Mission of the choir

1 Share its love of Jewish music with the greater Jewish Community and ensure that this genre of music is kept alive for future generations.
2 Enhance the spirituality of Jewish simchas such as Bar/Bat Mitzvas, weddings & other special occasions contribute to the spirituality and meaningfulness of Shabbat services.
3 Bring Jewish music to our older generation at senior centers, participate in community events such as Yom Ha’Atzma’ut, Jewish music festivals, and other functions.
4 Grow our repertoire to include all genres of Jewish music while focusing on majestic liturgical pieces.

cd cover
When twenty-five men allow a woman to lead them on their quest to save the rich musical heritage of Jewish music for generations to come, you know it must be one daunting task!  The San Diego Jewish Men's Choir has taken on this challenge  for over ten years now and are looking to their fans to help them," spread the music," to a larger audience through the release of their first CD album. Listen to our sound
  1. Psalm150 Halleluya
  2. Abi Gezunt
  3. Artza Alinu
  4. Bei Mir Bistu Schein
  5. Ye Varecha Medley
  6. S'u She'arim
  7. (Kinder Mir Hobn) Simchas Toyre
  8. Adio Querida
  9. Lo Teida Milchama
  10. Shalom Chaverim
  11. Mi Adir

"Hey Ruth, Just took a good listen to Heritage and thoroughly enjoyed it! The opening piece Psalm 150 is very powerful. Amazing how much depth can be created with great voices as a capella. Then additional pieces such as Bei Mir sit Du Shein (which I looked up on your site to find out it means To Me You're Beautiful) and Simches Toyre are so fun! The album has excellent variety and the production is very good. 

Take care, Kevin  (Kevin Mongeli- Voting member Academy of Recording Arts)

Just listened to Heritage. Outstanding! Love the diversity of feels between tracks. Great recording quality - especially considering all those voices! I really dig the english/hebrew combo on the upbeat Bel Mir Bist Du Shein. All the tracks have something special. The relaxed nature of Simches Toyre is right up our ally. Thanks for sending the album. Sounds like you guys had fun recording it, and that's what I like to hear on a CD. I'll share with Justin and Alison asap (both Jewish musicians!). 

We've got you down for Best Classical Chorale single, best world, best vocal/inst, best single cd. Best of luck and keep in touch, Ruth!"

Joe Mailander-  (The Okee Dokee Brothers- Grammy Award winning children's music artists)

I am listening to your CD tonight. It is just awesome! The choir sounds amazing, and I love how its mixed with so many different styles, even jazz! The harmonies are beautiful and there are times when I got chills. One of those is Artza Alinu.....it was almost chant like! Great album!

Thanks for the coral CD.  I really enjoyed the listen.  It is extremely well recorded, very clean.

I will be watching for it on the Grammy Ballot. Good luck,

J. Aaron Brown and Associates Pub.  Nashville, TN

I was raised in the Catholic Church. High Latin Mass was a staple of my childhood. When my mom was in her last days, we listened to the singing Monks record that was so big at that time. There is something so familiar about Choral Performance, no matter what language, religion or nuance. The message is always the same, to me a Socratic message, in Hawaiian "Pono" is the message. Be the best you can be. Whatever each individual song is about, to me, that is the message I always get when I hear this type of hymn being sung; Latin, Judaic, etc. In the background I watch the news muted, the contrast between the war in Gaza and the chanting here is not lost on me. Ruth Hertz Weber has clearly put herself on the map both preserving and promoting the rich heritage of Jewish choral music. Her mission to bring Jewish music to new audiences is on the right path and I hope that ALL of my friends of the Judaic heritage, reach out to Ruth and order this album. Sales benefit both the senior community and also schools, to keep this kind of music alive. Heritage for anyone is sometimes a mystery, sometimes their whole identity. I really hope that all of my Jewish friends take this opportunity to bridge their heritage from their elders to their children. Congratulations Ruth. Well done! Good luck and do let me know where you end up on the ballot. xo

I listened to the CD yesterday. It is really fantastic. A great choir that shows a great love of the music with a lot of energy and excitement.
Like my CD the downside is that it is only interesting to a small segment of the population. That being said a small segment is quite a lot of people if you can get to them. 
Good luck to you on your Grammy bid and on sales. 

