Upcoming Hanukkah Concert at Jewish Heritage Museum

The welcomes back the "Hester Street Troupe" on Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. Presented by Alan Sweifach and Jay Sweifach, the performance will be a fantastic and joy-filled Klezmer concert featuring the bothers playing keyboard and clarinet.  The concert will also showcase Tom Mulvaney playing the drums. Performing for over 30 years, their programs consist of Klezmer, songs from Yiddish vaudeville, as well as classic older songs and comedy.

Klezmer music, sometimes called Jewish or Yiddish folk music, is a unique blend of traditional Eastern European secular melodies, popular dances, and Hasidic liturgies. It originated in the Middle Ages in the shelters and ghettos of Eastern Europe where itinerant Jewish troubadours known as "Klezmorim" performed at weddings and other joyful events. It followed the Jews in the Diaspora, incorporating the musical traditions of the people surrounding them, including Slavic, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Gypsy. The Holocaust nearly wiped out Klezmer music along with most of Yiddish culture but, in the 1970s it was embraced and revered by countless American and European classical, jazz, and folk musicians who ecstatically responded and added to its expressive rhythms and songs.

The Museum is located at 310 Mounts Corner Drive in Freehold. Admission for the event is $15 for members and $18 for non-members. Make your reservations early as their previous performance sold out. It is a not for profit organization and is handicapped accessible.  For further information or to order tickets call the Museum at (732)252-6990 or visit its website, www.jhmomc.org