Ya Ghorbati Vinyl Record

In her album Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile, singer Laura Elkeslassy unearths the music and stories of Judeo-Arab divas from mid-century North Africa. Developed in collaboration with music director Ira Khonen Temple, the album weaves together North African Jewish folk and sacred music, ranging from traditional Andalusi style, to popular Chaabi, to Francarabe cabaret. The project looks across time and space to tell a tale through music of political upheaval, exile and displacement, ultimately questioning the supposed binary of Arab and Jew.
 
First distributed as a multimedia Ayin folio, with images and essays accompanying the music, the Ya Ghorbati album is now available on vinyl!

About the Artists

Laura Elkeslassy is a singer, actor, and educator based in Brooklyn. Born in France, with Moroccan and Israeli roots, Laura blends Judeo-Arab, Middle Eastern, and Andalusian repertoires in her music. Her current work focuses on reclaiming Moroccan Jewish liturgical traditions and North African musical heritage from a feminist standpoint.

She has performed music at countless venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, the World Music Institute, and elsewhere. Laura is also the Executive Director of L’Atelier Théâtre in New York, and as an actor, she has appeared at the Venice Film Festival, La MaMa, and beyond.

Laura is a multiple-time recipient of Brooklyn Arts Council grants and Rise Up Fellowships. She is also a 2021 New Jewish Culture Fellow and a 2022 Rising Leader Fellow with the Open Society Foundation. Learn more about Laura’s work here.

Ira Khonen Temple is a bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, and embedded cultural organizer. Recent credits include accordionist for the Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof, as well as music director of Indecent at the Weston Playhouse, Great Small Works’ Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls, and the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee’s Purimshpil. Ira is a founder of the radical-traditional Yiddish music group Tsibele. Learn more about Ira’s work here.

Credits

Songs originally composed and interpreted by Line Monty, Zohra Elfassia, Habiba Msika, Maurice El Medioni, Shlomo Abitbol, Salim Halali.

Executive Production | Laura Elkeslassy & Ira Khonen Temple

Music Direction | Ira Khonen Temple

Music Production | Ira Khonen Temple, Eylem Basaldi, Laura Elkeslassy

Laura Elkeslassy | Vocals

Ira Khonen Temple | Keys, Piano & Accordion

Eylem Basaldi | Violin

Yoni Avi Battat | Oud, Guitar

Rachid Halihal | Oud, Violin

Zoë Guigueno | Bass

Marwan Allam | Bass

April Centrone| Drums, Percussion

Nizar Dahmani | Drums, Percussion

Recording & Mixing | Chris Gilroy, Douglass Recordings, Brooklyn

Mastering | Dan Coutant, Sun Room Audio, Brooklyn


Brooklyn, 2025. 

Ya Ghorbati is made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Statewide Community Regrants Program, as well as from a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature, both administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.