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Lisa and Debby with the Temple Beth El Choir
Marvelous Madison
May 8, 2012
The weather was stormy but the atmosphere warm and cosy in Madison WI this past weekend where Lisa presented "Cuba Revisited" with Cantor Debby Martin. The Temple Beth El Choir joined the duo as they sang and narrated their way through their recent Mission to Cuba. The evening was a rousing success thanks to Jackie Foreman on percussion, Marty Griffin on violin and Ted Reinkey on piano. Thanks to everyone who made the evening such as great success!
Standing Ovation
Standing Ovation at Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
Mar 19, 2012
Cantor Lisa was joined by her colleagues Cantor Robert Gerber, Josh Milton and Anabel Milton to sing selections from the Gershwin Songbook at Temple Shalom this past Sunday. Members of the Danville Quartet performed Gershwin arrangements while Louis Levine accompanied much of the songbook selections on trumpet.The audience jumped to their feet after Andrew Stewart and Paul Carroll's four hand rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue which capped off the concert. Many thanks to everyone who turned out to enjoy the spectacular afternoon of music.
Concert at Centro Sephardi Synagogue, Havana
Adventures in Jewish Cuba
Feb 25, 2012
Lisa's fourth humanitarian Mission to Cuba with Temple Shalom of Chevy Chase and Bethesda Jewish Congregation under the leadership of Rabbi Sunny Schnitzer also included her colleagues Cantors Dana Anesi and Debra Martin and Sephardic song man Gerard Edery with Polish mezzo-soprano Malgorzata Panko. The highlights included a concert at the newly renovated Synagogue Sephardi in Havana, the city of Santi Spiritus and the distant city of Camaguay. Shabbat services Friday eve and Saturday morning in Santa Clara were magnificent and honored two upcoming Cuban B'nai Mitzvah students, providing the ultimate Jewish Cuban spiritual experience. Always an adventure, this trip proved to be particularly festive with Gerard Edery serenading the crowds wherever we went including Cienfuegos and Caibarrien, outlying communities. Many hundreds of pounds of humanitarian goods were delivered to each Jewish community and family, along with support and friendship. Visits to all the Jewish cemeteries and the Holocaust Memorial in Santa Clara where all the leaders were presented with copies of the newly minted documentary DVD of the project in which Lisa is featured, were distributed. It was an unforgettable mission where we connected with old friends, made new friends and ran into colleagues along the way. May we continue to support the Jews of Cuba through our tzedakah and humanitarian aid. They very much need everything we can give them. To read more about Cuba go to the archived articles from previous missions in 2005, 2007 and 2009. To donate go to: http://thecajm.org www.bnaibrith.org/cubanjewishrelief
The Moody Jews Band with Lisa After the Service
Popular in San Pedro
Feb 6, 2012
The congregation was full for all of Lisa's programs as Artist-in-Residence at Temple Beth El in San Pedro. Friday Night's Soulful Shabbat Ruach with the Youth Choir and Moody Jews was Rockin! Shabbat Morning's Yoga Shalom service and book signing was a major hit. Saturday night's concert "My Songs for the Jews of Cuba" also attracted a great audience. Many thanks to Cantor Ilan Davidson for putting the entire weekend together! It was a beautiful setting in which to meet the amazing people who are part of the Temple's community.
MLK Commemoration at Temple Shalom
Jan 15, 2012
The congregation was filled for our annual MLK Celebration featuring the Wilson HS Choir under the direction of Lori Williams, The Boys and Girls Club of DC TAP Camp under the direction of Tony Small and The Washinton Revel Jubilee Voices. They joined the Temples Adult, youth and teen choirs for an unforgettable night of music and fellowship. Here is Wilson HS singing Lisa's new song Grant Peace, written for the choir.


