(Cleveland Jewish News)
The concept is simple: Jews of all walks of life, from across the spectrum – religious, secular and traditional; young and old, from all corners of the world – uniting to experience one full Shabbat together, with no phones, cars or TVs.
The Shabbat Project was introduced in South Africa in 2013 with quite a astonishing effect. On the Shabbat it ran, close to 70 percent of the country’s 75,000 Jews kept Shabbat in full, most for the first time in their lives. Perhaps more significantly, the initiative drew people together in ways never seen before.
Cleveland’s own Jewish women’s band is still hard at work, rehearsing and making music. We wanted to share with our fans what’s new with us:
Gavin Michael George is an eleven year-old student of Antonio Pompa-Baldi who began playing piano at the age of 3 ½. By age eleven, he has had seven professional concerti and many solo performances, both nationally and internationally. Performances locations include Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, Washington D.C.’s Constitution Hall, Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall, Boston, Florida, Italy and Luxembourg. Gavin performed on the Emmy-award winning show From the Top, The CBS Early Show, and The Queen Latifah Show and is featured in a documentary by Radical Media of NYC on their Youtube THNKR series titled PRODIGIES. Gavin has won three international solo and concerto competitions.
