Hillel brings Jewish music to Bloomington

The music from "Fiddler on the Roof" is probably the only Jewish music some people have heard. But this coming Saturday, the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center hopes to bring a wider variety of Jewish music to the Bloomington community with its annual Evening of Jewish Music.\nThe Evening of Jewish Music is in its 11th year of existence. Sue Shifron, the rabbi at Hillel, said the event was started by a student at the time.\n"She took it upon herself to organize the whole thing," Shifron said. "Ever since then we've been doing it."\nSheryl Rosen, Hillel's program director, said this year there will be about eight or nine performers in the event, with majors ranging from vocal performance to education to Jewish studies.\n"A pretty broad mixture of people are performing," Rosen said. "(One performer) is singing and playing piano, an original piece that she made, which is really neat."\nRosen said she hopes the event will help to bring Bloomington's Jewish community together.\n"I don't think there's a very close tie between the Jewish community members and the Jewish students on campus, so bringing them together shows there are students who care about it," she said.\nOne such student is Philip Ohriner, a senior at IU studying vocal performance and Jewish studies. This is his first year participating in the Evening of Jewish Music. Ohriner will be going into cantorial school after he graduates.\n"(Jewish music) is something that isn't really expounded upon very much, even within the Jewish community, so it's really important that all types of Jewish music are expressed and performed," he said.\nOhriner will be performing music that his brother, Mitchell, composed. It accompanies text from "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," a book comprised of poems written by children in concentration camps during the Holocaust.\n"Yom Hashoa (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is coming up, so that was an appropriate time to do the cycle," Ohriner said. "Especially since all the poems are written by children, they're really poignant on what the situation was like in the concentration camps. I wanted to show a more positive light on the atrocities that went on (during the Holocaust)."\nShifron, Ohriner and Rosen all said this event will help to show a wide variety of Jewish culture. They also said it is important for the event to continue to grow.\n"It's getting bigger and bigger, and that's really positive," Ohriner said. "I think (Hillel) needs to make sure that each year as it gets bigger and bigger, it incorporates more and more types of Jewish music."\nRosen said word of mouth is also very important in helping to make this event grow.\n"As word of mouth gets out it can get to be a lot larger, and a lot more people will know about it and come to enjoy it," she said.\nShifron said one way for the event to continue to grow is to have professors become involved in it. She said she hopes the event continues as time goes on.\n"I really hope that we can continue to bring it to the community," Shifron said. "(I hope) that it becomes something people look forward to every year."\nThe Evening of Jewish Music will take place 8 p.m. Saturday, April 6 at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center. For more information, call 336-3824 or e-mail hillel@indiana.edu.