Workshop at the URJ Biennial 2011
Yoga Shalom is a hit!
Dec 20, 2011
Yoga Shalom Book/CD/DVD was launched at the recent URJ Biennial in Washington D.C. and sold out in two days! The workshops on Wednesday and Sunday were full and many books were signed at the book signing. If you want to order a copy please go to URJBooksandMusic.com The official launch will be held on January 14th at 4:30 p.m. at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD. See you there!
Yoga Shalom by Lisa Levine with Carol Krucoff
Yoga Shalom Ready for Pre-Order!
Oct 10, 2011

Yoga Shalom is now ready for order at URJ Books and Music. Please click here to order.
The book with be launched on Thursday December 15th at 10:30 a.m. at the URJ Biennial in December. The official book signing in the D.C. area will be Saturday January 14th at 4:00 p.m. beginning with the worship practice and ending with Havdalah and a reception. You can read about developments on our website: www.yogashalom.org

Soulful Shabbat Ruach Cover
Soulful Shabbat Ruach Release
May 12, 2011
Lisa is proud to announce the release of her newest CD Soulful Shabbat Ruach, 12 contemporary worship songs for synagogue choirs and band. The service will be presented this Friday night at 7:30 p.m.Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD featuring all the choirs who recorded the CD: Shir Shalom, Ruach Teen and TSYouth Choirs as well as the Washington Revel Jubilee Voices who also recorded on the CD. Our special guests who also contributed tracks for the CD are Dave Nachmanoff, guitars and accordion, Scott Leader, the creative and talented producer of the CD as well as members of the Shabbat Ruach Band. To purchase the CD go to: www.templeshalom.net. All proceeds benefit the Temple Shalom Music Fund.
The Cast of the DVD after taping
Yoga Shalom DVD Taping at Judea Reform
Apr 24, 2011
Spiritual and exhausting are the words to describe the experience of taping the DVD of Yoga Shalom, to be published along with the book in September 2011. The surroundings were beautiful in the sanctuary of Judea Reform in Durham, NC. Lisa and Carol had superb help both in the crew and the participants. Many thanks to everyone who made the days rehearsing and filming SO life changing. We know you will enjoy the results and we look forward to sharing Yoga Shalom with all of you!
Rabbi leads off the Sunday School day
A Welcome Home from Beth El Bakersfield
Mar 27, 2011
Who says you can't go home again? Lisa had a great welcome home to her home town congregation Temple Beth El in Bakersfield during Shabbat Services Friday night and Sunday school with the students. Thank you Rabbi Cheryl Rosenstein and everyone who made the weekend such a sweet experience and warm return. It felt great to be home.
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Featured CD's and Books
Soulful Shabbat Ruach Band Book
Mis Canciones Para Los Judios De Cuba
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Lisa Levine - Mis Canciones Para los Judios de Cuba
Soulful Shabbat Songbook and CD
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Reaching For Peace
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Gems Of the High Holy Days
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Lisa Levine - Gems of the High Holy Days
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Yoga Shalom
Yoga Shalom is a unique worship experience that brings together body, mind, and spirit for an extraordinary prayer service. Combining the two powerful spiritual disciplines of Jewish worship and yoga practice, Yoga Shalom leads to deeper understandings of both, or as Lisa writes of her initial forays into yoga as a cantorial student, “I learned to be more present in my prayers and meditations so I could better pray with and on behalf of my congregation.”

Yoga Shalom is for everyone. The service practice can be done any time of day, on Shabbat, a Sunday afternoon or weekday evening. Yoga Shalom can be done sitting in a chair, with those of limited abilities as well as with those with advanced Yoga experience. When you bring Lisa to your community to teach, she utilizes her book and CD to elevate and transport participants to a new level of physical and spiritual awareness. Communities across the country have experienced her gentle teaching and healing style of opening the heart, quieting the mind and nurturing the spirit. Accompanied by an instructional DVD the practice can be adopted and led by anyone after Lisa has departed, either at home, at synagogue or in a studio.

