ZAMRU
Zamru is an annual peer program that focuses on the experiential, creative, and inquisitive exploration of prayer. Throughout the program, we will collectively investigate the role of prayer in our lives, within our community, and in the Jewish-Israeli ritual of the 21st century.
As part of the program’s framework, we aim to cultivate a community of prayer leaders who are committed to creating and maintaining spaces and language for contemporary Jewish prayer. Our approach is rooted in Jewish tradition, while also engaging in an open, respectful, and fruitful dialogue with the world.
The Zamru Program
The Zamru program is a yearlong program that takes place at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and invites about 10 colleagues to the program every year. The participants of the program are musicians/artists, prayer leaders, community leaders, and spiritual men and women.
The program aims to provide its participants with diverse and original content that will bring them together with themselves and inspire new perspectives using tools of study, creation, experience, sharing, self-discovery, empowerment, and motivation for action.
The program includes approximately 20 meetings (each lasting 4 hours) throughout the year. As part of the program, events will be held on a variety of topics including voice, writing, body, nature, composition, creation, improvisation, public space, interfaith, and more. Additionally, a variety of creative artist workshops from different worlds and styles of prayer will be hosted.
In addition to experimentation and investigation, the group will produce 3-4 cumulative events of music and prayer that will be open to the general public for experimentation and a shared experience.
Program Staff
“Know that each and every shepherd has a unique melody of their own”
(Song of Grasses, by Naomi Shemer, based on the writings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev)
Meir Berman and Sharon Mayevski are the leaders of the program. We believe in the inner shepherd present in each of us, in the abundance that exists, in the potential for growth, in the importance of sharing, in the power of community, in curiosity, dedication, and in the never-ending process of learning.
Our gathering place at Zamru is a spacious, creatively designed tent with open flaps welcoming all individuals.
Alumni
The Zamru program aims to create a community of prayer leaders who are dedicated to developing and maintaining spaces and language for experiential, integrative, creative, and contemporary Jewish prayer. Drawing from Jewish tradition, the program encourages an open, curious, respectful, and productive dialogue with the world.
Our goal is for program graduates to continue cultivating their personal and communal creativity in their respective fields and workplaces. We hope that this creativity will spread throughout the communities from which the participants come, leading to a movement of renewal, connection, and contemporary creation within the Jewish-Israeli prayer community.
Artisan Workshops
At the core of growth lies the understanding that there are numerous teachers surrounding us, and we are constantly undergoing a process of change, development, and growth. The Zamru program serves as a creative laboratory that evolves and develops on an annual basis. Within the program, we invite creators and artists specializing in various disciplines such as poetry, writing, composition, voice, body, theater, dance, improvisation, and more. Participants in the program engage in hands-on workshops with experienced creators. The main objective of these workshops is to inspire and deepen knowledge in different areas, while also fostering creativity and experimentation on both an individual and group level.
Throughout the years of the program’s existence, we have been privileged to host a number of esteemed teachers, including:
Sivan Har Shefi, Noam Inbar, Yagel Harosh, Hanan Anando Mars, Chacham David Menachem, Erez Lev Ari, Rabbi Ruth Gann-Kagan, Daphna Rosenberg, Neriya Kangu, Yaron Pa’ar, Chaya Gilboa, Nofar Sela, and many more.
In Partnership With:
Zamru is a project of Sha’arei Bracha: A Laboratory for Jewish Ritual Innovation.
Partners
The Zamru program has been operating at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center since 2021. The program exists and operates thanks to the generous support of donors, partners, and other entities. We would like to thank all our partners for their continued support in running the program and creating a developing and renewing prayer space in Israel and around the world.
Testimonials
It was a rare opportunity, to create in a shared space with 10 other original and innovative prayer leaders, in a space that encourages, listens to and supports dreams. The freedom of artistic expression, the listening and the resources that were available to us during the program brought out our dreams and the very best from each of the Fellowship members.
During the Zamru program I received reinforcement and confirmation that my path as a musician and prayer generator is important and legitimate, and that I have partners along this path, and that this journey has great value to the world.
The Zamru program encouraged and pushed me to create freely, experimentally, and in ways unlike anything else I had encountered before. The work in the fellowship and the creative workshops were the highlights of the program for me. I would love to continue with a seminar and to dedicate myself further to these creative processes.
The Zamru program instilled in me confidence in the thought that I can and deserve to create, that there are people who will join me, and, crucially, an appetite to realize it. I would like to have a follow-up program with personal accompaniment and, specifically, my dream is to establish a praying group that will engage and create in the style of Gospel.
Thank you very much for a magical and unforgettable journey where I learned a lot from the ‘togetherness’ that we created. I got a lot of inspiration from the collaborations, from everyone’s talents and the public events we held. I hope that we will only continue to develop in prayer and singing from here on out.
The program far exceeded my expectations. I consider my participation in the Zamru program as something I show off and tell people about. I feel blessed. This is exactly what I was missing in my artistic studies. I was lacking spirit before this program reinvigorated me.
The program is carefully developed, really aspirational, a pleasure. The guest artists who come are interesting, the content expands my knowledge, and enriches me as a leader of prayer and ceremonies. I am betting on Zamru becoming a network, full of meaningful connections.
People in the group are really special. What we build together, our energy when we sing together is magic. For me it is the heart of the program. Our time together is so good, I don’t want it to end.
Meir Berman
Co-Director | Zamru Program
Mobile Number
(052) 625-2227