Arts and Music
When Mishkan Bat Mitzvah student Sara Charme-Zane created the beautiful mosaic wall hanging which graces our Kehillah (Community) Room, she noted her teacher and mentor, Isaiah Zagar, taught: "Art is the center of the real world."
Mishkan Shalom is a community rich in artists and artisans, musicians and writers, and our community life routinely features music, performances, book readings and special exhibitions in addition to our standing installations.
Arts
Works in many media are exhibited throughout the year in the Heschel-King Room on the third floor of Mishkan Shalom, near the Sanctuary, Chapel and Library.
Most exhibitions explore issues of social justice or other areas of concern; they represent another dimension of our community's work toward Tikkun Olam, Repair of the World.
All exhibitions are free, open to the public and usually remain for several months.
Installations
A number of works of art, permanently installed throughout the building, enhance the beauty and sanctity of our surroundings. Our Sanctuary furnishings and our original Ark, now in the Chapel, and our Ner Tamidim (Eternal Lights in the Sanctuary and Chapel), each have wonderful stories connected to them.
The Yahrzeit Memorial, suspended from the third floor atrium of the main stairwell, and the Holocaust Memorial in our garden, above the ampitheatre, were both significant projects which each took several years to be realized.
Music
Makhelat Micha'el: Mishkan Community Choir includes members and non-members who perform throughout the region, under the direction of Miriam Davidson.
Rabbi Shawn Zevit is an accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor and liturgist, and a founding member of the popular Jewish musical group, Shabbat Unplugged. He has performed concerts, interactive music and theater, and woven song into a variety of performance, teaching and consulting events across the U.S. and Canada, and around the world, for over 25 years. He is also an author, playwright and poet.
His CD's include: Life: Songs for the Seasons and Cycles of Life; Morning I Will Seek You; Heart and Soul; Sanctuary, Generations and Highway of the Human Heart, as well as the Reconstructing Judaism Movement's Passover Shabbat Unplugged recording "A Night of Many Questions".