The Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library will present the the Annual Morris and Ann Lazaroff Lecture: L’Oud and the Abstract Truth featuring Rabbi James Stone Goodman and Rabbi Zach Fredman, the Epichorus.  

The afternoon of unique music and storytelling, drawing from riches of a deep Middle Eastern Jewish tradition, will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 26 at the Jewish Federation building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive.

 L’Oud and the Abstract Truth, is the product of a multi-year effort by Goodman and the Epichorus, to record a traditional music video for every portion of the Torah, called “The Maqam Project.” Maqam (meaning place) is an arabic musical form, similar to a mode, that is played as a kind of structure over which one improvises. Maqam is a deep structure for music common to both Arab and Jewish traditions, the music of Abraham, so to speak, before the separation of his children, Isaac and Ishmael.

 In many of the Middle Eastern Jewish traditions, there is a Maqam associated with every Torah portion. Goodman has been writing poetry to this form since 2009; approached by his student, Fredman, bandleader of the Epichorus, the two found a way for poetry and music to meet. L’Oud and the Abstract Truth was released in the spring of 2016 and has enjoyed critical acclaim from the start.

 RSVP to Nancy Dubman at 314-442-3771 or [email protected]. For more information, contact Cyndee Levy, Director of the Center for Jewish Learning, at 314-442-3754 or [email protected].

The Brodsky Library event is part of the Sh’ma: Listen! Speaker Series. 

Sh’ma Listen! is funded by the Lubin-Green Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and Hank Webber and Chris Jacobs.