Grammy Award winner 2013  Best Children's Album
Just gorgeous! Inside and out!! Please let us know where you end up on the ballot!!! So excited!

Dear Ruth, I just got back from a driving trip to NYC and finally had a chance to listen to lots of cd's. Yours was No. 1 ! I enjoyed it so much. These great Yiddish songs brought back so many childhood memories..esp Simchas Torah. The chorus really sounds great, robust and wonderful. I loved all the different arrangements, casting a whole new light on many of these songs. Bei Mir Bist Du shein and others with klezmer clarinet were great. Adio Queria- is this Sephardic- really beautiful and touching. Shalom Chaverim is one of my all-time favorite Jewis songs- I was belting along! Artza Alinu so infectious, wanted to dance, which was frustrating since I was driving! And on and on. Congratulations to you, and everybody involved. It was a great pleasure to hear and I am delighted to vote and support you. Thanks for sending, and all warmest regards... shalom, Michael  (concert pianist, N.Y.)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. What a truly magnificent experience we just had, listening to HERITAGE by The San Diego Jewish Men's Choir. These 2 little Kids Performers give you a double thumbs up. All 11 tracks frankly were wonderful. Beautifully produced, wonderfully arranged and superbly sung, not to mention excellent and upbeat direction. Thank you Ruth for sending us this splendid album. Without question you have our support. It truly has been a real pleasure. Please pass our comments on to your choir members as well, and we wish you much success in this years Grammy Awards. Thank you for keeping quality Choir Music alive :-) 
With Much Love, Tim and Laura  (Battersby Duo- Grammy Award winners 2013 Children's Music)

 

Hi Ruth …I thoroughly enjoyed your album – I found it to be very uplifting and I did make a few notes as I was going along – I’ll just paste them in here (unedited) so hope yo can make sense of them – I love that you have captured avery live sounding album which is great so kudos to the producer anyway here goes : It all sounds amazingly tight so it must have taken an awful lot of rehearsal time to get it to sound like this – really powerful stuff and very uplifting. Love the piano and violin and the solo voice on track 4 and all of the solo voices on track 5 – I also like the general up and energetic sound of the whole album. `it’s really well put together and very well produced and I can well imagine this sounding absolutely fantastic live. As previously mentioned the piano sounds great all of the way through as does the violin and this really is a first class album.

Hi Ruth! I finally was able to give Heritage a GOOD listen and I wanted to thank you for sending it along. I haven't received anything like it yet, even with my massive pile of CDs so I was appreciative to hear something totally different for a change. The mens choir was stellar and since I am leading High Holiday services in NYC, it was the perfect transition into my "getting ready for the HH" mood. My favorites were Shalom Chaverim (I sing a version of this with my kids at school) and Havenu Shalom Alechem. Always a fave! Wishing you the happiest of new years, sweet and filled with Grammy noms xoxo Joanie

Thank you so much for your kind words! I listened to Heritage multiple times. I also shared it with my family. Everyone loves it! And I think the mission of the SDJMC is so important. One of the main reasons that I did my album was to preserve the music of my people. It is so great to see another group dedicated to preserving their culture! I will be taking the copy of Heritage you sent me to my local library, and I will be sure to share the order form you provided in other parts of Arizona that I travel to. Best of luck this year, you have such great music, and I'm happy to support it!

