The Jerusalem Cantors Choir, led by conductor David Israeli and managed by Yair Plaser, completed a weeklong tour of Azerbaijan that included a festive concert in the Jewish village of Quba, a performance in Baku, a visit to the Or Avner school, and meetings with members of the local Jewish community.
The main concert took place in the courtyard of the Mountain Jews Museum in Quba, in northern Azerbaijan, where an ancient Jewish community has lived since the Babylonian exile. Ambassadors and diplomats were invited, including Israel’s ambassador Ronen Kraus, along with community leaders and members of Baku’s Jewish community.
The choir performed cantorial and prayer pieces, Israeli songs, and Middle Eastern songs accompanied by the choir’s pianist, and the audience responded enthusiastically. Later, Rabbi Shneur Segal, the Chabad emissary in Baku, invited the choir to sing at a bar and bat mitzvah ceremony in the Ashkenazi synagogue.
That performance also marked Gimmel Tammuz, the anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and included Jerusalem songs and Chabad songs that moved the participants. The next day, choir members visited the Jewish school Or Avner, heard from Segal about Jewish life in Baku, and met local community members who expressed joy at welcoming a cantors’ choir from Jerusalem.
