9:30-10 am: Breakfast meet-and-greet
10:00 am: Event

How do we find our focus and navigate longing, heartbreak, enlightenment, and intense joy as we pray?  How do we find our own voice and join the community in rapturous song, a quiet melody or meaningful silence? Join us for a "hands-on" prayer experience of discovery and practice.

Rabbi Roly Matalon and Yair Harel, founders of Piyut North America, will lead participants in song with global Jewish music on oud and percussion incorporating Sephardic music and original devotional melodies.

José Rolando Matalon, B’nai Jeshurun’s Senior Rabbi, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was educated in Buenos Aires, Montreal, Jerusalem, and New York City.  Rabbi Matalon is a founding co-director of Piyut North America, a partnership between B’nai Jeshurun and Hazmanah Le-Piyut in Israel. A student of Arabic and Turkish music, he plays the ‘ud (Arabic lute).

Yair Harel is a world-renowned Israeli performer, artistic director, and community organizer, active in the revival and contemporary interpretation of the ancient art of Piyut (liturgical Hebrew poetry) in Israel and abroad, that has revolutionized the face of Israeli culture in the last decade.
He is the Hazan and Music Director of congregation ZION in Jerusalem. Founder and Editor in chief of the Invitation to Piyut website, the artistic director of The Jerusalem Piyut Festival and the Ben Zvi Piyut Vocal Ensemble.
Together with R. Rolando Matalon from Congragation Bnei Jeshurun in NY he has founded Piyut North America (2011).