Hanukah Concert TOMORROW 7 pm @ Ethical Society & Musical Shabbat this Saturday 4:30 pm @ 1416 Montague

[Sara Schoen]

Tomorrow, December 18th, there will be a Hanukah Concert and Coffee House at Washington Ethical Society featuring DC Musical Shabbat's very own Aaron Shneyer along with his dad Reb David Shneyer, Cantor Jessi and Debi Roemer, and the amazing SongRise women's social justice a capella group.  Family friendly and all are welcome.   We invite you to join this community-wide celebration of freedom featuring local Jewish, folk, and social justice musical performances and a community sing-a-long. Proceeds will benefit Jews United for Justice, the New Israel Fund, and Reb Arthur Waskow's organization the Shalom Center.  Sponsored by the Am Kolel Jewish Renewal Community, the Cheder Jewish Community, Fabrangen, and DC Musical Shabbat, the concert will close with candle lighting, refreshments, and sufganiyot.

Musical Shabbat Janukah will be this Saturday, December 20th at 4:30 pm at 1416 Montague St NW.  RSVP by replying to this email (it's never too late to RSVP, including after the event), and please invite anyone you'd like.  All welcome – ages 0-120, Jewishness completely optional, literally atheist to orthodox.  Feel free to bring fruit or other food to share (or for yourself/your crew), but absolutely no need to bring anything.

2026 DC Musical Shabbat Dates: Jan 17 & 24, Feb 7 (Tu Bishvat) & 28 (Purim!), March 7 & 21, April 4 (Pesakh) & 25, May 9, 16 (Shavuot), & 30, June 6 & 13 

Musical Shabbat Google Calendar   Musical Shabbat Email List

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed financially and for keeping Musical Shabbat in mind for your end-of-year giving.

Check out this documentary on YouTube about some of the people behind DC Musical Shabbat 🎶✡️

Musical Shabbater Shirley is peer-leading no-cost Peaceful Parenting learning sessions at her home in Silver Spring approximately once/month to help moms bring mindfulness, compassion, and Jewish wisdom into their parenting lives. The next gathering will be Sunday, January 4th at 8pm.  Register here, or email Shirley if you have questions.  

“Parenting can be a beautiful, life-affirming journey — and it can also be really hard. If you are a parent, you're likely familiar with the struggle to find the balance between being fully present for the kids and finding time for self care. If you’ve ever found yourself reacting in frustration, putting your own needs aside, or just wishing you could parent with a little more ease, you’re not alone.  Each session includes mindfulness practices, Jewish wisdom, and practical tools to help you navigate parenting challenges while deepening your connection with your kids — and yourself. If you’ve been looking for a way to show up as the parent you want to be, The Peaceful Parent Project is a powerful first step.” 

Ways to support Musical Shabbat:

• Bring instruments (kid or "real"); Play and/or sing along; Lead a song or brakha.
• Bring fruit or other food to share.  

• Help clean up.

• Share ideas, feedback, requests, suggestions, or any other offers of help.
• Contribute financially: As of July 2023, DC Musical Shabbat is funded by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Please continue to support Musical Shabbat both financially and in other ways to help it continue!

      -Easiest way to contribute financially: PayPal shirsh...@gmail.com.

      -Easiest tax-deductible way to contribute financially: Scroll to the bottom of this evite to contribute via Pledge.

      -Tax-deductible via amkolel.org/donate: In step 4 (Additional Information) under "How would you like your gift applied?", select "One of Am Kolel's donor-designated funds" and then "DC Musical Shabbat".   

Musical Shabbat Leader Aaron Shneyer also leads Saturday morning services at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda. Feel free to ask Aaron about it, or reply to this email for more info :)

If you don't yet receive PJ Library books, which celebrate Jewish values and culture for families with children from birth through 12 years old, sign up for free here.

FAQs:

Q: How did this start?
A: My (musical) husband Ari helped volunteer lead services over many years with various congregations around DC. As far back as 2016, we hosted some informal kid Jewish holiday and shabbat gatherings at our house with friends both in Petworth and then after we moved to 16th St Heights in 2021. Ari had always told me he that wanted to lead with other musicians, so in May 2021 I reached out to Aaron Shneyer, a Takoma DC dad and professional musician and service leader we’d met a couple times at a mutual friend’s birthday parties. Turned out that he and his wife Lula had talked about organizing uptown shabbat gatherings, and Lula also used to organize informal shabbat gatherings in Adams Morgan when they lived there. Thankfully they were up for joining forces even though we barely knew each other :). The first Musical Shabbat happened just over 9 months later on March 5th, 2022.  Am Kolel kicked us off with a very generous grant, and from March 2022 until July 2023, Musical Shabbat met once a month. In June 2023, DC Musical Shabbat was awarded Federation funding, enabling us to increase to twice a month starting in September 2023. We are very grateful for the support.

Q: Is DC Musical Shabbat organized by Am Kolel?

A: Am Kolel is DC Musical Shabbat's fiscal sponsor (a role Am Kolel has fulfilled for many startup Jewish groups) but does not organize DC Musical Shabbat.  When Am Kolel offered fiscal sponsorship for what was then just an experiment, we jumped at the opportunity to be able to collect tax-deductible contributions (including from Ari & me) without setting up a separate nonprofit entity. 

Q: What is Shir Shalom?

A: Just a made-up placeholder name that we used at the beginning of this musical shabbat experiment.

[Sara Schoen]

Musical Shabbat this afternoon will be at Seekers Church (276 Carroll St NW, Washington, DC 20012) at 4:30 pm.  We will unfortunately skip food today in order to keep the space clean. 

RSVP by replying to this email if you haven't already (it's never too late to RSVP, including after the event), and please invite anyone you'd like.  All welcome – ages 0-120, Jewishness completely optional, literally atheist to orthodox.  

2026 DC Musical Shabbat Dates: Jan 17 & 24, Feb 7 (Tu Bishvat) & 28 (Purim!), March 7 & 21, April 4 (Pesakh) & 25, May 9, 16 (Shavuot), & 30, June 6 & 13 

Musical Shabbat Google Calendar   Musical Shabbat Email List

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed financially and for keeping Musical Shabbat in mind for your end-of-year giving.