“Khazn Elektrik” is a concert of Khazones-inspired experimental music by Eli Berman featuring Judith Berkson. Following the concert is a kumsitz (khazones improvisation workshop) led by Judith Berkson — come ready to learn the art of traditional cantorial music!

Eli Berman will perform original music in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. This will include her electronic dance music from the Kleztronica scene as well as solo excerpts from “Litanies of Lilith,” an electro puppet opera written, composed, and performed by Eli Berman with Yiddish translations by Moishe Dolman. Sounds are generated live on stage via voice and wearable electronics in additions to beats made entirely from vocal samples.

Before there is Eve, there is Lilith. “Litanies of Lilith” depicts her transformation from the first wife of Adam into the primordial mother of demons. She is created from the same earth as Adam and refuses to lie beneath him. She cries the ineffable names of God in order to grow an owl-like head and wings, crossing the Sea of Reeds to flee from Eden. This story is based on a Hebrew/Aramaic fable written in the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a medieval text from ~1000 CE. The title also references Diamanda Galás’ piece for voice and electronics, “Litanies of Satan,” itself drawn from poet Charles Baudelaire.

The Lilith backpack puppet, about 8ft tall, is constructed from PVC pipes, plastic tubing, wood, fabric, and electronics. Lilith’s eyes are battery-powered instruments with embedded speakers. Built from resonant PVC pipes, microphones, transducers, goat skin, and delay pedals, each requires onstage amplification rather than direct connection to a venue sound system. Two microphones in Lilith's wings feed into battery-powered, Teensy delay pedals worn in Berman’s bra, allowing her to manipulate the sounds from Lilith's eyes in real time.

This work-in-progress was performed April 24-25 at Dixon Place for the 2026 Object Movement Puppetry Festival. These performances were the culmination of a nine month residency with the Center at West Park.

Sunday, August 2nd, doors open 7 PM. RSVP

EXPLORE DER NISTER’S NEWLY ACQUIRED LIBRARY OF 2000 JEWISH VINYL ALBUMS and 78s.

Meet up at Der Nister (mostly) the first Saturday night of the month for Havdalah and a chance to dig through Der Nister’s massive Jewish music collection. Pick a vinyl, 78s or even a CD, and we’ll play it on our sound system and see what it holds! 

BYOB (and BYOV (vinyl!))

Register here

August 1st, 8:30 PM

September 5th, 8 PM (Leil Selichos Special)

SKIPPING OCTOBER

November 14th, 6 PM

December 5th, 6 PM

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Zingt un tantst (sing and dance) at the Goldrich Center’s second annual summer celebration of Yiddish songs and klezmer music. The brand new indoor Gonda Auditorium will provide a meaningful atmosphere to celebrate klezmer and Yiddish music, an important part of Jewish life that flourished both before and after the Holocaust.

Lider Fun Der Heym translates to "songs from the Old Country" or just "songs from home," as the emphasis of this program will be on familiar songs that would be easily recognizable in Yiddish speaking homes.

This program will feature opening remarks from Miri Koral, founder and CEO of California Institute for Yiddish Culture & Language (CIYCL), and musical acts by Gustavo Bulgach, Nicholas Hylander, and renowned actors Bernard Hiller and Mike Burstyn.

This program is in community partnership with CIYCL, Kultur Mercado, Der Nister, and the So Cal Arbeter Ring.

RSVP here

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Join us for a meaningful Tisha B'Av observance at Temple Beth Israel as we commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples and reflect on the enduring lessons of this solemn day. Ma'ariv will begin at 7:30 PM, followed by the chanting of Eicha (Lamentations). 

Tisha B'Av invites us to reflect not only on the destruction of the Temples, but also on the brokenness we encounter in our own world. It calls us to examine sinat chinam (senseless hatred), embrace our communal responsibility, and consider how each of us can help bring healing and compassion into our communities.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Shmueskrayz! Get together and speak in Yiddish with your friends and neighbors here in LA. This event is good for Intermediate and Fluent speakers, though all are welcome. Bring drinks, snacks, and/or a verterbukh!

Write to golden@dernister.org to let us know you’re coming and for the address.

You're invited to the Niggun Chevrusah: an evening of singing, community and inspiration, at the Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center. Come meet new friends, share your favorite tunes, as well as earn new ones,  and experience the peacefulness of Shabbos singing on a weeknight!  (*A niggun is a wordless melody often sung repeatedly, and zmirot are songs with words often sung on Shabbos.) Led by multidisciplinary performer, Ilana Zackon, who has been leading the Montreal Niggun Circle with Rabba Briah Cahana since 2024.

Register here

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Enjoy Kabbalat Shabbat at Der Nister! Rabbi Zach Golden leads the musical services and Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld will teach us philosophical ideas related to the parshah. Then we eat and the discussion flows. We'll have a fantastic meal from Holy Grill. Register here.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Zoom Discussion with Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature at Der Nister. Tehila Hakimi and Joshua Cohen's books, Hunting in America and The Netanyahus, engage directly with the cultural meeting/clashing between the two cultures — and it's complicated, funny, and deeply human. Cohen's Pulitzer-winning novel drops the Netanyahu family onto an American campus. Hakimi follows an Israeli woman in Middle America, drawn into the world of hunting. Both books capture the fascination, the friction, and the feeling of being caught between two worlds. Join us to talk about literature, identity, and the relationship between the two cultures, in the first of series of monthly discussions hosted by actress Jamie Denbo. Sunday, June 7th at 9 AM. Register

The California Hospital Medical Center on 1401 Grand Ave will be dedicating its new interfaith chapel with the help of Der Nister’s Rabbi Zach Golden. Come and join our Downtown neighbors as they inaugurate this new sacred space.

