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Avraham (Avrum) Leyb Burstein
Avraham (Avrum) Leyb Burstein (born in Jerusalem in 1971) is a musician, music producer and actor, active in preserving and promoting the klezmer tradition and within that, Breslov hasidic melodies. He is the founder of the Jerusalem Klezmer Association.

Biography
Burstein was born in November 1971 in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood. His gradfather, Rav Moyshe Burstein had come to Israel from Pultusk, Poland in 1934 and went on to help establish synagogues for Breslov hasidim in Jerusalem. His family had, in his lifetime, close to a thousand members. His mother, Bracha, a descendant of the Rothschild and Strauss families came to Israel from Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The Burstein and Mendel family has had artists and creators among its members, like Pesakh (Paul) Burstein and his son Michael (Mike) Burstein and the movie director Barry Mendel.

At the age of 19 he married Miriam Rubinstein, and their family now includes grandchildren. Miriam is the granddaughter of Rabbi Mordecai Elazar Rubinstein, one of the influencers of Breslov hasidism. Before the rabbi died, Burstein documented and recorded him performing dozens of traditional melodies in Yiddish, and also prayer melodies bequeathed to him by Breslov’s elders, which he preserved throughout the years. These recordings were distributed among Breslov hasidim.

Activism
In 1990 Burstein began teaching young musical talents in order to continue the traditional klezmer Dov Taras, Giora Feidman, Gershon Kletzkin. Clarinetists Yehiel (Hilik) Frank and Nathan Koral who later became famous in haredi and national-religious circles in the nineties began practicing with his direction at the age of 16 and produced klezmer music albums with him with the purpose of preserving the character of klezmer music's legacy. In 1993, for the first time in Breslov hasidism’s history, Burstein recorded the High Holidays’ melodies of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur which were passed on by the hasidic followers of the Baal Shem Tov during dating back about 200 years. The recoding features Shraga Levi, who served as a hazzan for the High Holidays in Jerusalem and Uman since 1992. These recordings became bestsellers in the Breslov communities and through them the hasidic community and those newly arriving to it could learn the prayer melodies of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of hasidism and Rabbi Nachman from Breslov and their followers in Poland and [[Ukraine in the 18th century.

In 1995, Burstein recorded and produced his first albums. The first one was “Lebedik” ("lively" in Yiddish), traditional klezmer melodies which were never documented academically with scores and formal study but were handed down from father to son and from klezmer musicians to their students for hundreds of years. In 1997 Burstein recorded the clarinetist, Yehiel (Hilik) Frank’s first album, “Bein haHomos” (Among the Walls). In the same year Frank married Sarah, Burstein’s sister.

Keeping and preserving of the authentic klezmer
Throughout the years Burstein brought together young talents and they began organizing Shabbos evenings of “Melave malka” with traditional songs and dance each week, which continued for fifteen years, between 1990 to 2006. It was in these sessions that future klezmer artists began to flourish: Nachman Zucker the virtuoso, clarinetists Dovid Golan and Avrohom Balti, violinist Shimon (Shimi) Weitzhandler, guitarist Nachman Dreyer - who are also second-generation Breslov hasidim.

The circle of people around Burstein put out albums inspired by klezmer and Jewish song: “Tikkun Chatsos”, “Rikudim”, “Haniggun hayehudi”, “Niggunei Neshome”, “Niggunei Breslov le-Hannukah ve-Purim”, “Shirei Pessach”, “Shirei simkha rosh hashanah”, “Chasdei Hashem” and more.

In 1993 Burstein took the klezmer artists to the Safed Klezmer Festival, among them clarinetist Gershon Kletzkin, and Rabbi Shmuel Shtern who went on to author books on the relationship between the melodies and divine worship according to the Hasidic law and the Kabbalah.

It was in those days that the Jerusalem klezmer artists began to extend their performances to stages abroad. These shows were special because they featured young hasidic dancers with peyos, kippa and tzitzis, performing their art for locals, Jews and non-Jews. The shows in Krakow and Barcelona remain especially memorable, through them the local audience could experience for the first time the authentic renditions of the people from the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem.

In 2001 Burstein won the televised music contest “Totzeret haAretz” on the state television channel.

Acting
Burstein has done acting in films and theater plays, characters that were often well-known from Sholem Aleichem's stories. The producers of German educational series "Kika" chose Burstein for one of the leading roles.

In 2011, Burstein and some other people from his circle were chosen for central roles in the popular series "Shtisel" ultimately purchased by Netflix.