Mission

Shabbat with Friends NM, a newly formed Jewish organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico, aspires to build a sense of community through providing authentic, joyful, and engaging Jewish experiences. We aspire to “reJewvenate” Shabbat through fostering home Sabbath gatherings of participatory song and fulfilling fellowship. We offer virtual and in-person opportunities for impactful and intellectually satisfying Jewish learning. Our name, Shabbat with Friends, underlies our commitment to Jewish hospitality, spiritual practice, and ethical traditions about caring for others and improving the world we share.  

​​What We are Doing

• Shabbat with Friends hosts Shabbat events called Musical Shabbat Circles which features our talented musical ensemble and community singing of Shabbat and melodies from Jewish communities around the world. Musical Shabbat Circles are great for families and adults and people of all backgrounds. 
• Shabbat with Friends offers both introductory and advanced adult Jewish learning. Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, an esteemed teacher of Torah, is our lead teacher. We look forward to offering guest teachers of outstanding quality and depth to enrich our community. 
• Shabbat with Friends focuses on individual, and group Jewish mentoring provided by our director, Rabbi Dov Gartenberg.  He works with young people and adults to master Jewish skills and teachings. He guides persons seeking to convert to Judaism and reconnects persons who were previously distant from Jewish life. 
• The programs of Shabbat with Friends NM will expand to include family programming and special festival celebrations. We welcome ideas from the community to address needs not currently met by the Jewish community.  

​Our Leadership

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg

​Rabbi Dov Gartenberg is the Director of Shabbat with Friends. He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism. He has served as a congregational rabbi and a leader of the groundbreaking Jewish nonprofit, Panim Hadashot - New Faces of Judaism in Seattle, Washington. Shabbat with Friends NM is a new initiative which builds on lessons learned by Rabbi Gartenberg from his years leading Panim Hadashot. 

Our Team

​Clara Byom

Clara Byom is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, electronic musician, musicologist, arts administrator, and tunesmith who has been described as having "radiant energy" and "immense talent." Clara has premiered over 40 new classical works as soloist, collaborator, or with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble, which she co-founded in 2016 with Dalton Harris. In 2020, Clara produced three solo albums of electronic/electroacoustic music and a collaborative album with lo-fi hip hop/experimental artist Dan Dan. Clara frequently plays for contra, English Country, and International Folk Dance with The Parson Sisters and performs with the indie folk rock band Dust City Opera. Clara serves as Development Director for the Klezmer Institute. She holds a Master of Music degree from the University of New Mexico in Clarinet Performance and Musicology (2017) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Luther College (2012).

​Jordan Wax

​Jordan Wax is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and traditional musician based in New Mexico. For the past twenty years he has studied intergenerational music traditions with elders from a variety of cultural lineages in the Missouri Ozarks, Central Mexico, Northern New Mexico, and Greater Yiddishland, and directed his own ensembles in the context of Ashkenazi, Anglo-American, and Indo-Hispanic cultural revitalizations. His formal study of Yiddish began with a summer program at the Oxford Institute of Yiddish Studies in 2000, and he currently directs a weekly gathering for Yiddish students and elder heritage speakers in Santa Fe. He performs traditional and newly composed Yiddish songs with Margot Leverett & Duke City Hora, norteño traditions in local mariachis and his own ensemble, Lone Piñon, and creates bilingual children's programming that helps families and infants establish a positive context around linguistic diversity and regionalism.