SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The uniting power of music from multiple religious backgrounds will be felt as the Oheb Shalom Congregation hosts an interfaith concert, “Wild Peace: Suddenly … Like Wildflowers,” on Sunday, April 2, at 4 p.m. at 170 Scotland Road in South Orange.
The April event is the second concert sponsored by the Solkoff Eskin family in memory of their son Jonah, who died 22 years ago at the age of 15. Funding was provided by the Jonah Solkoff Eskin Memorial Fund at Oheb Shalom, making the concert free for all to attend.
The concert features more than 100 singers and musicians from Jewish, Christian and Muslim backgrounds, though the concert will not feature religious selections.
“The reason for an interfaith approach is inspired by my son’s memory, and it really reflects his values and the way he viewed the world. He saw people for who they were on the inside, and never by ethnicity, race, religious or cultural background,” Marcia Solkoff Eskin said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “It was very important to his sensibilities that we have a peaceful world for all living things, not just humans, but also plant and animal life as well. Harmony was something he cared so much about, and that’s how the theme of this concert came about.”
Instrumental to the organization of this concert, in addition to the Solkoff Eskin family, was Erica Lippitz, the Oheb Shalom cantor. She is also one of the co-founders and current co-conductors of Kol Dodi, a Jewish community choir that presents a wide variety of Jewish liturgical and secular music in Hebrew, English, Yiddish and Ladino.
“This is a concert in the memory of a young adult man and I think there is a different consciousness now then when he died. The consciousness now around the death of teens is different in that now families can give that child a more enduring legacy by the good we do in his name,” Lippitz said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “Marcia and Barney are extremely mindful of what they want to do with the funds that were donated after his death. There are lots of things they could do and lots of things that they have done already.”
Lippitz said that she was proud of the way that Oheb Shalom stepped in to receive the funds that were donated in Jonah’s memory after his death, and she didn’t want to wait too long after the first concert held in his memory two years ago for the family to once again make use of the funds.
The idea of the interfaith concert came about in 2015 after Lippitz and Marcia Solkoff Eskin attended a concert in Boston conducted by Joshua Jacobson, the founder of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, and professor of music and director of choral activities at Northeastern University. Jacobson will serve as one of the guest conductors as well of the narrator of this interfaith concert.
Both women were so moved by the concert that they began discussing how they could bring something similar to the South Orange-Maplewood community.
“Dr. Jacobson has conducted many extraordinary concerts and many interfaith concerts of many kinds and the one we attended was so striking that we began to speak on the way home about bringing one here,” Lippitz said. “We already were dealing with anti-Muslim actions and bigotry at that time, and as a synagogue we wanted to stand up against that and the interfaith concept with the Abrahamic religions as a focus. Our goal was to create a place where all the beautiful and rich traditions would be honored and music would be the conduit for appreciating each other’s values as Americans and as people.”
In addition to Jacobson, the concert will also feature the Harmonium Choral Society under the direction of Anne Matlack, the Kol Dodi Community Chorale of MetroWest NJ, Voices in Harmony of Essex County, as well as the Episcopal Church of St. Andrew & Holy Communion and Morrow Memorial Methodist Church choirs, joined by 14 guest singers and instrumentalists, including Zafer Tawil, Amir Vahab and Peri Smilow. Joining Lippitz will be guest cantors Perry Fine, Meredith Greenberg and Benjie-Ellen Schiller.
For Lippitz, it was important that the event be both a credit to the memory of Jonah Solkoff Eskin’s memory, as well as an event that the synagogue could use to bring people from all walks of life together.
“I had two things that I thought about when we organized this: What do you do when you lose a child to create meaning and deal with this terrible ordeal? And that this is something important and worthy that congregations can do for both their memories and the community,” she said. “This concert is happening not only at a time of national concern about respect versus bigotry, but also at a time when similar events are happening in our own SOMA community. I am proud to be in the midst of a community that is ready to face issues with honesty and acknowledge that we are never done fighting racism in all of its forms. I want people to feel affirmed and strengthened by the atmosphere that we are going to create, and I expect them to come and learn something they don’t know and walk out more interested in inviting the other — whoever that may be — into their life.
“I am very proud that my congregation is taking the lead on launching (an interfaith campaign) in the community. I hope we will stand as an example of what communities of faith should be doing and what communities everywhere should be doing. I’m proud that Oheb Shalom has an opportunity yet again in public to take a stand for everything this congregation believes in.”
Photos Courtesy of Marcia Solkoff Eskin, Nathan Weisman and Jim Peskin
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