7 Selwyn St
Elsternwick VIC 3185
Australia
“Bente Kahan is THE diva of Jewish music” – Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, Germany
The Kadimah proudly presents one of Europe’s greatest singers of Jewish music, Bente Kahan, in her only Melbourne concert, HOME: Songs and Tales by a European Jew. Framed by the Norwegan-born artist’s personal story, it starts with a family-tree dating back to 13th Century Spain, winds through Europe and ends in Scandinavia. Her tale includes famous Jewish scholars and rabbis such as Rabbi Loew from Prague, the creator of the legend of the Golem, as well as a variety of Jewish characters with different backgrounds, languages and fates. Echoing through Bente’s family is the universal story of European Jews, with songs sung in Yiddish, Ladino and Hebrew, as well as languages from places her family has lived. The songs themselves have absorbed much of the continent’s folk-lore and traditions and embody encounters between Jewish and non-Jewish Europe.