Learn more and register here.

Radical Haftarah poetry reading. Join Joelle Maxx Milman for the Los Angeles launch of her debut book of poetry Repartings, which first appeared serialized in the Der Nister newsletter. Called “breathtaking” by Rabbi Jill Hammer, Repartings is a cyclical poetic response, in voice feral and exacting, to the imagery of the prophetic texts of the Hebrew bible. The LA launch will feature a reading, live painting, an experimental haftarah reading, a q&a, and time to mingle. Free entry, though Joelle will be selling and signing her book. Sunday, May 31, 1 PM. Register here.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Hebrew Hancock returns to Der Nister with their unforgettable verve, musicianship and deep connection to Yiddishkeit in what will be a spectacular evening of Jazz.

Led by trumpeter Joshua Zeitlin, Hebrew Hancock is a four piece ensemble that seamlessly fuses modern Jazz with traditional Hasidic melodies and folk rock. Doors open at 7. Not to be missed!

Tickets

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Enjoy Kabbalat Shabbat at Der Nister! 

This Friday evening beginning at 6:30 PM, Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld will be teaching us about the "anti-philosopher" Lev Shestov and how his thoughts critiquing analytical philosophy relate to a remarkable story about 220,000 angels and their flags coming to the Children of Israel.

Then we eat and the discussion flows —we'll have a fantastic meal of Moroccan salmon and chicken (and vegetarian options) from Holy Grill.

Rabbi Zach Golden leads a musical davening.

Register here.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

The intersection of Jewish and Zen meditation. Cantor Kerith Spencer-Shapiro, who leads a weekly Jewish meditation group at Der Nister, will teach alongside Ben Connolly, a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage, who is touring nationally with his new book, Inside the Flower Garland Sutra. Come to Der Nister at the usual meditation time of 10 AM on Wednesday, April 22nd. Register here.

Invented by L.L. Zamenhof, a Yiddish-speaking Jew, in 1887, Esperanto was envisioned as a neutral, international second language for all, a linguistic answer to the Jewish Question, and a chance at world peace. Placing an internationalist reading of Yiddish cultural history beside a Jewish look at the history of Esperanto, this lecture will argue that la lingvo internacia has been intimately shaped by the contours of Jewish history writ large. The talk will also take a look at the quixotic world of contemporary Esperanto culture and what its examination might bring to a better understanding of other language-by-choice communities.

Event Details 📅 Monday, April 20 🕖 6:30 - 8:30 PM PT 🍽 Dinner provided 👥 All are welcome.

Feel free to invite friends with this link: https://bit.ly/41bykNP.

This gathering is co-sponsored and hosted by Kultur Mercado, Der Nister, and SoCal Arbeter Ring/Workers Circle.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.

Jesse Appell is a bilingual comedian, author, social media creator and entrepreneur followed by over 3 million people in both China and the West. His appearances on Chinese TV shows such as “Huan Le Xiju Ren” 欢乐喜剧人, and his comedy fundraisers during COVID, have led to over 500 million total views of his comedy videos around the world.

In 2012, Jesse won a Fulbright Fellowship to move to Beijing and research Chinese traditional “Xiangsheng” comedy, apprenticing to Master Ding Guangquan, one of the top comedians in China and the only traditional comedy master to take foreign disciples. Over the following decade, he played a role in the rise of the modern comedy scene in China, a story chronicled in his new book, This Was Funnier in China.

Jesse is also the founder of Jesse’s Teahouse, an online tea culture video channel and e-commerce website, and is a leader in bringing Chinese tea culture to the West.

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Jesse’s book, This Was Funnier in China, is full of stories about apprenticing to Master comedian Ding Guangquan to learn the traditional Chinese comedy style of Xiangsheng. From comedy technique to life lessons, Jesse shares what can be learned from moving to a new country with a goal to learn what makes people laugh.

As part of the book tour, Jesse has created a new 45-minute English-language comedy show called This Show Was Funnier in China, which mixes jokes and stories about Jesse’s life as a Chinese comedian’s apprentice along with selected readings from the book.

We look forward to welcoming Jesse to Der Nister!

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The price of admission includes the book.

Parking is found on either side of the building, but if those lots are reserved, look to park on Hill or south of 7th. There will be someone at the front door to let you in, then head up to the 14th floor.

Celebrate Purim with Der Nister in the heart of downtown LA, where you can fulfill all four mitzvot of Purim in one uplifting, community-centered event! Along with a full daytime megillah reading, we will follow the practices of giving to each other (mishloah manot), giving to those in need (matanot l'evyonim), and breaking bread together (seudat Purim). This midday event is open to all ages and a great way to experience the full, fourfold joy and meaning of Purim in one go. Tuesday, March 3 at Noon.

Be sure to bring small bills for matanot l’evyonim.

Sign up here

You can’t miss the Der Nister Purim Shpiel and Cabaret.

We've got a Purim Shpiel written by our very own Rabbi Ye’ela Rosenfeld, “Bigtan and Teresh are Dead,’’ a Megillah-based spin-off of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," storming the stage with hilarity and existentialism. Tirosh Schneider and Rachel Joravsky star.

Shiri and the Shiribims will play klezmer jazz, and we'll have special acts!

Indulge in hamentashen and have a ball — tonight's the night for Purim craziness.

Sunday, March 1st, doors open at 7. Tickets here.

Come join us for traditional davening and pleasant company every Saturday morning at 10:30 am. Rabbi Zach Golden leads the davening and Rabbi Henry Hollander delivers a sermon, followed by a kiddush lunch with bagels from our friends at Boichik Bagels.

To learn the building code or inquire further, please write to golden@dernister.org.

Read more about the experience of our heimish service here.