On Nov. 20, Mostly Kosher brought its unique flair of klezmer rock to UCLA.

The band – which focuses on traditional klezmer music with modern genres ranging from jazz and Latin to rock and folk – played a concert at Lani Hall on Nov. 20. The group’s repertoire consists of traditional klezmer, Israeli and Ladino folk songs alongside original works written by a variety of band members. The band is led by Leeav Sofer and includes drummer Eric Hagstrom, trombonist Bob Lawrence, bassist Adam Levy, violinist Janice Mautner Markham, accordionist Gee Rabe and clarinetist and saxophonist Ben Tevik. Mostly Kosher’s combination of traditional Jewish cultural music alongside modern popular genres allows the UCLA community to access modern American Jewish heritage, said Mark Kligman, director of the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

“I think that’s one of the fascinating things that I found about Mostly Kosher, is their name is sort of a double entendre,” Kligman said. “They’re sticking to klezmer, but they’re not confined to klezmer. It’s not just taking traditional music and replicating it.”

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The concert was produced in collaboration with the Milken Center. Mostly Kosher and the UCLA-housed center began collaborating when the band performed as a part of the center’s “Secret Chord” concert series, which featured American Jewish musicians, in July 2022, Kligman added.

Mostly Kosher gets its name as a reference to the foods one can eat under the Jewish dietary restrictions of kashrut, Sofer said, as well as in reference to the inclusion of both Jewish and non-Jewish musicians in the band. It also serves to highlight the diversity of Jewish culture in America and the range of levels of religious observance in the Jewish community, he added.

Markham, the violinist for Mostly Kosher, also serves as the director of the Klezmer Music Ensemble at UCLA. In the Jewish tradition of l’dor vador, or passing cultural knowledge on from generation to generation, Markham said she is able to educate a wide variety of students from diverse musical backgrounds in klezmer musical traditions. Under her direction, the ensemble has performed at the UCLA Spring Festival of World Music, where a student was able to premiere an original piece, and at Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s “A Festival of Lights” in December 2023, Markham said.

While klezmer is a culturally Jewish form of music, Sofer said its themes are distinctly non-religious, with songs covering a wide variety of universal topics like love, drama and betrayal. He said he hopes audience members left the concert with greater awareness about Jewish culture. Mostly Kosher also works to include social justice-oriented messages in their music, including themes of peace and mental health awareness.

Mostly Kosher performs in a variety of Jewish languages, including Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and English, Sofer said. In addition, Sofer said the band might try to incorporate Arabic Jewish songs in the future. He added that Mostly Kosher’s music aims to play a role in keeping endangered languages such as Yiddish and Ladino alive for future generations.

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Mostly Kosher regularly performs in the Southern California area, Markham said. The band has recently performed at Disney California Adventure Park’s Festival of Holidays Entertainment Series and will play at Skirball Cultural Center’s Hanukkah Festival on Dec. 15, she said. Coming up, the band will also be performing with fellow klezmer band the Klezmatics at California State University Long Beach’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Markham added.

In addition to standard concertizing, Sofer said the band members of Mostly Kosher are activists and work to give back to the community. Sofer added that he incorporates social justice themes and his activist work outside of Mostly Kosher into his songwriting for the band.

“World heritage music is important … it’s going to do what it can to build more bridges to bring communities together,” Sofer said.