Saturday night was the annual Long Night of the Synagogues, part of the Jewish Cultural Days that came to an end on Sunday evening. I wasn’t really planning on attending, but news of a concert by the Berlin Synagogue Choir (yeh - who knew?) a mere three blocks from my house roused me from my computer. I sped over to the Fraenkelufer Synagogue, a traditional congregation by the Landwehrkanal, a tree-lined tributary of the Spree that runs between Kreuzberg and its southern neighbor Neukölln. I was a few minutes late and had to make my way up to the ezrat nashim, or Women’s Gallery. Entering the sanctuary, I was stunned to discover how pack it was, and stared down from the gallery at the sea of black nylon yarmulkes bending in the direction of the choir loft, where the aforementioned “Berlin Synagogue Choir” (Berliner Synagogalchor)- five women and one of the synagogue’s chazzanim (cantors), Jochen Fahlenkamp, performed under the direction of Monika Almekias-Siegl, who accompanied on the electric organ.

The hour-long program consisted mostly of liturgical pieces, the majority plucked from Kabalat Shabbat, the tuneful Friday night service that welcomes in the sabbath day. The one exception was a lovely rendition of “Eli, Eli,” the well-known song based on the poem Halikha LeKesariya by the Hungarian-Jewish poet Hannah Szenes, who died as a partisan during the Second World War.

Here are some musical selections from that evening. Enjoy!