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The Team

The people behind JEWISH.

JEWISH is led by its creator today, on top of a music catalog that has already reached millions. Funders fund people, so here is who made the songs, and the team we are honestly still looking for.

Ways to supportSee the path & strategy →

Walter J. Kin, who releases his music as RIGLI, is a New York songwriter and composer who has been writing since the 1990s. JEWISH grew out of a body of work he has built one song at a time: old Jewish melodies brought back to life for a wide modern audience, first in Russian and then in his own English adaptations.

The work is not a hope, it is a track record. Since 2017 he has written more than 100 original songs for the project, and earlier Jewish song releases have generated millions of documented platform-reported views and streams across dozens of countries. Because platform reports may overlap, the project does not add their totals together. A largely non-Jewish audience writes back, again and again, to say the songs moved them to tears. JEWISH dramatizes the exact thing the catalog has been doing in real life.

  • The Dramatists Guild of AmericaMember since 2018, the professional association of American playwrights, composers, and lyricists.
  • New York Festival for New MusicalsDebuted original songs at the 2018 festival, a showcase for new work in musical theatre.
  • 100+ original songsWritten for the project since 2017, the asset base the film is built on.
  • Millions of documented views and streamsPlatform-reported audience signal across dozens of countries, with dated evidence available privately.

Public credit for the music and the project is to Rigli Publishing.

Founding voices

The artists who gave the songs their first voice.

At the origin of the work stood two founding voices. Their artistry, in great measure, made the project’s early success.

Olga AnikinaFounding voice, poet and translator. She gave the old melodies their new Russian words.

Olga Anikina

ElechkaFounding voice, singer. She gave the Russian originals their living, recorded voice.

Elechka

Who we are looking for

The team we are building.

We would rather name our gaps than pretend they are filled. These are the key roles JEWISH is looking to bring on as the project moves from catalog to screen. The right people change everything.

Seeking

A lead producer

The first and most important need: a producer to package the ten-minute proof-of-concept short and, from there, the feature. Someone who can assemble the team, the money, and the plan.

Seeking

The right director

A director with a feel for a contemporary movie musical in the vein of La La Land: premium, warm, funny, emotionally direct, music as the spine rather than decoration.

Seeking

Music supervision

A music supervisor and music team to shepherd 100+ songs from a finished catalog into a film score and the in-story numbers, in English, for the screen.

Seeking

A COO and showrunner partner

An operating partner to run the company side, production, partnerships, and ancillaries, as the project scales from a single film into its franchise potential.

No attachments are claimed that are not real. If you are one of these people, or you know them, we would like to talk.

Join the project

Walk the path with us, or request the package.

See where JEWISH is headed, then tell us how you would like to be part of it.

See the path & strategy