CJN: Kfar from the ordinary: Hip Jewish music hops into town

By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood

When Sarah Aroeste, a sultry singer who mixes ancient Ladino tunes with rock and pop
and who has been called the Jewish Shakira, performs in Chicago on Dec. 6, her show
will be more than just another concert. It will be one more thread tying young, hip Jews to
their ancestral heritage.
Or so Adam Davis, the founder of Kfar Jewish Arts Center and its Tzitzit: Voices from the
Jewish Fringe music series, hopes. The mission of the series, according to Davis, is to
present concerts exploring the threads tying the ancient to the avant-garde.
Since Davis founded Kfar nearly two years ago, he has gone a long way toward
accomplishing that goal. The first concert of this years series, Pharaohs Daughter, drew
hundreds of (mostly) young adults to the HotHouse in October to hear the eclectic Jewish
Mediterranean fusion band. The group also performed at a North Shore synagogue under
Kfars aegis, helping to achieve another part of Davis dream: partnering with mainstream Jewish institutions.
Davis, 31, is no stranger either to music or to things Jewish. He was raised in Deerfield and grew up at Congregation
Bnai Tikvah, where, he says, I came to love music through going to shul. He eventually earned a degree in musical
theater and built a successful career as an actor on Chicago stages.
Yet for all the satisfaction that career path gave him, he began to feel estranged from the Jewish community. Rehearsing
during the week and performing on weekends, he wasnt able to attend Friday night services as he always had. But even
more concerning, he says, was his feeling that, as an artist, he was not like many of the Jews he met through synagogue.
People would be talking about who they were consulting for or what their billable hours were, and Id be talking about
the Sondheim audition, he says. It felt strained socially. I thought, theres got to be a way for me, as a young Jew and an
artist, to connect to the community and to other artists.
At the same time, he was looking at other cities and finding that in some respects Chicago, despite its large Jewish
community, fell short. We didnt have an ongoing Jewish music presence such as New York Citys popular Makor, he
says. Theres a whole new wave of creativity (in Jewish music) thats hit in the last decade, and there has been no venue
for it here. There should be something where we can get together as Jewish artists and connect to the community, give
back to the community with creativity. He stuck that idea in the back pocket for some five years.
By that time, Davis had morphed from the stage into the world of arts and entertainment marketing, and he decided it was
time to give his dream a shot. After first testing the idea through an e-mail list and finding enough interest, he founded
Tzitzit: Voices from the Jewish Fringe, a showcase for new, cutting-edge or alternative Jewish music.
He also founded Tzitzits parent organization, Kfar Jewish Arts Center. It functions as a promoting and producing
organization and an arts agency for young or emerging Jewish musicians, writers, performers and other talents.
When Davis envisioned the music series, he decided that at first he wouldnt present concerts in synagogues or other
mainstream Jewish institutions but at live music clubs, places where you normally wouldnt find Jewish music but you
would find young, unaffiliated Jews.
He first tested his theory in July 2002 by presenting an Australian Jewish punk band called Yidcore at two venues, a small
cafe in Rogers Park and a punk bar in Wicker Park. The first show drew some 60 people; the next night, 150 came.

People came up after the show, Davis recalls. These were truly alternative people. There was a young lesbian couple
literally chained together. They asked the band to play at their wedding. They explained that they wanted a punk rock
wedding and their parents wanted a traditional Jewish wedding. This spoke to them. That was when I knew I was on to
something.
As he continued to produce concerts, Davis says, he discovered that his audience was these young unaffiliated Jews the
community has been panicking over, worrying about assimilation and intermarriage. And we found that those same
people who call themselves cultural Jews-surprise! Theyre interested in Jewish culture. Not necessarily the traditional
hazzanutt (cantorial repertoire) but something that speaks to their contemporary tastes-rock, world music, jazz, sometimes
even rap.
This season, the series second, includes, besides Pharoahs Daughter and Sarah Aroeste, a concert by local Jewish rock
band Even ShSiyah on Dec. 20; plus, in 2004, concerts by the Afro-Semitic Experience, a Jewish/black jazz big band that
uncovers the shared experiences of the Jewish and African American communities; a Purim celebration with a Southern
California band, Rabbinical School Dropouts; a concert by Satlah, an Israeli band that plays avant-garde jazz; and one by
King Djangos Roots and Culture, described as Yiddish Reggae.
Davis calls Sarah Aroeste (pronounced arrow-estay) one of the more exciting young voices in Sephardic music. From
a Greek family, she updates the 500-year-old Ladino songs her family sang with pop or rock arrangements and a sexy,
sultry delivery. (The concert is co-sponsored by Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies.)
Although most of the bands he introduces are imported from other cities, Davis says that the concerts help to develop an
audience for new Jewish music in Chicago and so work to the advantage of local musicians.
Theres a real scene beginning to emerge, he says. The very existence of our organization is a bit of a lightening rod.
This is not just for Jewish musicians interested in Jewish music, but for Jewish musicians in the secular world. They think,
I can explore my culture through my craft.
This year, Davis has tried a new tack: scheduling a second concert for each band at a synagogue at a reduced price to the
congregation. That allows us to provide a service to the rest of the community-to the suburban congregations that are
also trying to reach out to unaffiliated families and even to their own members, who may need an excuse to come to shul
other than the High Holidays, he says. A recent concert by Pharaohs Daughter at Congregation Bnai Tikvah was highly
successful.
Eventually, Davis says he wants to work more closely with local artists as well as to branch out into theater and the visual
arts. Such programs are working in other cities including San Francisco, New York and Atlanta, he says, and he sees no
reason why they shouldnt go over in Chicago as well.
The data is showing us that people arent affiliating with (Jewish) institutions the way they used to, but they are
affiliating culturally as Jews, he says. We have to use that. Theres more to being cultural Jews than bagels and lox. Not
everyone is running to shul, but theyll go see Schindlers List. Theyll go to a Jewish play or a music concert.
And while most artistic directors dream of a venue of their own-after all, maybe the Kfar Jewish Arts Center should really
have a center-Davis isnt so sure thats what he wants.
Part of the appeal is that we operate out of existing arts venues, he says. Young people are often resistant to the idea of
setting foot into a synagogue, so Im not sure we want to go that way. When youre a virtual organization, you can be
everywhere and anywhere. Music venues are where young people go. You want to fish where the fish are.
Sarah Aroeste and her band perform at 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6 at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive, Chicago. Tickets are
$10 in advance, $12 at the door. Even ShSiyah plays a Chanukah concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20 at Jewish
Reconstructionist Congregation, 303 Dodge Ave., Evanston. Tickets are $10. For more information, call (773) 550-1543
or visit www.kfarcenter.com.