The Afro-Semitic Experience World Music Concert at Beth El Temple Center - A joyful exploration of music and community

The Paula Lerner Visiting Artist Program Presents

The Afro-Semitic Experience

at Beth El Temple Center

2 Concord Avenue, Belmont

Saturday, April 30 at 4:00 pm – Workshop

The Afro-Semitic Experience will demonstrate a collaborative process of transforming sacred music into jazz and share their personal experiences with Black/Jewish relations. Merging their musical roots, Jewish and Afro-diasporic melodies and grooves, they combine the core concepts of àse and shalom - power, action, unity, and peace. Teenage and adult musicians and singers of all abilities are welcome – bring your instrument.

Saturday, April 30 at 7:15 pm – Havdalah & Concert

The Afro-Semitic Experience concert is a celebration including music, stories and a core message: Unity in the Community. Their vibrant performance will have you up and dancing, not to mention whoopin’, hollerin’, and testifyin’!

The workshop and concert are free, but advance registration is required.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE

Come engage in this joyful exploration of music, cultures and unity in our community!

ABOUT THE PAULA LERNER VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM

Paula Lerner, a dear friend and former member of Beth El Temple Center, died of breast cancer on March 6, 2012 at the age of 52. In both her life and work, Paula was an inspiring human being. A gifted, award-winning photographer and journalist, Paula was ceaselessly curious about the world and people. She was brave and fiercely determined when it came to sharing stories that she felt needed to be told such as “Behind the Veil,” her Emmy award-winning photojournalism work about the women of Afghanistan. She was energetic, adventurous and fearless, whether rock climbing in Massachusetts or taking powerful, compelling photos in Kandahar. Always passionate about social justice, especially efforts to protect the rights of women and children around the world, Paula also was smart, funny, generous and wonderfully creative as an artist, musician, writer, and teacher. Most important of all, for many of us, she also was a beloved and cherished friend.

Paula deeply loved Beth El Temple Center and the community that she, her husband, Thomas Dunlap, and their daughters, Maia and Eliana found here. Whether singing and strumming her guitar around the fire on Temple camping trips, chanting Haftorah on the High Holy Days, taking part in a variety of adult learning programs, Shabbat services or Purim shpiels, sharing our work of social justice or simply laughing and celebrating with Temple friends, Paula was a lovely and treasured part of the fabric of our community for many years.

Because this community was so dear to Paula and because she meant so much to our shared life, the Lerner-Dunlap family and the Beth El Temple Board of Trustees have established “The Paula Lerner Visiting Artist Program” and the “Paula Lerner Visiting Artist Fund.”

Each year, Beth El Temple Center will invite an artist or group of artists whose work is significant for the Jewish community to come and share their art with us.

Donations to the Paula Lerner Visiting Artist Fund are encouraged in order to establish a strong base for many programs over the years to come. Please donate via the BETC website at http://betheltemplecenter.org/donate (select the Paula Lerner Visiting Artist Fund from the campaign dropdown menu) or send your check made out to BETC and note “Paula Lerner Visiting Artist Fund” in the memo. Thank you!