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.

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.