The Richard Montgomery High School auditorium was awash with the sound of six voices in harmony, fusing Jewish themes and lyrics with contemporary pop songs on May 31. The six voices belong to Six13, the acclaimed all-male Jewish a cappella group.
“They do some Broadway, they do Billy Joel, they do just a bunch of different artists,” said Robert Silverstein, the event co-chair and a longtime member of Tikvat Israel Congregation.
The Conservative synagogue in Rockville holds an annual spring concert that’s usually spearheaded by Cantor Emerita Rochelle Helzner. Tikvat Israel’s last concert honored Helzner ahead of her retirement.
This year, the event co-chairs brought in Six13 to perform two shows: an early afternoon concert geared toward the congregation’s children and an evening concert for adults.
“My daughter actually introduced us to them,” Silverstein said of the New York-based a cappella group. “We listened to [Six13]; I thought it’d be really great.”
His wife, Roni Silverstein, also an event co-chair, contacted Six13 to book the group for performances. The Silversteins did “everything involved with putting on an event,” including booking the venue, advertising the event, selling sponsorships and managing ticket sales.
“This has been a labor of love for both of us, probably since December,” Robert Silverstein said.
Robert Silverstein, a past president of Tikvat Israel, said he didn’t request parodies in advance of Six13’s concert because he knew that the audience would enjoy whichever songs they chose to perform.
“[My daughter] said they’re really well-known in the Jewish community — they have a big following,” he said.
Six13 boasts more than 80,000 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 34,000 Instagram followers. “Bohemian Chanukah,” its Queen adaptation, racked up almost 3.5 million views on YouTube.
“They’re very familiar songs to everyone in the audience of all ages, and they cleverly adapt the words to fit the melody,” Robert Silverstein said.
The children’s concert was held in honor of Debbie Ungar, Tikvat Israel’s director of early childhood education, for her 25 years dedicated to Jewish education — five of which took place at Tikvat Israel.
“She’s really built our early childhood center up to be very successful with the highest rating from the state of Maryland,” Robert Silverstein said of Ungar. “A lot of families keep coming back every year.”
Tikvat Israel’s Rabbi Marc Israel wanted to honor Ungar for her contributions, according to Robert Silverstein.
“Our early childhood [community] is very small but mighty,” said Roni Silverstein, Tikvat Israel’s vice president of education. “We’ve been awarded the top tier of early childhood programs in the state, and it’s much due to her expertise and her working with the teachers. … That’s a very exciting milestone.”
Roni Silverstein said this accomplishment is even more significant given that the Rockville shul isn’t among the largest in Montgomery County. Tikvat Israel’s ECC is home to about 60 students.
“We want to be able to tell our members how wonderfully our early childhood education is going,” she said.
The shul used a sustainability grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, hoping to turn a profit through the concert to support Tikvat Israel’s education programs.
Roni Silverstein honored Ungar during the children’s concert, gifting her a piece of glass Judaica art handmade by a member of Tikvat Israel.
“It’s very exciting that the ECC is being recognized, and early childhood education is important … so that makes me really happy,” Ungar said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and it’s such a priority for me in my life to help young children, and I’m thrilled to be recognized for that.
“I think the congregation is very happy with how the school has developed since I’ve been here,” she added. “We got accreditation and we were able to accomplish a lot in terms of improving the education and quality [of the ECC].”
While Ungar said she was grateful to have joined a strong team, she has also hired some of Tikvat Israel’s ECC’s current teachers.
“The whole community that has been built here, I think it’s just so wonderful,” Ungar said. “It’s just a very special place.”
She spoke to the congregants who support her and the ECC through volunteering.
“They’ll bring us supplies and we have a special reader program where congregants come in and read stories to the children,” Ungar said. “They’re involved.”
The concert was especially meaningful for Ungar — Mordy Weinstein, a singer in Six13, performed at Ungar’s daughter’s wedding in New York last year.
Ungar expressed gratitude to the concert planning committee for creating a children’s concert.
“I think it’s so nice that they’re doing a concert for children and really trying to help the early childhood children be involved in this wonderful synagogue event, which is the concert, but bringing it down to their age group, so they can also be part of it, is wonderful,” she said. “I really appreciate them recognizing me and acknowledging what I’ve done here.”
