Beyond "Hava Nagila"

Considering that their history goes back 4,000 years, the Jewish people know a thing or two about longevity. That might help explain why in our fly-by-night culture, the Jewish Music Festival has lasted so long. With a schedule based around "revelation and revelry," according to festival director Ellie Shapiro, the 25th staging offers sounds from across the globe and history, and it's not just for the religious set.

"Jewish music is for people who love music, period," Shapiro says. "If you love virtuosic jazz, come to Diaspora Redux. If you love Irish music or are a folkie in your musical taste, don't miss Grammy-winning vocalists Lorin Sklamberg of the Klezmatics and Irish singer Susan McKeown in Saints and Tzadiks [who sing] Irish and Jewish songs. If you love jazz, tango, klezmer, and brilliant and soulful playing by two players who sound like an orchestra, then Klezmer Buenos Aires."

The festival kicks off on Saturday, March 20, with a program at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay called "Sacred Jewish and Muslim Music of the Middle East," featuring the Yuval Ron Ensemble with Dervish Aziz, a whirling dervish from the Mevlevi Sufi Order. There will be a preconcert talk at 7 p.m.; the performance begins at 8.

As for the aforementioned events, Diaspora Redux takes place at Freight and Salvage on Saturday, March 27; Saints and Tzadiks is at the Freight on Sunday, March 28; and Klezmer Buenos Aires closes out the East Bay portion of the festival at the JCCEB on Monday, March 29. The festival then moves to San Francisco in July, with performances at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.