Klezmer Jewish Wedding Music: An Introduction & Live Outdoor Musical Performance

This Jewish Heritage Month, Join MPL in the beautiful gardens of Thornhill Village Library for a discussion and performance of Klezmer music!

Klezmer is Ashkenazic (Eastern and Central European) Jewish Wedding Music. Klezmer begins appearing in the 14th century as a way to accompany week-long wedding celebrations, and finds its origins in Balkan and Roma music cultures. Each part of the wedding has its own musical themes and styles, and Rabbi Weiss, along with his son Jacob, will share some of the classic Klezmer song styles, as well as their part in the traditional Jewish wedding.

*Refreshments will be provided!

About Rabbi Weiss:

Rabbi Cory Weiss began his tenure as the Rabbi of Temple Har Zion in Thornhill, Ontario in July, 2006. He is a member of the Toronto Board of Rabbis, the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto, and is past president of the Greater Toronto Interfaith Clergy Curling Club. Rabbi Weiss serves as a York Regional Police Chaplain.

Rabbi Weiss received his rabbinical ordination at the New York campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1993. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1986 from the University of Michigan, where he studied French horn, composition, and Judaic Studies.

Rabbi Weiss is a composer, who has written compositions for synagogues throughout North America, and has a number of pieces published by Transcontinental Music. In 2013, he was commissioned to write a setting of Psalm 100 for the Curling Club’s Interfaith Choir Concert.

Rabbi Weiss has served on the Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and on the editorial board of the Reform Movement’s prayerbook for youth and families, Mishkan T’filah L’No’ar.

Rabbi Weiss is currently working toward a Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree, with a focus on Aramaic Additions to the biblical Book of Esther.

Rabbi Weiss lives in Thornhill with his wife Karen, who is a professional Jewish Educator. He is very proud of their two sons, Michael, a rabbi serving in Hamilton, ON, and Jacob, who is studying to be a Social Service Worker.