Yoni Avi Battat

Yoni Avi Battat amplifies and transforms the echoes of his Iraqi-Jewish ancestry to broaden perspectives, touch hearts, and build community. A dynamic singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, story-teller, and prayer leader, Yoni performs and records across North America preserving, transmitting, and innovating traditional and original melodies rooted in Arab musical forms. Described as "an education for the ear and the soul," his debut album Fragments seeks to find new pathways to connect with ancestry and find healing around our fragmented identities. Together with fellow Nava Tehila levite Rabbi Yosef Goldman, Yoni is the co-founder of Kedmah, a musical initiative that teaches and re-imagines traditional Middle-Eastern and North-African piyyutim.

Yoni is the artist-in-residence at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA where he leads a monthly Kabalat Shabbat service taking much inspiration from Nava Tehila; combining a meditative chanting format with music from the Arab world and the piyyut tradition, accompanied by oud and percussion. In 2018, Yoni began touring with the Nava Tehila, supporting their efforts to spread Nava Tehila music and prayer innovations to Jewish communities in the United States. After seven tours with the Nava Tehila Founder's Band, Yoni now continues touring with the Nava Tehila Jerusalem Band.

From 2021-2022 Yoni toured nationally as an actor and violinist with the Tony Award-winning musical, “The Band’s Visit.” Yoni is married to Rabbi Leah Carnow, who was also a Nava Tehila Levite. Based in Boston, Yoni works locally and nationally to uplift Mizrahi identity and bring Arab music into the soundscape of our American Jewish lives.

One thing I learned from Nava Tehila:

Heart sharing and rehearsals are prayer.

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