested donation: $10

Join us for a special Hanukkah concert and party at the Old Broadway Synagogue (15 Old Broadway between 125th & 126th Streets in Manhattan) at 7pm on Saturday night, December 5, 2026. We’ll be featuring three of the contemporary klezmer scene’s leading performers – Jake Shulman-Ment (violin), Alicia Svigals (violin), and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl/hammered dulcimer). A founding member of the Grammy-winning band The Klezmatics, Alicia Svigals has been a pioneering figure in the revival of the klezmer violin tradition. The three musicians come together for a reunion after a successful series of performances in Summer 2026 at the renowned Centrum Fiddle Tunes Festival in Port Townsend, WA. Join us after the concert for a party celebrating the Festival of Lights! Alicia Svigals is celebrated as a pioneering klezmer violinist and a founder of the Grammy-winning band The Klezmatics, which she co-directed for seventeen years. She has written and performed for violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwright Tony Kushner, documentary filmmaker Judith Helfand and singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman. She has appeared on David Letterman, MTV, Good Morning America, PBS’ Great Performances and NPR’s Prairie Home Companion. With pianist Donald Sosin, Svigals has been touring in programs that showcase her newly composed soundtracks for a number of classic Yiddish films.

Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) is at the helm of a new generation of Klezmer and Yiddish music performers. He tours and records internationally in addition to being a widely sought-out teacher of the klezmer fiddle tradition at festivals around the globe. He collected, studied, performed, and documented traditional music in Romania as a Fulbright scholar, and has lived and traveled in Hungary and Greece, learning traditional violin styles. In 2018 he received the prestigious NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Folk/Traditional Arts. He was a featured subject of Csaba Bereczki’s full-length documentary film Soul Exodus, and appears on HBO’s Succession, Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman, and a host of other film and theater productions. Jake’s debut solo album, A Redele (A Wheel) (Oriente Musik, 2012) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. His new group, Midwood, released its first album, Out of the Narrows, (Chant Records) in May 2018. He recently released an album Two Strings (Borscht Beat) with klezmer violinist Abigale Reisman.

Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl) A leading performer, composer and researcher of the Jewish tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and collaborates with a number of leading figures in the contemporary klezmer scene including Andy Statman, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Joel Rubin, Eleonore Biezunski, Michael Alpert, Madeline Solomon, Zhenya Lopatnik, Zoe Aqua, Jake Shulman-Ment, Alicia Svigals, Keryn Kleiman, Eleonore Weill, Alex Parke, and Michael Winograd. Since 2006 he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world. He is a founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, curated the Yiddish program at the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has authored a number of articles on traditional music and culture.

We are grateful for the support of the Atran Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts!

This event is part of CTMD's Sustaining Cultures Program An-sky Institute for Jewish Culture.