Rising Song

Target Population

Rising Song circles and online resources attract music lovers and musicians of all ages. The Rising Song Fellowship targets adult musicians, including rabbis, cantors, and nonprofessional musicians from all spectrums of the Jewish world.

Jewish Knowledge/Engagement Level of Participants

While most Rising Song Fellows are currently steeped in Jewish music and are often rabbis or cantors, some have traveled much less traditional Jewish paths, and participants in Rising Song circles and users of the online resources come from enormously diverse Jewish backgrounds and levels of Jewish learning.

Primary Goals

“We dream of a world where life is beautiful, and people are singing together.” Rising Song’s primary goal is to dramatically increase the amount of, and participation in Jewish song across North America, and even globally. The Rising Song Fellowship aims to give high-level artists and spiritual music practitioners community and support for their endeavors, which include facilitating singing and music in their own Jewish communities. The online resources and Rising Song circles are designed to make participating in and leading Jewish song accessible to all Jews.

Brief Description

Rising Song offers different points of entrée to Jewish music. The organization offers master classes based on a growing library of hundreds of online videos on topics from prayers for the high holidays, to learning Shabbat davening, to an entire series on how to teach melodies and act as a facilitator, including how to set up the room, hold yourself, and other aspects of facilitation. At the time of this writing, the library holds around 600 videos. Additionally, Rising Song has begun assisting groups of people in various communities to create a Rising Song circle comprising people who are not a choir but want to improve their singing—groups who sign up receive a syllabus that takes them through six weeks of self-directed study. Lastly, the Rising Song Fellowship is a nine-month, cohort-based program composed of three retreats over which participants focus on a musical project of their choosing. Between retreats, participants engage in ongoing online Torah study in chevruta.