For Shaina Silver-Baird, there are moments in her career that appear to be accidental, just like her character in her film, Less Than Kosher. She never intended to fill a role as a cantor at a Toronto synagogue, have film and TV writing part of her career, or have Less Than Kosher become part of the Jewish Film Festival circuit.
With a path like this, you would almost believe that Shaina’s upcoming performance for the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Launch Event on September 8 was accidental as well. “Someone in the audience at the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival (EJFF) asked me to sing live and I think the audiences’ response inspired Susan (Schiffman) to bring me back,” she says.
Shaina is a Canadian actor, singer, writer, and producer. She has performed on stages all over the world, most recently with the award winning, klezmer musical Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story and the world premiere of In Seven Days by Jordi Mand. She leads Ghost Caravan, an all-female band and CBC Radio One has featured their music.
Growing up in Toronto, her parents’ love of music influenced Shaina. They taught international folk dance, including Romanian, Bulgarian, Israeli, Greek, and Serbian dance. They would take the family to see live music and musical theatre performances. Shaina also was an avid reader as a child and learned about story structure and using her vivid imagination.
When a rabbi approached her to perform cantorial duties, it didn’t seem as if it was a good fit for her. “I don’t speak Hebrew. I don’t go to synagogue. I’ve never read the Torah. I felt like the wrong person for the job. But the rabbi told me, ‘It doesn’t matter. You’re a great performer’. He believed in me. So, I started singing at weddings and all these ridiculous, hilarious things started happening,” says Shaina.
That accidental job and watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel inspired her to take this story and make it into a web series with co-creator/writer Michael Goldlist. In the series, Shaina stars in the lead acting and singing role. Her character, Aviva, is loosely based on her own experiences as a substitute cantor. She realized that contemporary mainstream audiences would watch a story that is unapologetically culturally Jewish. “When Michael and I started writing, it came out of this desire to make a fun part for myself for film and TV. But I ended up falling in love with writing and filmmaking. It’s now part of my palette of jobs—I write and create for film and TV,” she says.
On a whim, they made a feature film edit of Less Than Kosher and she sent it to the artistic director of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival to get an opinion on who might be interested in licensing the film. This “accidental” whim resulted in Less Than Kosher having its world premiere at the festival.
“It world premiered at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival in June 2023. We were delighted and shocked. We sold out the Bloor Cinema, which seats 700 people. It won the audience choice award, which led to a second screening that also sold out. It all felt kind of surreal, and we got our distributor from that experience. We never expected Less Than Kosher to do a film festival run. It’s been this very fulfilling but accidental success,” says Shaina.
Since then, 60 film festivals, including the EJFF in May, have screened Less Than Kosher. It also has toured web festivals and won many awards at T.O. Web Fest as well as the jury award for the best narrative feature at the Diasporama Film Festival in Paris.
“This was a great time for it to be released because it’s funny and musical. It’s a bit of a romp. We can all use some joy in our lives right now,” she says.
Shaina will bring this joy to her performance at the UJA Launch. Although this event is only a few weeks before the October 7 anniversary, she will focus on love, hope, community, and support like she has for the last year. Shaina will be singing songs “with a Jewish soul,” which will have a combination of prayers and songs. Her set will include Eli, Erev Shel Shoshanim, Bei Mir Bis du Shein, and Dance Me to the End of Love.
“It’s going to be me and a pianist performing songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and English. There will be contemporary music by Jewish songwriters, including myself. But what is most important for me is building community with the people around me, sharing some good stories, and having positive experiences. We underestimate how healing that can be,” she says.
She enjoyed her time with the audience during the Q&A at the EJFF and is looking forward to return to Edmonton. “The audience asked some interesting questions, and it was very engaging. I’m excited to reconnect. It’s a beautiful community,” says Shaina.