Testimonials

Praise for the CD

"The newest rung in the Jewish spirituality ladder."
-The Forward

"Genre-blending ticket to ecstasy." - Philadelphia City Paper

"Mixing Hindu Music, Jewish lyrics...with its undulating percussion and hypnotic call-and-response choruses, is the quintessential trance music."
-The Philadelphia Inquirer

"(Yofiyah), creator of Hebrew Kirtan, a call-and-response chanting practice that comes out of devotional, or bhakti yoga...uses the sefirot - the 10 characteristics or energies of God in Kabbalah - to show how God is
expressed within the different parts of the human body."
-The Jewish Week

"A marvelous gateway to the spirit, creating holy community through the call and response mastery of a true energizer of the soul. Yofiyah brings yofi (beauty) to Yah (God)." - Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi

"Yofiyah opens heart and soul to a new dimension in Hebrew devotional music.
Her work is authentic, powerful, and soul-awakening; offering you a powerful and personally transformative entry to God-realization."
- Rabbi Rami Shapiro

"The best recording I've heard in ages.
A fine vocalist and spirited leader, the subtlety of her message reveals a deep wisdom and understanding. I keep on singing the music long after the CD has ended."
--Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Seigel

"The production is great, the melodies are inspired. The singing is absolutely masterful. Yofiyah's voice sounds so compelling.
--Rabbi Miles Krassen

"you combine the Jewish spirituality and kirtan in a way that I find very moving"--Karen Stern

"Thank you for your beautiful music!!! I keep listening to it on and on....
Yishar Koach!"
Tamar

"what a wonderful gift. it's awesome, mesmerizing and grabs me by the
heart and mind. you are amazing"
--Barry Barkan

" I am thrilled that I bought the CD. My wife listens to it all the time. Rita, my wife, keeps it in her car. I just thought I would let you know that we now incorporate your music in our services with Cantor Penna"
--Robert Goldstein, Congregation Ruach Hamidbar

"It's super!!! I really like the upbeat energy, your beautiful voice and the selection of kirtans. It's so easy to sing along after or with you. I'm excited about them and eager to have others join me in song.......in my classes next spring. The length of the songs is conducive to playing them in a group with sufficient time and variation for others to comfortably join in."
-- Nancy Handwerger

"Kiss of the Beloved" is a work of true beauty that speaks to the universal heart and soul".
--Maat Elman

"I love hearing the chants with that
great instrumentation. I woke up singing the Dodi Li this morning. Your voice carries me to a place of great expansiveness and passion. Thanks for putting this work into the world."
--Diane Elliot

"I have two students and good friends who are with me at the Brandeis Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, CA. We had a huge load of teaching and gardening programs to do over the weekend. Last night, everyone left and we went several miles back into the canyons to meditate to Kabbalistic Kirtan. It's a powerful piece of music. There really isn't anyway to describe how amazing the experience was. I knew it would be. My recommendation to take a cd player and your cd surprised my friends because they know how much I value the natural meditation. They stayed down by some rocks in the valley. I headed up into the hills. We turned up the player very loudly so that your music and voice were echoing off the hills. It was my way of inviting the Elders who have been here for so long to join with us. The invitation went much further and the stars joined in
as well."
--Gabe Goldman

"This CD is fantastic--everyone I share it with loves it!! The music is very evocative, and the chants are so meaningful that the sense of a separate self just dissolves, and one truly becomes one with all that is (Echad B' Echad). Listening to this is a profoundly powerful experience!"
--Sheila Katz

" I just listened to your songs ... and they are beautiful ... a wonderful blending of cultures. Mazel Tov. I would be honored to introduce your music to my Temple, Womans Circle and Yoga community." --Cheyenne Chernov

" I listen to the CD in the car on my way to and from appointments for work and I just wanted you to know how much joy you bring to my day."
--Amy

" The CD is so great! The blend of voice, percussion, harmonium, bells, etc. is delicious!!"
--Rabbi Margot Stein

"It is so glorious, thank you for this
great gift."
--Charlotte Mason

Student Feedback

I loved Susan's singing class! Susan is a breath of fresh air! She took a group of shy, embarrassed wannabe singers and transformed us at times into a beebop group, snapping our fingers and dropping our inhibitions and having a ball. Our warmup exercises were silly and fun and relaxing.

She worked with everyone where they started, never suggesting by as much as the lift of an eyebrow that there was anything wrong with any of us. It was the safest singing experience I've ever had. She is very relaxed and present.

”Her patience and humanness and understanding of how to help us access our natural singing ability are outstanding.”

I was amazed at how easily she moved all of us past embarrassment and inhibition. Her patience and humanness and understanding of how to help us access our natural singing ability are outstanding.

I was a "closeted" singer, mostly singing when I was alone, in the shower, in the car with the windows closed. She "outed" me! I've been delighted to find myself singing more often, more easily, more publicly, more confidently, and much much more happily.

-- Janet Mather

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