WOW, What an amazing sound.. I got to tell you I started listening to this on my computer, and I quickly connected my sound system to it, I wanted to hear the choir coming out of eight speakers. What a great amazing group of vocalist, Every song sounds great, I love the different styles and the production is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. What can I tell you Ruth, not only do I not have anything else in your category, even if I did your production is just absolutely amazing. You have my entire support and the support of my local team in Miami. I am preparing a list which I will hand to them soon. You will be on that list. I also want to thank you for offering me your support, and I hope to meet you in LA. Have a wonderful weekend. Marlow

I have wanted to review this album by The San Diego Jewish Men's Choir under the direction of Ruth Weber for a while. Quite frankly, it's delightful on many levels, especially if you are like me and enjoy non auto-tuned voices. The reason why I feel the way I do about this album is that it delivers what you don't expect and in a volumous way. The chorus of mens voices are rich and full in the ranges that are required for such a task as this. The subject matter of musical selections that goes from religious then to show tunes is quite impressive and very entertaining. The diversity menu continues with Yiddish folk tunes such as "Adio Querida," with lots of yelling Oey! It's very happy! We also have the Klezmer tinged "Abi Gezunt" with the band. It's very upbeat. Not to be missed is the religious cultural "Psalm 150." This religious piece steeps you into their cultural Judeo heritage. A latrge grin most certainly will come with their rendition of the big band pop standard from the 1940's like "Bei Mir Bist Du Shein." Ruth really corralled this choral group into something quite unique. I recommend it to you all EAR-Responsibly to give it a spin. Steve Pullara- Grammy Award Winner, Children's Music

Hi Ruth, great album. A very professional group. And believe me, I'm no stranger to the genre. I've worked for quite a few Orthodox artists including Mordechai Ben David and Yehuda Cik. But I must confess, Bei Mir Bist Du Shein was a treat. I haven't heard that one in years. What is your category, I'll be on the lookout for you guys. Tony

Dear Ruth, hi. I listened to your entire album this afternoon. It was a true delight from beginning to end. I know some of the pieces because for the past many years I play in Jewish residences for all different types of events and I have a large repetoire at the piano with the help of many books. Anyway the music of Heritage was a very special connection and experience. It's a joyful album no matter what key the music is in. It's a celebration as you wrote of jewish music and tradition and of course with the new year coming it touches an even more sensitive place inside. I will very happily vote for your album come Grammy voting time. Thanks so much for keeping the flame of jewish music alive from generation to generation. toda roba, shalom, Mark, the Peace Messenger

The San Diego Jewish Men's Choir directed by Ruth Hertz Weber new album "Heritage" is a mastery of deception. When one thinks of a "choir" one thinks of stuffy church songs being sung in a pace that puts the audience to sleep more times than not. What Ruth and the Men's Choir has created here is a fun and exciting album that deserves to be listened to and enjoyed the world over. 

I have to admit that when I first saw just the word "choir," I thought "Oh please no," but I was wayyyyyy wrong (and can admit that). I've never had so much fun listening to choir in my entire life. These songs are so fantastic. 

"Bei Mir Bist Du Shein" plays more like a show tune and I had so much fun listening to it. I actually got up and started dancing to this song in my room. (Yes, I danced in my room alone. I know everyone does it but I admit it) 

"S'u She'arim" is a richly beautiful song and the vocals were simply pitch perfect. I was blown away by the vocals on this song. 

"Shalom!" is such a fun song. It is so catchy and the beat is fast paced where you will want to stand up and dance along with the choir's singing. (Whoever thought you'd see those two words together in a sentence: Choir and dancing? I didn't). 

"Artza Alinu" is another fun song with a great fast paced beat that will have you tapping your feet and dancing in your chair (or just stand up and cut a rug in your room  ). Another great song by the San Diego Jewish Men's Choir. 

My pick for "Song of the Album" is "Adio Querida." It stirred my emotions and the men's voices blended so well together that it was hypnotic at times. Easily a testament to true talent and the solo was spot on. 

Again, This album will stun you or it may shake your preconceived notions about what kinds of music a choir does (that's what it did for me and I'm so glad it did). Ruth Weber and the San Diego Jewish Men's Choir are to be commended for this truly beautiful and inspiring album.