Reviews:
5/20/10, Buckhead Examiner, New CD from Congregation Bet Haverim Chorus is a winner
4/1/10, Jewish Times Article, "BetHaverim: More to Say"
3/31/10, WABE 90.1 City Café Interview with Gayanne Weiss and Will Robertson
3/16/10, Punktorah.org, "Album Review: The Threshing Floor". 

SOUTHERN JUDAISM REFLECTED IN A CELEBRATION OF DIVERSITY

Atlanta, GA - 3/23/2010 - Congregation Bet Haverim’s (CBH) chorus and instrumentalists have released their second professionally produced CD, The Threshing Floor.

The Threshing Floor offers Jewish music from distant lands and eras, chants, love songs, original songs by congregants, and kindred music from the African-American journey alongside such contemporary pieces as an REM song with spiritual themes.

The selection is “fresh, bringing us a new window into the sacred rainbow, one that looks out across cultures and continents,” said David Berkeley, nationally acclaimed singer-songwriter.

One gets a 60s Greenwich Village feel from this eclectic group of artists, musicians, writers, and congregants from all professions and walks of life. Passionate and joyous singing creates pleasing harmonies that inspire listeners to join hands together, sing along, and dance. “Your choir sounds amazing! I wish I could have your choir sing on my next CD,” said Yofiyah (Susan Deikman), founder of Kabbalistic Kirtan. “I love the energy, sincerity, spirit, naturalness and good timing and tuning of your group.”

This experience of uninhibited spirituality attracts Jews from other Atlanta synagogues who create overflowing crowds in the sanctuary on High Holidays and musical Sabbath celebrations. After the first enthusiastic applause, CBH Rabbi Joshua Lesser gently reminds the congregation that the music is an offering rather than a performance. CBH views The Threshing Floor as a form of “tikkun olam” ("repairing the world"), providing a vessel of music to inspire people to seek more knowledge, spirituality, and inner growth.

The Threshing Floor appeals to all generations as children share the community pride in an album that features a parent, a family friend, or a religious school teacher.  As children adopt songs on the album as personal favorites, they learn to incorporate Judaism into their own lives─the album becoming a bridge for understanding Jewish culture, spiritual values, Hebrew language, and religious knowledge. A metaphor for CBH, the threshing floor was a heart-center of the biblical community where villagers would bring their grain crops at harvest and thrash the stalks, separating the chaff from the wheat.

CBH began 25 years ago as a safe space for gay and lesbian Jews to join together spiritually without having to hide. Since then, CBH has grown as people discover the refreshing openness and celebration of diversity that the synagogue offers, attracting Jews of all hues and sexual orientations.

“Our approach to openness and accepting people the way they are is rooted in Jewish and even in some biblical values,” explained Rabbi Lesser.  “We are not flouting Jewish values─we are embodying them.  And because we are open, it allows creativity to emerge as a powerful strength.” 

About Congregation Bet Haverim
The mission of Congregation Bet Haverim is to provide contemporary Jewish spiritual, educational, cultural, and social experiences in which an individual can integrate the practice of Judaism with other aspects of life, including social consciousness, intellectual curiosity, sexual orientation, and familial bonds. The synagogue serves and supports the lesbian and gay community and promotes the Reconstructionist concept of Judaism as an evolving religious civilization.

For track list and online liner notes─including lyrics, translations, and song samples─please visit http://www.congregationbethaverim.org/music.asp

To request a review copy or set up an interview with the music director, please email gayanne.weiss@comcast.net or call 404-315-6446.

Click here for the pdf version.