Mishkan Israel will host a special musical Shabbat service Musical Mizrahi Shabbat with Guest Artist Yoni Avi Battat. In this meditative and participatory Kabbalat Shabbat service, Yoni Avi Battat will lead us in song and prayer inspired by the music of Mizrahi (Middle-Eastern) Jews. Through the lens of his own fragmented identity, Yoni will teach us about the often forgotten cultural expression of Arab-Jews, allowing us to engage with these traditional and original melodies in a way that is relevant to our American Jewish experience. Described as "an education for the ear and the soul," his debut album Fragments seeks to find new pathways to connect with ancestry and find healing around our fragmented identities, and especially his Iraqi-Jewish heritage. Yoni's newest project is Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project. Their first album Simu Lev came out in April, 2024 on Rising Song Records, presenting tradition Jewish music from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, Turkey, and Jerusalem. He has performed and recorded extensively as a solo artist and as a sideman with musicians such as Joey Weisenberg, Rabbi Yosef Goldman, Zach Mayer, Laura Elkeslassy, Nava Tehilah, and Yair Dalal, amongst others. From 2021-2022 Yoni toured nationally as an actor and violinist with the Tony Award-winning musical, “The Band’s Visit.” Yoni lives in Boston, MA, working locally and nationally to uplift Mizrahi (Middle-Eastern) identity in American Jewish communities.