Serge Etele Talk & Demonstration

• Monday, March 19, 2012
• 107 Old Cabell Hall
• 3:30pm

The McIntire Department of Music, with cosponsorship from the UVA departments of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, and the Carter Woodson Institute for African and African-American Studies, will present a talk by Serge Etele of the Beth Yeshourun Jewish community of Cameroon. Mr Etele is touring the US for the first time this February and March.

Since 1998 Serge has been educating himself about Judaism and teaching his entire community about Jewish practices and observances from internet resources he found and studied on his own.

The story of the Beth Yeshourun community is a fascinating one. According to the New York based organization Kulanu, which initiated this speaking tour, they were a community of Christians until they discovered and then embraced traditional Judaism. Rabbi Gerald Sussman of Staten Island, New York, who visited Cameroon on last year to get to know this emerging community, says this group's emergence is "part of a turning towards Judaism in many parts of the world which will have profound implications for the Jewish future."

Serge Etele is deeply involved in the musical life of this community, and will spend a good part of this talk demonstrating and explaining how and what their musical expressions, both Cameroonian and Jewish, currently consist of. A lively discussion should ensue.

Later that evening (7:30 p.m.) Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville will host a slide show/sing along with Serge Etele. Children ages 7 and up (of any religious persuasion or none!) are especially encouraged to attend with their parents.

For more information please contact: Prof Michelle Kisliuk (UVA Music) mk6k@virginia.edu