My guest today is Joyce Leviton Asher, co-chair of the upcoming 12th Annual Dr. Arnold H. Kaplan Concert, Sounds of Faith.

Joan Brunwasser: Welcome to OpEdNews, Joyce. I'd never heard of this concert. Please tell us about it.

Joyce L. Asher: The Dr. Arnold H. Kaplan Concert - Sounds of Faith will be at Anshe Emet Synagogue on Sunday, April 6, from 3-5 PM. We are bringing together people of faith for an afternoon of music - the members of the Abrahamic tradition - Jews, Christians and Muslims - will hear music and sound.

I am especially excited to be the co-chair of this concert because I believe that bringing people of different religions and cultures together bridges understanding.  This summer, I was very upset with the violence in Chicago that captured news headlines.  I know that the violence represents a very small part of the population of Chicago.

The real Chicago will be at Anshe Emet Synagogue on April 6th - those who are interested in forging common bonds and respecting each other's faith practices.

When Cantor Alberto Mizrahi asked Carol Mackoff and me to co-chair the concert we were both excited to do so. We want to create an afternoon for a diverse audience, listening and understanding we are all part of the same humanity.

Carol, another member of Anshe Emet Synagogue, Shakeela Hassan, the founder of the concept of Sounds of Faith and I have made calls and visits to diverse area houses of worship.  We want to create the personal invitation and connection for members of the three faith groups to share a unique opportunity.

JB: Who is or was Dr. Kaplan and why is his name associated with this event?

JLA: Dr. Arnold H. Kaplan was a surgeon at Thorek Community Hospital,  He had the reputation of working endless hours performing surgeries - never caring if he was paid or not, only interested in helping his patients.  He died in 2001;  his only family were two nieces.

He was a member of Anshe Emet Synagogue, and cantorial music was important to him.  He left a considerable sum of money to Anshe Emet.  The Cantorial Chair is named for him, and for the past 11 years,  a concert is held in his memory at Anshe Emet.

JB: When did a cantorial concert morph into a more community-wide event? How and when did that change come about?

JLA: Carol Mackoff, co-chair. and I were excited to be asked to head the committee.  We loved the idea of the three Abrahamic faiths coming together and decided we would have the audience be diverse.  We both have many friends and contacts around the city of Chicago and with Shakeela Hassan of the Harran Foundation, we began to call our network and ask them and their congregants to join in the concert audience.

And then, Anshe Emet Synagogue had a wonderful day in honor of Martin Luther King in February.

Carol and I went and were so inspired by some of the people of faith we met. We called on them and asked them to be part of the Kaplan concert.

Our Rabbis teach us by example to respect other communities.  Rabbi Siegel, Senior Rabbi at Anshe Emet brings a diverse array of speakers for us to learn.  He is part of an interfaith group of rabbis and ministers who meet regularly.  We had an interfaith Seder at Bright Star Church last year, we do projects with New Beginnings and Pastor Brooks.

We reached out to them and suddenly, the Kaplan Concert was growing and  the buzz was on.

Copyrighted Image? DMCA

JB: Tell us more about Shakeela Hassan, Joyce. From what I've read, she sounds like a very interesting person.

JLA: One of the real joys of working on this concert is meeting and getting to know Shakeela Hassan.  She is a retired physician who lives with her husband in Hyde Park.  He is the Dean of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology. She has the best sense of humor.  A Jewish Cantor is called a Hazzan, her last name is Hassan and she heads the Harran Foundation.  She loves to say,"This is Hassan, calling Hazzan from Harran."

JB: Fun. Catchy!

Copyrighted Image? DMCA

JLA: At a committee meeting Shakeela asked one of our Jewish grandmother members if she had a good recipe for matzo ball soup.

Carol and I told her we have a goal of a tushie [ed. note: Yiddish for rear end] in every seat for the Kaplan Concert, and now Shakeela tells us in emails and in person how many more "tushies" she has coming.  While she has a great sense of humor, upon meeting her you also sense this is a woman who wants peace and understanding in the world.

Shakeela noticed in her medical residency that life begins when a baby takes his/her first breath and ends when a person takes their last breath.  And,she feels that breath, used in song is one of the highest forms of communication. She often tells the story of being a young intern at St. Mary's Hospital and the nuns woke her up for Mass.  She, a devout Muslim, went into the chapel and felt she was in a room of total peace  And, she felt she was one with the nuns who were praying quietly in the room.

Shakeela came up with the concept of Sounds of Faith - members of the three Abrahamic traditions coming together.

JB: Very nice. What haven't we talked about yet? The concert is coming up fast.

JLA: One thing I am especially proud of of that we have not talked about - Carol's family and mine are sharing our enthusiasm.

My son in law has a computer consulting firm and he asked me if I would like to have 15 slightly used complete computer set ups to donate to each of the three religions.  Carol and I picked them up and shlepped them to Pastor Brooks and his New Beginnings Church, to American Islamic College and we have one more stop to Rabbi Funye and the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Choir. The computers at New Beginnings will be used to help children in the afterschool program do homework, the computers at The American Islamic College will be put to good use in the library of the college and the computers at Beth Shalom will be set up to help congregants look for work.

Carol's husband, a retired judge and a practicing lawyer now is also a world class photographer.  After our visit to New Beginnings they donated a carload of photography equipment to New Beginnings to begin a program for the youth there.

My friend Margo has shared a program of Guitars over Guns that would be perfect for some of the churches we are working with. And we have brought this information to them.

The Kaplan Concert - Sounds of Faith is a pebble Carol and I threw in the water and the rings in the water keep getting bigger and bigger.

JB: Yes, indeed!

JLA: We both know this experience of planning this concert has changed us for the better.

JB: Thanks so much for talking with me, Joyce. Kudos to you and Carol and your vision. This concert is sure to be a big success!

For more information visit Anshe Emet Sounds of Faith Concert website

or  Harran Productions Foundation   website

The Arnold H. Kaplan Concert is Sunday, April 6, 2014

3-5 PM

Anshe Emet Synagogue

3751 North Broadway

Chicago, Illinois

Purchase tickets online or by calling 773-281-1423