Happening Now
My Debut Music Video- "Eshet Chayil of Hip Hop"
What happens when Hasidism meets Hip Hop?
"Eshet Chayil of Hip Hop" happens. Filmed on the urban streets of New York City and the holy footpaths of Jerusalem, it is the creation of two clashing two worlds.
It all started in 2017 when Lea took a class on hip hop culture at the New school with a teacher named Rabbi Darkside, a Jewish DJ and rapper. At the same time she was cruising around with Hasidim all over Brooklyn, blasting Hasidic music through their open car windows. Thats when she knew: I want to be the new Hip Hop Jew....and the rest is history...well, not quite yet. If you are curious to know more about the why, what, who, where, and how, then please continue to read here.
Ongoing Projects
In Love With A Dream! A One-Woman Show
From rap to rhumba, hip hop to hasidic—Lea Kalisch mixes everything. Her show is an autobiography in song, rap, and comedy; a high-energy reflection on her clash of expectations and real life experiences. She is a Jewish, dynamic, brunette twenty-something who recounts, from the perspective of "a new artist with an old soul," her ripening in the five years since she left Switzerland in 2014 for New York. Lea falls on her tukhes, flirts with tradition and fights to keep dreaming. The performance is in English sprinkled with Yiddish, German and Spanish.
Personal Birthday Songs
It's your birthday? Or a friends birthday? And you don't know what to buy them, because they already have everything? Then it's time to give them a personal birthday song. Check out my collection of cover songs to get inspired. You want your own? Or you need help making one? Great, let's get to work!
Lea sings in Yiddish
"Lea sings Yiddish with a touch of glamour, but above all with heart and soul", Omanut.
I love Yiddish. Why? Because it touches my Neshume (= soul). Because it's THE Jewish language. Because it describes the Jewish life of an irrevocably lost time. It's nostalgic. But funny. And sad. And rich in gestures, rich in sounds, rich in history and humor. And, no other languages describes my problems so accurately: "Men ken nisht tantsn af zvey khasenes mit eyn tukhes! " (You can't dance at two weddings with one butt)- but Lea Kalisch can, or at least she tries.
Revival the Show
Lea is one of two singers in REVIVAL, a spiritual folk-rock show with themes of love and justice. REVIVAL performs original story driven music by Kristen Plylar-Moore in synagogues, churches and other interfaith spaces in the tri-state area. Listen to REVIVAL at