Hip-hop and …. accordion? No, it might not be Eminem’s or Dr. Dre’s style, but Israeli musician, social activist and theater director Neta Weiner combines both skills—as well as a love of teaching and cross-cultural collaboration—as a visiting artist at Brandeis and Tufts universities.

Fifteen years ago, he launched the Jewish-Palestinian hip-hop ensemble System Ali, performing in Arabic, Amharic, English, Hebrew, Russian and Yiddish with a collective of musicians from various nationalities. He also oversees artistic direction for Beit System Ali, an Israel-based cultural educational movement rooted in the power of artistic action to promote equality and to generate socio-political change.

The ensemble launched in 2007 during the struggle against house demolitions in Jaffa and south Tel Aviv. The group now creates educational programs that spark multicultural discourse on social issues such as segregation, racism, gender-based violence and police brutality through multilingual, multicultural art.

Weiner ventured to Boston to lecture in theater, dance and performance studies at Tufts University through BAMAH, an independent nonprofit arts platform, which also connected him and his partner, choreographer Stav Marin—who specializes in verbal, oral and body language boundaries—with the university and the local arts community.

“The plan was to come for one semester, and then plans changed. I fell in love with the department and with our students and with different communities and different people who really became family to us. So Boston is home now,” he says.

While he’s changed cities, one thing hasn’t changed: his love for the accordion, which he admits is a “strange choice.”

“It’s like an instrument invented by Dr. Seuss,” he jokes. “But, actually, I think it’s an instrument that was developed in order to allow us to keep the party going while running away from the Cossacks. It’s the ultimate instrument for the road. It has no country, no flag, but it’s a community-builder. If there’s an accordion, there’s a party, but there’s also a story—and that’s very much hip-hop as well.”

Weiner came of age in the 1990s, the golden age of hip-hop, where he perfected his love of rhyming, words and free-styling, “which are Yiddish traditions that are centuries old,” he says. Today, he admires Kendrick Lamar, Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar and klezmer artist Daniel Kahn.

While the topics he grapples with in his performances can be uncomfortable, Weiner has always felt fully himself on stage.

“I was into music and into performing since I was a very young child, because it was the best format to tell a story, but also to create change. When I grew up and got to Jaffa, it was really a matter of being the change you want to see. The songs you write should be the change you want to see in reality,” he says.

His first song with System Ali was titled “Building the House Anew.” The message, he says, refers to protesting and resisting—but also the importance of suggesting an alternative, a home for ideas and safety.

In his new home, Boston, Weiner strives to create the same sense of place. An upcoming concert at Hebrew College with Marin will explore the connection between exile and language; he’s also lecturing at Brandeis University, spotlighting the power of performance to create socio-political transformation and collaboration, with a particular focus on the political dynamic on college campuses.

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“The tense situation on campuses is a big part of our lives. I work in universities, and we feel the necessity to insist on the conversation, not to hide from it, not to hide from conflict, not to shy away from friction, but to give place to rage, to anger, to happiness, to commitment, to responsibility,” he says.

“Obviously, these are very devastating times. There’s a devastating political situation. There is a necessity to write a new story, or to take responsibility over the stories that we tell ourselves and then to the world. In that sense, this fellowship feels like a perfect opportunity that I hold very dear.”

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Neta Weiner is part of the 2024–2025 CJP and JArts Community Creative Fellowship, a program dedicated to elevating local creators who transform Jewish life through storytelling, music and art. Now in its fifth year, the fellowship highlights diverse voices and traditions, expanding the contemporary Jewish canon with work that resonates deeply with Greater Boston’s communities. Learn more about this year’s cohort.