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.

Join Cindy Paley, Dan Cantrell and Leo Chelyapov for a concert of Yiddish songs of love, courtship, flirtation and marriage as well as beautiful songs that express feelings of sadness, longing, and lust. 

Get tickets here.

This half-day meditation retreat explores attunement as a contemplative practice—learning to listen for what is already stirring within and gently lifting awareness toward presence. Through guided meditation, gentle movement, chanting, silence, and mindful eating, we cultivate inner listening as a way of making space for what is most alive and essential.

Learn more and register here.

Ilya Shneyveys and Cantor Sarah Myerson present “Electric Rose: The Rose Cohen Experience.'' Ilya and Sarah discovered the unique Jewish song repertoire of Rose Cohen through her 1968 interview with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett on behalf of YIVO. Descended from a line of Rabbi-Cantors, Rose Cohen was born in 1897 near Kyiv (Ukraine) and emigrated to the New World as a young woman. Her fascinating repertoire includes Yiddish songs of love and loss, work and immigration, as well as Hebrew liturgical prayers and Ukrainian folk songs. Sarah’s and Ilya’s wildly electric arrangements re-imagine these songs in exciting new ways.

Sarah and Ilya are both accomplished multi-instrumentalist musicians, composers, arrangers and educators. Together, they are acclaimed for their deep knowledge of Yiddish and liturgical Hebrew music, neighboring culture musics (such as Balkan, Baltic, Slavic, Arabic, Sephardic and Greco-Turkish) and a range of other contemporary genres from rock to electronica. This program incorporates influences from all of those, welded together with dazzling spark!

Electric Rose was initially seeded by a research and performance grant from YIVO in 2022. Since then, Ilya and Sarah have brought this repertoire to concert stages and workshops in New York, California, and Germany. The debut album of this project was out on December 2025 on Borscht Beat Records. Ilya and Sarah are excited to take this album on tour, sharing this extraordinary live concert program with communities across North America and Europe — and we’re looking forward to having them at Der Nister!

Read more about them here.

Get tickets here.

Videos:

Electric Rose: Album Release Trailer

Electric Rose: Idy Donyu

Electric Rose: live at Barbes 2024

Electric Rose: live at Coffee Mob 2024

Electric Rose: live at Jalopy 2022

LISTEN TO THE FULL ALBUM HERE

Enjoy Kabbalat Shabbat at Der Nister! Rabbi Zach Golden leads the musical services and Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld introduces us to Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen, who disputed with Christian authorities in medieval Germany, and documented his ideas in his book Sefer Nitzakhon. Then we eat and the discussion flows. We'll have a fantastic meal from Holy Grill.

Register

Jazz group Hebrew Hancock takes the Der Nister stage after a blistering Nitl Nakht performance. Bandleader Joshua Zeitlin plays an intriguing mix of original compositions, Jazz standards, Hasidic melodies, and anything that Zeitlin thinks sounds good. 

Sunday, February 8th at 7 PM.

Tickets

A Tu BiShvat Tea Party — a Der Nister tradition! What better way to celebrate trees than by sipping their goodness.

We'll have a Chinese tea demonstration from Zev Spencer-Shapiro, Moroccan tea from our own Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld, and a guitar performance from Michel Von Loh, who will be regaling us with instrumental versions of Theodore Bikel's Yiddish classics.

We’ll also have a delicious spread of fruits and nuts to celebrate the holiday!

Zev Spencer-Shapiro is a practitioner of gong fu tea and deeply interested in the ways that tea and culture intersect worldwide. Tea By Zev is about creating a multicultural tea experience that blends elements of many traditional tea ceremonies to create something new and unique.

Sunday, February 1st at 6:30 PM.

Get 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.

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 learn 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 for the code. The next Chevrusah is Tuesday, January 27 at 7:30 PM. Register here.

Join IPF Atid LA and Rabbi Zach Golden of Der Nister for an important discussion as we explore critical questions facing Jews in the Diaspora today. Facilitated by the Shalom Hartman Institute, we will dive into complex topics around the concepts of criticism of Jewish life, love of Jewish people, and talmudic studies of the idea of rebuke. 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.

Klezmer, in its essence, has always been about joy for its own sake. Join accordionist Dan Cantrell and clarinetist Asaf Ophir, visiting from the Bay Area, for an evening devoted exactly to that. We will play some classics, some favorites, some oldies, some newbies, and some more exotic tunes that just go so well together that we couldn't pass them up. Mixed in with storytelling, this is going to be a memorable night!

Get tickets here.
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Dan Cantrell is an Emmy award winning composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his innovative film scoring approach, and his virtuosic abilities on the accordion, piano and musical saw. An impulsive decision in his teenage years lead him to buy an accordion in a thrift store in Hemet, California. From that fated day, he pursued the instrument, learning in schools, music camps and eventually traveling to Eastern Europe to learn from Bulgarian Macedonian, and Turkish Romani masters.

