How QNP Came to Be

Rena Branson (they/them) learned the power of nigunim when they met their Hasidic father for the first time in 2014. Though the two of them had deep ideological differences, Rena marveled at how singing nigunim together could melt away their egos, allowing them to meet in an open field of light beyond language and beliefs. Rena started to imagine what the world might look like if we could all meet ourselves there, let alone each other. Falling in love with nigunim as a tool of healing and transformation, Rena pursued studies with Chana Raskin, who holds a reservoir of melodies from the Chabad Hasidic community.

Between 2014-2018, Rena was privileged to find queer-led Jewish spaces like Linke Fligl and Let My People Sing!, which supported them to integrate their queer and Jewish identities. However, these were once-a-year retreat communities, and Rena wanted to take the magic home. Over Sukkot 5779/2018, Rena decided to try hosting a queer gathering in Brooklyn to sing and record nigunim. They posted a Facebook event and over 30 people showed up—mostly strangers! They began hosting queer nigun circles monthly, and has since led in many different cities and online.

While studying at Hadar, Rena’s Talmud chevrutah (learning partner), Ari Pomerantz, had the idea to partner with rabbinic chaplains and facilitate nigun singing in NYC jails. Ari had worked with incarcerated people before and knew someone who meditated for survival in solitary confinement, and he sensed that nigunim could offer another spiritual lifeline. Through JTS, Rena and Ari teamed up with Rabbi Mia Simring and Rabbi Gabe Kretzmer-Seed, and trained 6 pairs of volunteers to rotate co-leading monthly nigun circles in 4 jails. When the pandemic hit, they shifted to collecting and sending recordings to incarcerated folks. Rena and Ari received alumni microgrants from Hadar to support this project.

In 2022, QNP received a grant from the Rise Up Initiative and gained fiscal sponsorship from the Social Good Fund. Rachel Chang joined the team as Co-Director. Long-term, we have a dream of supporting queer Jews in different locations to start their own nigun circles. If you’re interested in dreaming about this with us, or talking about any aspect of our work, please be in touch! We strive to continue becoming more accessible and inclusive, and we welcome feedback about how to grow in our racial justice, disability justice, and other transformative praxis.