Photo: Erika Kapin Photography
Joey Weisenberg is the founder and director of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute, and is the author of Building Singing Communities and The Torah of Music, winner of a 2017 National Jewish Book Award.
A devoted student and teacher of traditional Jewish melodies, Joey’s courses in Jewish song and prayer have enabled students worldwide to study Jewish song and prayer. Joey also composes new niggunim that have moved and inspired people around the world. His ninth album of original music, Selah, was released by Rising Song Records in March 2025. Check it out on bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes.
To learn more about Joey Weisenberg, please see the March-April issue of the Tikvat Israel Bulletin.
Photo by Larry M Levine
Cantor Rochelle Helzner has served the Tikvat Israel/Beth Tikva community since the fall of 1984. She was the first female cantor in a Conservative congregation in the Washington area. Since her appointment, she has inspired our congregation and the community through her davening, teaching and mentoring. Under her leadership, the congregation has established many programs that continue to fulfill the musical, educational and spiritual needs of the community, including a Purim puppet production, and a yearly innovative concert.
Cantor Helzner graduated from Douglass College, Rutgers University, with a degree in music, theater and art. Her cantorial training was received through apprenticeships with such notable hazzanim as Jeffrey Nadel, Arnold Saltzman, Max Wohlberg and Robert Kieval.
A ba’al tefillah, rabbi and composer, Rabbi Yosef Goldman weaves ancient devotional music from his Mizrahi and Ashkenazi heritage alongside contemporary American and Israeli Jewish sacred music to foster healing, connection and social change. His original compositions are sung in synagogues, schools, and camps across North America and Israel, and can be found on his two albums of original music, Open My Heart (2019) and Abitah (2023). Rabbi Goldman’s newest project is Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project. Kedmah’s first album, Simu Lev, was released this past year with Rising Song Records. Rabbi Goldman holds rabbinic ordination with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling from JTS, and most recently co-led congregation Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, Md., with his wife, Rabbi Annie Lewis. Yosef and his family live in Brooklyn.
A Latin Grammy-nominated percussionist, Shawn Hennessey is also a prolific songwriter and producer based in Philadelphia. He performs regularly with a variety of notable artists, including bassist Bakithi Kumalo of Paul Simon’s band, Uprooted featuring Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root, Bollywood star Jeffrey Iqbal, Trinidelphia, Ryan Tennis, The Disco Biscuits and Don McCloskey.
Trombonist and composer Dan Blacksberg is one of the premier practitioners of modern and traditional klezmer on the trombone, and is an established voice in experimental music. With work spanning avant-garde jazz, modern classical music, improvised music and klezmer, Blacksberg has developed a complex style to carve out new spaces for the trombone in modern experimental and Jewish music.
Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer specializing in contemporary and traditional Jewish music from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Yoni Avi Battat maintains an active performance schedule across the country, playing violin, viola and oud in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects spanning a wide range of styles.