Dan has now emerged as one of the most well known living American accordionists. His unique sound can be heard on the albums of Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom, and Beats Antique, in Major Motion Pictures such as Mean Girls, and The Tiger and the Snow. Recently a featured soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Dan performed with the Oakland Symphony, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, gigged and collaborated with Danny Elfman, Bono, Joan Baez, Anoushka Shankhar, the Klezmatics, and Angelo Moore of Fishbone.

Asaf Ophir (clarinet) began his professional career in musical theaters in Israel, while studying at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and later at the Jerusalem Academy. Arriving in the United States in 2014, he began to perform in musicals around the Bay Area, such as the award-winning "Love Sick" in 2017, and "The People in the Picture" in 2018. Finding a home away from home, he can most often be seen in world music projects on Jewish, Arabic, and Balkan stages.

Asaf has performed on such distinguished stages as Habima, HaCameri, and Jerusalem Theaters in Israel, as well as the Paramount Theater, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Great American Music Hall, Freight & Salvage, Brava Theater, and others in the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout his career he has shared the stage with artists such as Miri Mesika, Avi Kushnir, Galit Giat, Rana Farhan, Ustad Mahwash, and Barbra Streisand.

Yiddish poetry returns to the image of night over and over again, treating it as a gateway to increased powers of the imagination, apprehending magic and bewitching spirits, as well as lawlessness that finds cover in the dark. "Night" will be a participatory poetry reading and discussion of poems by Arn Zeitlin, Melekh Ravitch, and other Yiddish poets, as well as quotes about night from Torah and midrash. Come join Der Nister teacher Malke Morrell and others amid the bookshelves of Der Nister at 4 pm on Sunday, January 18 to explore this obscure and fascinating topic.

Sign up here

Enjoy Kabbalat Shabbat at Der Nister! Rabbi Zach Golden leads the musical services and Rabbi Ye’ela Rosenfeld introduces us to a philosopher over dinner whose ideas relate to the parshah. Then we eat and the discussion flows — we'll have a fantastic meal from Holy Grill.

Next month’s is on Friday, January 16 at 6:30 pm. Register here.

The first thing you notice when walking into Der Nister is an immense amount of Jewish books. You may wonder, what are these? Whose are these? Are they for sale? How did they get here? Where can I find what I'm looking for? The first thing to know is that they are part of the Hollander Books collection, purveyed by Rabbi Henry Hollander.

Rabbi Hollander has been in the book business since 1989 and was the first person in the world to sell Yiddish books online. After a number of storefronts and warehouses in San Francisco, he has come to Los Angeles with his business and allowed Der Nister to haunt its non-book filled spaces. The collection is diverse, spanning languages, centuries, subjects and disciplines.

Rabbi Hollander will give you — yes you — a complete guided tour of his bookstore, Hollander Books, and where to find the Jewish literature (in English, Hebrew, Yiddish and German), Jewish History, Yizkor books, Torah commentaries, Jewish law compendiums, books about Jews in the West and in California and so much more. This guided tour is meant to describe, through examples, the breadth and range of concerns that comprise the full Jewish bookshelf. Don't miss this opportunity!

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.

Oh what fun it is to enjoy Nitl Nakht, the not-Christmas Eve!

Take in the Jewish-infused jazz of Hebrew Hancock, then play board games (a traditional Nitl practice in Eastern Europe, where bitl Torah, or not thinking about Torah, was appropriate for the holiday) and enjoy our new American tradition of Chinese food.

Led by trumpeter Joshua Zeitlin, Hebrew Hancock is a five piece creative music ensemble that seamlessly fuses modern Jazz with traditional Hasidic melodies and folk rock.

Get tickets

Join Der Nister for an unforgettable cabaret, with the comedic stylings of Brent Weinbach, raucous music with Shiri and the Shiribims and much more. Food, drink, tradition and utter abandon: Hanukkah will burn bright Downtown! Sunday, Dec. 21 at 7 PM.

About Brent Weinbach:

Brent Weinbach's stand-up comedy is weird and stupid and visual and post-modern and random and other stuff. He also has a t-shirt with his name and his face on it.

Brent is a recipient of the Andy Kaufman Award, which recognizes innovation in stand-up comedy. He is also responsible for various internet video sensations such as Gangster Party Line, Mind Jack, Man Gives Birth, and Ultimate Drumming Technique, as well as the cult web series, Pound House. Brent has appeared on Conan, Lopez Tonight, Comedy Central (The Meltdown, @midnight, Corporate, Kroll Show, Another Period), Cartoon Network (Adventure Time, Clarence), IFC (Comedy Bang! Bang!, Garfunkel and Oates), ABC, and Adult Swim, and also toured with the Comedians of Comedy. He plays the role of Brent on the TBS show The Dress Up Gang and his stand-up special "Appealing to the Mainstream" is on Amazon Prime. His second special "Popular Culture" is on Youtube. Check him out on Instagram here.

