For Hanna Yaffe, aged 70, life has been a long journey of faith, music, and building bridges across cultures. Born into an Orthodox family in northwest London, she is the daughter of a United Synagogue rabbi, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Susser, a man who taught her from an early age the importance of seeing the divine in every person.
Wherever the family lived, her father was always on the committee of the Council of Christians and Jews, exposing her from an early age to interfaith dialogue.
“I really admire my father and emulate him,” she says.
But Yaffe’s childhood was far from simple. Her father’s rabbinic work required the family to move frequently, taking them across England and to South Africa for several years. Eventually, she was sent to study at Gateshead Seminary in the UK, where she spent three years deepening her religious studies and becoming more devout.
“That had a big impact on my life,” she recalls. “It made me not listen to any secular music for about five years or read many books.”
While these formative years created what she calls “big gaps” in her childhood, they also instilled a deep spiritual grounding that has guided her ever since.
Her path eventually led her to Israel, guided by the Lubavitcher Rebbe of Chabad himself, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who encouraged her to make aliyah. Since moving more than 40 years ago, Yaffe has experienced many challenges and struggles, including failed marriages and financial insecurity, but she has remained steadfast in her faith, and regards the most recent decade and a half of her life as a period of stability and fulfillment.
Finding her voice through music
Yaffe describes herself as a late bloomer, with her life and career only taking off at around the age of 40. Blessed with a beautiful voice, she has always enjoyed singing and sings frequently at her local synagogue.
She has also performed around the world, partnering with fellow musician, harpist, and pianist Tirza, primarily for Jewish communities in the US, South Africa, and Australia.
Over the years, Yaffe’s passion for music and spirituality deepened further and led to a particular interest in lullabies. She has collected melodies from Jerusalem’s diverse communities, which include songs composed during times of war, slavery, and starvation.
“I’m attracted to lullabies because everyone sings them – Jews, Christians, Muslims,” she says.
In the coming weeks, she will give a Zoom lecture for a Jewish institute in Sweden on lullabies written during the Holocaust, focusing on songs from ghettos such as Lodz, Vilna, and Kovno, in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Building bridges beyond Judaism
But Yaffe’s interests extend far beyond the Jewish world, being deeply drawn to interfaith dialogue. Over the years, she has taken part in interfaith storytelling projects worldwide, primarily in the UK, working alongside Muslim and Christian storytellers.
“I really believe that we’re all created in the image of God,” she says. “I feel like I want to be a bridge between people from different religions, different cultures.
“You just have to look into the eyes of the person you’re talking to and see the image of God. Everybody has a spark of the divine in them.”
This conviction has guided much of her early interfaith work, from performing at international festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival to major gatherings like the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 2023, where she performed both alone and together with a Hindu storyteller from San Jose.
Interfaith bridges through song in Israel
Since moving to Israel, Yaffe has continued to weave interfaith dialogue into her musical life. She often performs with guitarist Ivor Lunzer, a fellow northwest Londoner, who frequently accompanies her in interfaith settings.
She recently led Christmas carols at the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Center (FELM) in Jerusalem, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although it was initially challenging.
“I have a bit of a problem with this,” she admits. “It’s one thing to enjoy Christmas carols; it’s another to stand up and sing them publicly. The words are very theological.
Yaffe sought advice from Rabbi David Rosen, a leading interfaith figure, who suggested she open with a disclaimer: “I am not Christian. I’m not a messianic Jew. I’m doing this as a goodwill gesture and a bridge-building gesture.”
She also recently appeared in Tunbridge Wells, England, alongside Garth Hewitt, a well-known Christian songwriter closely associated with pro-Palestinian activism. The collaboration was not without challenges; some people declined to attend because she had not disavowed her Zionist identity.
Dialogue, prayer, and the war
Yaffe has also participated in dialogue groups with the Interfaith Encounter Association, and organized interfaith Passover Seders, continuing her long-standing commitment to building bridges across religious and cultural lines.
She is an active member of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, run by Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein. The institute hosts a monthly gathering called Praying Together in Jerusalem, facilitated by Peta Pellach, its director of educational activities, which Yaffe has attended for many years. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and occasionally Buddhists and Hindus meet to discuss a shared theme and then offer prayers from their respective traditions. She is almost always invited to offer the Jewish prayer.
“It’s a very beautiful event,” she says.
During the recent war, she went on a speaking tour in Finland, addressing 10 churches and the Jewish community in Helsinki. Many Christians told her they were praying for Israel. In contrast, when she later spoke in Kent before a committed pro-Palestinian audience, she sensed there was little sympathy for Israel at all.
To both communities she made the same request: “Hold us all in prayer – Israelis and Palestinians. We all need your prayers.”
A life of music and service
Music and prayer remain central to Yaffe’s daily life. She sings with a women’s band whose members are mostly haredi (ultra-Orthodox) – many of whom trained as professional musicians before becoming religious – and performs voluntarily every month in retirement residences.
She also participates regularly in the Global Women’s Hallel, a project that began during COVID in Edgware, England, and continues to unite Jewish women around the world in prayer.
In Jerusalem, she leads prayers at Shira Hadasha, the Orthodox feminist synagogue on Emek Refaim Street. The community is not egalitarian and follows Halacha (Jewish law) while enabling women to lead prayers that do not require a minyan (quorum of 10 men) and to read from the Torah.
Through her music, Yaffe blends the tradition and creativity, performing within Orthodox frameworks while expanding women’s participation in prayer and ritual.
“I’m sort of on the very edge of orthodoxy. I call myself unorthodox Orthodox or Orthodox unorthodox,” she laughs.
Family, faith and legacy
Yaffe found personal happiness later in life with her current husband and enjoys the company of her children and grandchildren.
“Baruch Hashem, I have a great life. I have grandchildren, some who are already getting their driver’s licenses. And thank God, I’m healthy – so, it’s great,” she says.
Her family also recognizes the essence of her work. “My daughter said to me: ‘You know, Mommy, whatever you do is orientated towards tefillah [prayer], whether it’s interfaith or Jewish. But it’s always about tefillah.’ I was happy that she saw that essence in my soul – that I want to be connected to God and I do things that connect me.”
A life dedicated to building bridges
Hanna Yaffe’s life reflects a deep commitment to music, spirituality, and connection.
“I want my life to be a testament to an unwavering commitment to fostering peace,” she says.
From Gateshead to Jerusalem, from lullabies to Christmas carols, she has transformed her faith and musical talent into a bridge that brings people together across cultures, faiths, and generations.