Review by Lisa Traiger, arts and entertainment writer from the Washington Jewish Post: "Lisa Levine puts the om in shalom. The Chevy Chase cantor and yoga practitioner is the creator of Yoga Shalom, introducing a new way for Jews to pray using both body and soul. Levine's recently released book Yoga Shalom, which features a companion instructional DVD and CD of accompanying liturgical music, is a friendly user's guide for yoga novices and yogis alike who want to put a Jewish twist on the ancient physical and spiritual practice."
Cantor Lisa Levine was born and raised in Bakersfield, California, where she began singing and playing the guitar at the age of 8. Influenced by Jewish songwriter Debbie Friedman at an early age, she was inspired to be a URJ camp song leader and active in the Reform Jewish youth movement. She earned her Bachelors Degree in Music from University California Irvine, where she studied under the baton of Joseph Huzsti and participated in two international tours with the UCI Concert Choir. Lisa spent her junior year in Israel and studied at the Reuben Conservatory and sang with the Israeli Opera Workshop and Israeli National Choir under the direction of Stanley Sperber. After graduating U.C.I. she went on to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where she completed her Masters Degree in Sacred Music. There she studied voice with Irene Gubrud of the Julliard School. She was invested Cantor in 1989 and began her career as Cantor / Music Director of Temple Shalom in Dallas, Texas.

From 1996 until July 2000, Lisa served as the Cantor / Music Director of Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa. She was a co-founder and guest conductor of the "Des Moines Diversity Chorus," an interfaith community choir dedicated to promoting diversity and understanding. Her solo CD "Gems of the High Holy Days" was recorded live for Iowa Public Radio at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Des Moines. While in Iowa Lisa studied voice with Janet Alcorn. From 2000 to 2003 Lisa served as Cantor of Temple B'nai Jehudah in Kansas City. She also succeeded Cantor Melvin Luterman as Cantor of Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, Maryland which brought Lisa back to the East Coast.

Lisa has recorded two CD's of original music entitled "Keep The Spirit" and "In The Light" with duo group "Lisa & Lynn." In 2004 she published her self titled songbook which contains 22 original songs for healing, prayer and unity. Her original musical compositions are part of the Transcontinental Music Publications Choral Series and appear in "The Complete Shireinu", "The Complete Chanukah Songbook," Synagogue 2000's "Songs of Healing" the CCAR's "Open Door Haggadah," "American Conference of Cantors Lifecycle Manual," Soundwrites' "Sounds of Torah" as well as "Complete Jewish Songbook II", "Shabbat Anthology II", "Shabbat Anthology IV", "Manginot II", "Torah Alive!" and "K'lei Zemer". Lisa's songs were featured and performed at the URJ Biennial in Boston, Minneapolis, Houston and San Diego. Several of her poems were published in the new WRJ's Women's Torah Commentary.

Lisa's solo album of original songs entitled "Reaching For Peace" was released in 2005. Her Friday Evening Service and CD combo "Soulful Shabbat," written for interfaith and outreach was published in summer 2006. The collection is unique because of it's range of accessible musical styles written for youth, teen and adult choirs and band.

In 2006 Lisa released "Mis Canciones Para Los Judios De Cuba": My Songs for the Jews of Cuba. It features favorite Ladino, Yiddish, Hebrew and Cantorial gems that Lisa performed in her two concerts in Havana in 2006 and 2007. All of the proceeds from the CD go directly to the B'nai Brith Cuban Jewish Relief Fund. Her most recent project is "Soulful Shabbat Ruach" an original Friday Evening Shabbat Service featuring members of the Temple Shalom choirs and bands. It was released this past May and all proceeds benefit the Temple Shalom Music Fund.

Lisa's concert of original music entitled "The Jewish Gospel Experience" has received rave reviews at CAJE, in performance with the Heartland Choral and Des Moines Diversity Chorus as well as part of her scholar-in-residence weekends in congregations around the country. The program brings people of all ages, abilities, faiths and backgrounds together through music and fellowship. Her other solos concerts "My Songs for the Jews of Cuba" and "Broadway Bound" continue to be favorites among audiences around the country.

Lisa studies and teaches yoga and is the creator and author of "Yoga Shalom" a unique Jewish embodiment-of-prayer worship Book/DVD/CD. It has been well received at CAJE, ACC/GTM and numerous URJ Biennials as well as the URJ, MAC and WRJ Regional Conferences, The Routes Conference, and the Washington Jewish Arts Festival. Yoga Shalom has recently been published by URJ Press and is receiving rave reviews from around the country.

Lisa is the Cantor of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase Maryland. She shares her life with husband Andy and their two teenage children, Emily & Louis and a very feisty West Highland Terrier named Duncan.