MLK Day concert to include civil rights songs and Yiddish folk songs
The event will take place in a synagogue where Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
By Moishele Alfonso December 20, 2024
On January 19, 2025, the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a concert — Soul to Soul. It will feature Yiddish folk songs, civil rights songs, jazz, spirituals and theater songs. All Yiddish songs will be accompanied by supertitles.
The celebration is actually taking place in the very synagogue where Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke more than 65 years ago. The synagogue’s namesake, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and today it continues to advocate for social justice and equality.
Zalmen Mlotek, the artistic director of the Folksbiene, conceived Soul to Soul in 2010. The upcoming concert will include performances by a children’s choir from the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Harlem’s IMPACT Repertory Theatre and the Abraham Joshua Heschel School.
Soul to Soul will explore the parallels between the Jewish and African-American experiences in the struggle for civil rights in the United States, including songs of protest against racism and antisemitism, while bringing a message of hope for the future.
You can purchase tickets here.
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong name of the synagogue where the concert will be held. It is the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, not the Stephen Rice Free Synagogue.
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