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Angela Warwick
Shony Braun, who tells of his Kol Nidre in a Nazi work camp, later became a world-renowned violinist living in the United States.
Angela Warwick
Cantor Angela Warnick Buchdahl chants the Kol Nidre as the Senior Cantor at Central Synagogue in New York City.
Allen Oren
Allen Oren, who explains the concept of the 18 voices, is the documentary’s producer and director and a long-time journalist and Journalism professor.

Bruce Siegel
Cantor Bruce Siegel reads from his children’s book, “The Magic of Kol Nidre.”

Eric Goldman
Dr. Eric Goldman, who shows how the Kol Nidre in “The Jazz Singer” (1927) is among the first sounds on film, is a movie critic and curator.
Ben Zebelman
Ben Zebelman, who cites musical versions of the Kol Nidre from blues fiddle to hard rock, composed “The Kol Nidre Variations.”
Stewart Gershon
Rabbi Stewart Weinberg Gershon tells the tale of the ancient origins of the Kol Nidre words, as author of a book on the prayer’s history and significance.
Suzanne Stone
Prof. Suzanne Last Stone of the Cardozo School of Law journeys to the Middle Ages, where King Louis IX of France puts the Kol Nidre on trial.


Mel Scult
Dr. Mel Scult, Reconstructionist historian, shows why the Jew’s Oath of medieval times was prompted by the Kol Nidre and created centuries of persecution.


Lawrence Hoffman
Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, Professor of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual, tells the story of the Kol Nidre’s abolition by Reform Judaism.


Yehoshua Metzger
Rabbi Yehoshua Metzger, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Midtown Manhattan, recounts the Hassidic tale of a stable boy who learns how to pray.


Marsha Edelman
Dr. Marsha Bryan Edelman, who wrote “Discovering Jewish Music,” discovers why the Kol Nidre melody attracted non-Jews, including a “cantor’s friend.”


Larry Josephson
Larry Josephson, a radio producer, tells how his friend, African-American author Julius Lester, compulsively played the Kol Nidre as a boy.


Neil Lewin
Dr. Neil W. Levin, Artistic Director of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, looks for the original composer of the Kol Nidre melody.


Terry Greenstein
Rabbi Terry Greenstein recounts how famed philosopher Franz Rosenzweig nearly converted to Christianity until one Kol Nidre night.


Chanel Dubofsky
Chanel Dubofsky, staffer at Columbia/Barnard Hillel, remembers how a Kol Nidre service delivered “a new soul.”


Judy Cohen
Judy Weissenberg Cohen, a Holocaust survivor, recalls when 1000 women in Auschwitz accompanied the Kol Nidre with an “incredible cry.”


Sigmund Rolat
Sigmund Rolat and his daughter and grandson tell the story of Reb Leizer, who looked for his young son after World War II by playing Kol Nidre on a hand organ.