Voices of Joy at Adath Israel

This Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., Congregation Adath Israel presents "A Jewish A Cappella Concert" featuring Magevet (Yale) and Shir Appeal (Tufts).  Both groups have a long history of performing on campus, in Congregations and concert halls in the United States and around the world.  The concert takes place in the small sanctuary on the first floor of the synagogue.  If you look closely at the poster above, you'll see that the concert is being billed as "Elephants and Towels" -  read on.

Shir Appeal (pictured above) was founded in 1995 and is the only mixed-gender vocal group on the Tufts campus.  They perform a wide range of material, from Israeli classics (such as "Yerushalayam Shel Zahav" to Sabbath prayers ("Lecha Dodi") to contemporary songs ("Like The Dawn" by The Oh Hellos) by arranged by members and former members of the ensemble.   The mix of voices, harmonies, beats, and more makes Shir Appeal's music attractive to listeners of all ages and faiths. The ensemble has issued 10 CDs with the latest being 2016's "Perspective."  To find out more, go to www.shirappeal.com.  Tufts University mascot is Jumbo the Elephant - go to www.tufts.edu/about/jumbo to find out more about the monicker and the story behind it.

Magevet (above) has also been in existence since the mid-1990s, one of many vocal groups on the Yale campus.  Their repertoire also ranges from liturgical melodies to contemporary Israeli pop songs to pieces sung in Ladino (a combination of Spanish and Portuguese with Hebrew, Aramaic, Ottoman Turkish languages) to Yiddish classics.  Various versions of Magevet, (a Hebrew word that translates to "towel" - maybe they will explain - well, they better), have recorded eight albums since 1995, the latest being "Naveh Katan (a Small Oasis)" released in late 2016.  For more information, go to magevet.weebly.com.  

The concert is free and open to the public.  Thanks goes to the Edythe and Arthur Director Family Music Fund for sponsoring the concert. The goal of the Fund is to provide members of the Adath Israel community as well as the Greater Middletown community access to entertainment from around the world, artists and performers who work to illustrate the great scope of Jewish culture.  

Parking directly behind Adath Israel, 8 Broad Street, is not allowed but there is plenty of free on-street parking as well as several parking lots in the area (for instance, the lot behind the former Wesleyan bookstore on William Street or several lots off of Church Street). 

For more information, call the Synagogue office at 860-346-4709.  

Wesleyan claws back but loses by a fingernail to Tufts

The Wesleyan men's basketball team lost a heartbreaker this evening to Tufts. We arrived with 8 minutes left in the game. Tufts was up by about 5 or 6. The Jumbos soon extended that lead to 7, but two consecutive three pointers (one by the tallest man on the team that brought incredulous hoots from his friends behind us) put the Cardinals within 1 with only a minute or so left. Things looked promising until a Wesleyan power forward was called for traveling while trying to drive the lane. There had been a questionable traveling call earlier in the game, but this one looked reasonable. With only 9 seconds remaining and still down by one, Wesleyan was forced to foul as soon as Tufts inbounded the ball. This put Tufts on the free throw line. Tufts then proceeded to miss the front end of a one-and-one. Poor boxing out however allowed one of the Tufts forwards to snag the rebound. Wesleyan was forced to immediately foul again, putting Tufts on the line yet again. And again Tufts missed the front end of the one-and-one. But Wesleyan decided they didn't want the rebound this time either, and let the shooter grab it instead. Wesleyan fouled a third time, and again Tufts went to the line -- and yes, you guessed it, the Tufts player missed again. Finally the Cardinals decided to grab the rebound and fed it to the guard, who drove the ball up the right side of the court. The clock was at about 5 seconds, ticking down. It almost looked like there might be a replay of the Amherst game, but the long shot fell slightly short and rattled of the rim and backboard. Fortunately, the Wesleyan center was perfectly placed to push the ball back in, but his attempt fell just shy -- and the clock ran out.

A tough loss, but a great game nonetheless. Particularly impressive were some of the set offense plays. One involved a tricky double pick, where the inside pick rolled slyly to the basket and was fed the ball by the guard for an easy lay-up. This was with about 4 minutes remaining.

And if all that wasn't exciting enough, we then headed over to Beckham Hall and caught the last two hours of the jam-packed Contra Dance. Lots of dancers of all ages, and a wonderfully talented band.

[photo courtesy of Mark Masselli]

Post-script: The Wesleyan men's basketball team plays Bates tomorrow at 2. And the women's ice hockey team plays Connecticut College at 3.