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| Our
Cantor Meet Shomrei's cantor, Galeet Dardashti
Shomrei's new cantor has a rich musical and multicultural history. A daughter and niece of cantors, she has been singing and performing Jewish music since she was three, when her whole family began performing at camps, festivals and synagogues around the United States and Canada. They sang in Judaism's many tongues-including Hebrew,
Yiddish, English, Ladino, Arabic, Turkish and the Dardashti's ancestral language,
Persian--and Galeet fell in love from early childhood with Judaism, music and the history
of the Mizrahim, the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa. Galeet is descended from
Ashkenazi Jews on her mother's side and, on her father's, from Mizrahim in Iran, where her
grandfather, Yona Dardashti, was an acclaimed singer of Persian classical music. Three of
the elder Dardashti's sons became cantors, including Galeet's father, Farid Dardashti of
the Beth-El Jewish Center in New Rochelle, who trained her as a hazzan. Galeet immerses herself in Jewish music not only as a cantor, but also as a scholar and performer. She is a PhD candidate in anthropology, writing her dissertation on contemporary Mizrahi and Arab music in Israel. While doing field work in Israel, she studied and performed Arab and Persian music with some of the country's renowned musicians. In the US, she sings and plays guitar in Divahn, an all-female quartet whose name translates in Hebrew, Persian and Arabic as a collection of songs or poetry. "We liked the idea that this word meant the same thing in all three languages so we could emphasize their shared culture," Galeet said of her group, which performs nationally as well as in New York, singing in Hebrew, Ladino, Persian, Arabic, Aramaic and Turkish. On Sept. 19, Divahn will perform at the Jewish Music and Heritage Festival in New York. (See www.divahn.com for details) Born in New Jersey, Galeet grew up in Florida, Maryland and California and has spent extensive time in Israel. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and is doing her doctoral work at the University of Texas. She is married to Mason Weisz, an attorney in New York City. Previously a high holidays cantor in Savannah, Ga.,
Galeet will be our hazzan for two Shabbats per month and all holidays, beginning with
Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday night, Sept. 9, at 6:30. A dairy Shabbat dinner will
follow, along with joyful and beautiful music. Call the office to make reservations. |
Galeet Dardashti's passion for Jewish music
runs so deep that it seems to have been born along with her. But in fact, it was here long
before she was.