Cantor Eyal Bitton Lecture: The Sacred Music of Moroccan Jews

Havdallah Cafe Series!

Through lecture and song, Cantor Eyal Bitton examines various elements of Moroccan sacred music - synagogue song, cantillation of sacred texts, the piyut (liturgical poetry), and life cycle songs. Moroccan Jews have a very rich and proud religious culture, and a varied and ancient musical tradition, reflecting its Moroccan milieu, its Andalusian heritage, and more.

Morocco is known for Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic liturgical music, including psalms, baqashot (supplications), and piyyutim (poems sung at Jewish life cycle events, holidays and at pilgrimages to the tombs of Jewish saints). Baqashot and piyyutim are influenced by the mystical religious tradition of Kabbalah and have been sung by Sephardic Moroccan men for centuries on Shabbat before dawn.

Cantor Eyal Bitton has a B.A. in Jewish Studies from McGill University, studied the cantorial arts under Cantor David Nemtzov and Cantor Benjamin Z. Maissner, and is a member of the Cantors Assembly. His liturgical compositions and arrangements have been performed in North America and in Europe. As a recording artist, he appears on his 2008 CD, High Holiday Memories: Timeless Moroccan & Sephardi Classics, and on Kol Nidre: New Visions, recorded live in Paris, France in 2017. Cantor Bitton is also a composer, lyricist, and playwright who has penned several musicals and oratorios which have been produced in Canada, the United States, Kenya, and China.

Doors: 6:30 PM

Lecture: 7 PM

All ages, free and open to the public

This Thursday lecture event pairs perfectly with the Seffarine Havdallah Cafe concert of Moroccan music two days later on Saturday night January 21!

Host or Publisher EJC