This experience is part of Infinite Light, NuRoots' citywide Hanukkah festival, December 14-22. Discover more at nuroots.org/infinitelight.

Please note photography will take place at this event and let us know if you have any questions.

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.

As we kindle the first light of Hanukkah, we’ll explore another kind of illumination: the meeting of Greek philosophy and Jewish wisdom. Using Leo Strauss’s “Between Jerusalem and Athens” as a point of departure, we’ll study classical Jewish sources that probe the tension between reason and revelation — and consider why this encounter still matters. We’ll celebrate the night with candle lighting, latkes, and sufganiyot!

Sunday, December 14th at 6:30 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.

Ira Temple and Michael Winograd are staples of NYC’s vibrant Klezmer and Yiddish music

community and cultural tapestry. Together they have played concerts, festivals, weddings and

coming of age celebrations, and are both current members of the cast and orchestra of Cabaret

at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway. They are delighted to tour the west coast this December as a

duo, playing music from their new albums and more.

Accordionist and Songwriter Ira Temple founded the radical Yiddish music group Tsibele, is the

longtime director for the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee Purimshpil, and performed in New

York’s activist street band The Rude Mechanical Orchestra. “Strange Tongue - Mistame-Loshn,”

their newest solo album, comes out this October on Borscht Beat Records. and features a

collection of traditional Yiddish songs, reimagined and expanded in English - marrying queer,

trans songwriting with the urgent, living breath of Yiddish culture as it is vibrantly practiced today

in Brooklyn.

Clarinetist Michael Winograd lives in Brooklyn. His band, The Honorable Metnshn, has brought

Klezmer and Yiddish music all over the world. He has performed and collaborated with today’s

leading figures in Jewish music including Yitzak Perlman, Frank London, the Klezmatics, the

Klezmer Conservatory Band and more. Michael is featured on dozens of recordings, including

The Beautiful Game and Live at Madison Square Garden with Vulfpeck. His original music has

appeared in television, film, theater and dance performances. His upcoming release, TANZ!

Live in New York City, presents a re-creation of the iconic 1956 klezmer album TANZ!, featuring

clarinetists Dave Tarras and Sam Musiker.

Tickets here

Artist Yevgeniy Fiks is a leader in Yiddish contemporary art, and explores its boundaries not only in its aesthetic forms, but also in its self-definition as a political and cultural force. His exhibition “Himl un Erd” is a selection of the melding of the Yiddish language and mind to the Soviet space program — but this is only one glimpse of the Jewish relationship to imagination and power. Fiks also explores its failures, successes and blurring lines of the Soviet Birobidzhan project for a Jewish national home in the Far East. 

A natural next step is to envision a post-national Yiddish art. As Fiks describes, “While rejecting the dictates of cultural imperialism, Yiddish contemporary art is at the same time open to everything progressive locally and globally.” This is a reference to his Yiddishland Pavillion project, a rebellion against the defined national boundaries of the Venice Biennale. The Pavillion is a series of Yiddish art that is scattered amongst various national exhibitions.

These polarities of Yiddish identification with the Soviet project, its elusiveness to be one with the state boundaries it is given, and a conscious rejection of those lines are, put together, a very thoughtful and artistically engaging contemplation on self and world.

Rabbi Zach Golden will interview Fiks on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 2 PM Pacific / 5 PM Eastern In what will be an eye-opening examination of art, the state, and Yiddishkeit itself.

Register here.

About Yevgeniy:

Yevgeniy Fiks is a Moscow-born New York-based artist, author, and organizer of art exhibitions. Among his projects are “A Gift to Birobidzhan,” “Landscapes of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” and “Himl un erd (Yiddish Cosmos)” that have been exhibited at 2B Galeria, Budapest; Galerie Sator, Paris; 21ST.PROJECTS/Critical Practices Inc., New York; and CCI Fabrica, Moscow. Fiks’s performance pieces “Lily Golden, Harry Haywood, Langston Hughes, Yelena Khanga, Claude McKay, Paul Robeson, Robert Robinson on Soviet Jews” and “Red Kaddish” have been performed at the International Print Center New York and the Museum at Eldridge Street/A Landmark Synagogue Story, both in New York.

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 Kabbalat Shabbat Friday, December 5th at 6:30 PM!

We’ll have delicious Moroccan salmon from Holy Grill, a philosophy discussion led by Rabbi Ye'ela Rosenfeld and a musical service led by Rabbi Zach Golden. Look forward to a warm and welcoming atmosphere in Downtown LA.

Register here

Get together and speak in Yiddish with your friends and neighbors here in LA. We will be gathering at the Laemmle Royal in Sawtelle to watch the movie SHTTL at the 7:30 pm showing (not 4 pm!). Get tickets here.

Write to golden@dernister.org to let us know you’re coming.

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.