Eliana Light returns to Pittsburgh for a weekend of song and spirituality
Concert to be held at the JCC on Saturday night, Nov. 2
Singer/songwriter Eliana Light will perform a concert Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill as part of a full weekend of activities slated for Nov. 1 through 3.
The Durham, North Carolina-based musician and educator also will be the keynote speaker and will lead workshops at Yom Limmud (Day of Learning) for supplemental religious school educators Nov. 3 at Rodef Shalom Congregation.
Other events planned around Light’s visit include a Shabbat dinner and service at Rodef Shalom, and a Saturday morning sermon at Beth Shalom. She also will be featured at a variety of Community Day School programs, including some for students, some professional development for teachers and some workshops for families.
Yom Limmud is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh-area Jewish educators.
“We’re really excited about the weekend,” said Marci Barnes, religious school director at Adat Shalom and co-chair of Yom Limmud. “We have a fantastic program for Sunday, and the concert Saturday will be a lot of fun for all ages, including the littlest kids.”
Adat Shalom and other schools use Light’s music-based curriculum, “Hebrew in Harmony,” to engage students with prayer. Some congregations use her liturgy.
“Eliana is an important figure in the Jewish music world,” said Rabbi Stephanie Wolfe, assistant director of the Joint Jewish Education Program and Yom Limmud co-chair.
“A couple of us had seen her before and she impressed us with what she calls her ‘t’flllahsophy’ —how we have to move beyond the words of a prayer to its meaning.”
Once an aspiring rabbi, Light found her niche in using music as a tool for educating, building community and encouraging spirituality.
Her work is centered on translating prayer practice, liturgy and God concepts in ways that resonate with people of all ages.
Light has been writing songs since she was a child growing up in “a joyous Jewish home” in Memphis, the daughter of a Conservative rabbi and a Jewish educator mother.
After high school, she spent a gap year in Israel and then attended Brandeis University, where she majored in sociology and minored in Jewish studies, theater and writing. She earned a master’s degree in experiential education from the Davidson School at the Jewish Theological Seminary, all the while developing her musical ability.
Training at Hava Nashira in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, for a summer job as song leader at Camp Ramah in Conover, Wisconsin, was transformative.
“Song leader combined all of the things I loved — community building, prayer, spirituality and music,” she said. “I felt that this is what I am meant to be in life.”
Whether she is keynoting a conference or performing a concert, Light engages her audience, getting them to join in song.
“When we sing together we can feel how powerful it is to be connected to each other,” she said. “It helps us to be present and open our hearts. It can be cathartic.”
Although she studied piano as a kid, she eventually switched to guitar and is largely self-taught.
“I never learned to read music, which drove my teachers crazy. I play by ear,” said Light, who used GarageBand software as a young adult to learn guitar chords.
Her music doesn’t reflect a particular genre, but includes a variety of Jewish music traditions like Hassidic niggun as well as bluegrass, folk, soul, oldies and classic rock. “It’s all over the map,” she said. “On iTunes, there’s no category called Jewish music, so I’m classified as world music and gospel.”
Light has recorded four prayerful albums, including “Songs About God,” in which she explores her deeply personal relationship with the Divine; “Shelter Us in Place,” which evolved during the COVID lockdown as a mantra for finding centeredness in an uncertain time; and “Orah Hi,” which was recorded live at a synagogue in Atlanta.
Light holds sacred space and song as artist-in-residence at Beth-El Synagogue in Durham and with synagogues around the country; she was hosted by Temple Sinai last year. In December, she will offer workshops at Limmud Festival 2024 in Birmingham, England.
She also is the founder and head t’fillahsopher of The Light Lab, and co-hosts The Light Lab Podcast where she, fellow musician Rabbi Josh Warshawsky of Bexley, Ohio, and Cantor Ellen Dreskin of Westchester, New York, “play with prayer and hold our liturgy to the light,” Light said.
Her work as part of a core educator team at an annual Songleader Boot Camp in St. Louis, Missouri, draws rave reviews from Wolfe.
“Two of my teachers went to boot camp and adore Eliana,” Wolfe said. “When people get to know her she is so warm and kind — a wonderful person.”
Light’s Pittsburgh concert will be family-oriented. “There will definitely be contemplative moments,” she said, “but it will be high energy and joyous.”
Even when she is not traveling the country teaching and concertizing, music is intrinsic to Light’s life.
So, too, is dance because moving to music, she said, “connects and opens us to the moment.” One of her favorite activities is guiding an early morning dance party through the themes of the Jewish morning-prayer service at the Sarah P. Duke Garden at Duke University.
Her life’s work, she said, fills her with gratitude and awe.
“There’s always one moment during artist in residency when I can’t believe this is my job and I feel really lucky. It takes a lot of trust for a community to bring somebody in for a weekend. I don’t take that for granted,” she said.
“I hope that I am able to bring light and love and spirit to individuals and to uplift the community.” PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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