Hootenanny will bring Jewish camp song and spirit to Manhattan temple at Nov. 13 event

Elana Arian has always associated Jewish music with summer camp.

From the time she was a little kid at Kutz, a summer camp affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism where her parents were on faculty, to when she was a camper at URJ Camp Harlam, Arian liked singing songs, playing guitar and, eventually, leading music for the entire camp.

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t connect to Judaism through song sessions in the dining hall,” Arian said. “As a kid, that’s what being Jewish meant to me.”

Now an accomplished composer, prayer leader and faculty member at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Arian tours full-time to congregations across North America. She is also the music director behind a special event: a hootenanny, a communal sing-along of Jewish music tak