Over the past six months, Randi Berman has become a teenager again.

She didn’t find the fountain of youth, but in reconnecting with the folk music that helped shape her Jewish identity, Berman rediscovered a joyous chapter in her life — the section defined by her connection to the Chai Folk Ensemble.

A teacher who now lives in Montreal, Berman is one of dozens of former students who will perform tonight at the Club Regent Event Center as part of Full Circle, a concert organized by Chai to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Founded in 1964 by Sarah Sommer and now co-led by her granddaughter, who shares the same name, Chai – which translates to “life” – is a consistent and powerful reminder of the value of cultural continuity, preserving through performance and folk songs the sounds and joys of Jewish life around the world.

Berman’s introduction to Chai took place while she was in the 8th grade at Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate.

“My mother came to pick me up and said, ‘We’re not going home.’ We’re going to Y for Ruach’s audition.’

A training ground for future Chai members, Ruach – which translates to spirit or wind – helped Berman continue through high school, until she joined the Chai dance corps in 1994.

“Chai played a very important role in my life from grade 8 to age 25, so I have my mother to thank for that,” she says.

Stories like Berman’s could be told by hundreds of Jews in Winnipeg and across Canada, including Sarah Sommer (the founder’s granddaughter), Tracy Kasner and Tamar Barr.

Kasner, a childhood best friend of Berman’s, began singing with Chai at age 15. Tonight, she will take the stage with her daughter and son.

“I’m president of the board, but this is my first time back as an artist in years, and it’s absolutely incredible,” says Kasner, cantor of Congregation Etz Chayim.

“It’s about music and everything that was so fun growing up. Tamar and I were just joking about people who take things very seriously, and I was definitely one of them when I was a kid. Now, in my old age, it’s amazing to feel the joy of it and to be able to do this with other people that I remember from my past and connect it to all these kids who are doing it now.

“It’s a pure joy to come together and celebrate this group that is now 60 years old,” says Barr, who has been one of the ensemble’s longest-serving choreographers, with many of its original pieces still in the repertoire.

“I remember our parents being very involved, having fun, doing the lighting, doing whatever they had to do. Everyone pitches in to do what we need to do to put on a show.

The show features several of the ensemble’s most enduring numbers, as well as six newly commissioned pieces, says Sommer, who with Jesse Popeski is Chai’s co-artistic director.

A number, Ukrainian Klezmeris a collaboration with the Ukrainian dance school Sopilka. Former students and current members of the ensemble come together on stage.

A performance of This land by Yael Deckelbaum & the Mothers — a song sung in Hebrew and Arabic with choreography by Rachel Cooper, former dance director of Chai — will be dedicated to the memory of Vivian Silver, a Winnipeg-born peace activist who was killed during the last October’s attacks on Kibbutz Be’eri by Hamas. Chai Executive Director Reeva Nepon said the issue was a commitment to unity and peace between Israeli Jews and Palestinians in commemoration of Silver’s humanitarian efforts to build a bridge.

The concert also coincides with the 86th anniversary of the Kristallnacht attacks.

For Sommer, the connection to Chai is particularly meaningful, given his grandmother Sarah’s role in founding the group. She led the first troupe during rehearsals in her Garden City basement in 1964.

“As a young person, when you enter the Chai, you don’t always know what you’re getting yourself into until you’re already in deep, and then it’s too deep to get out,” laughs Sommer, singing teacher and cantorial artist.

“Once you’re there, you’re stuck there forever, in a good way.”

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Ben Waldman
Journalist

Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated journalist in the Arts & Life desk of Free press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free press while earning his degree at the Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Learn more about Ben.

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