Action for Post-Soviet Jewry
24 Crescent Street, Suite 306, Waltham, MA 02453
(781)893-2331 FAX (781)647-9474 E-Mail: [email protected]

The Nigun Chamber Ensemble, founded by Elena Neplok, will perform a concert of Jewish music to benefit Action for Post Soviet Jewry (APSJ) on Wednesday May 19, 7:00 P.M. at Temple Israel of Boston. Funds raised through this concert will benefit Action’s Adopt-a-Bubbe program, which provides food, medicine, clothing and other necessities for more than 1,500 Jewish pensioners living in eastern Ukraine and parts of Belarus and Moldava.

“This concert will help us with our mission to sustain life for people who live in a country where they are struggling to survive,” says Action Executive Director Judy Patkin. “We are thrilled that three of the six Nigun musicians to perform for us are themselves émigrés from the FSU. We hope their outreach on behalf of others there will make other émigrés living here want to join with us in this effort.”

Nigun grew from a group Neplok originally organized in 1991 in St. Petersburg. “It was considered daring to perform Jewish music at that time. People in the audience stood crying and wouldn’t let us leave,” says Neplok. Yelena Neplok formed the Nigun Chamber Ensemble again in Boston in 1997, three years after she emigrated to the U.S. A graduate of the Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music in St. Petersburg, she holds a Master’s in Piano from the St. Petersburg Conservatory and is Artist in Residence at Hebrew College. Other members of the ensemble include soprano Valerie Shleppi, baritone David Kravitz, Sargis Karapeyan on violin, Mark Margolies on clarinet and Cynthia Forbes on cello.

The Adopt-a-Bubbe program cares for pensioners, Holocaust survivors and younger family members. Tickets are $25, $20 for seniors and students. For tickets or to find out more about Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, call the office at (781)893-2331 or E-mail at [email protected].

Контакт: Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, 781-893-2331