PAST EVENTS

☛ yny official preview event!
WEDNESDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 17, 7:00PM
THE FOLKSBIENE’S A YIDDISHE KHANUKE

A showcase of seasonal songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, and English – led by Musical Director Zalmen Mlotek and featuring Joanne Borts, Rachel Yucht, Zisl Slepovitch, Avram Pengas, Yoshie Fruchter, Brian Glassman and Matt Temkin. Candle lighting will be led by Cantor Daniel Singer of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. Following the performance, enjoy fresh hot latkes and other Khanike treats as we gather to illuminate the darkness together.

☛ yny pre-festival event…
THURSDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 18, 6:00PM
YIDDISH ON TRIAL: BROOKLYN VS. THE MOTHER TOUNGUE

established Jewish did their best to “Americanize” these unwashed masses. The Hebrew Educational Society was a key program in this effort. But the attempt to stamp out Yiddish met with… mixed results. In neighboring Crown Heights, we continue to find thriving pockets of Yiddish including yeshivas focusing on the language. Join historian Dr. Daniel Soyer (Fordham) and Raul Rothblatt (Jewish Communities Liaison for the NYC Commission on Human Rights) as we explore how Yiddish has thrived in unexpected Brooklyn places where it wasn’t meant to.

SATURDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 20, 7:00PM
YNY OPENING NIGHT TANTSHOYZ YIDDISH DANCE PARTY! 🎵

YNY’s amazing dance leaders will show you the steps. You can be sure that YNYś all-star faculty klezmer band will be servin’ up the freylekhs, bulgars and quite possibly probably even the famous Jewish sher!

SUNDAY LUNCHTIME, DECEMBER 21, 1:15PM
BRIVELE 🎵

duo who braid together Yiddish song, anti-fascist and labor balladry, folk-punk, and contemporary rabble-rousing in stirring vocal harmony.

Socalled is famed for creating music infused with influences from hip-hop, klezmer, soul, world beat and beyond. Socalled was recognized with the Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Award at the first YNY festival in 2015.

Come early at 6:45PM to join in a Zingeray Yiddish sing-a-long led by songstress Sarah Gordon.

FILM: SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 8:30PM
THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET 📽

the Nazi-backed bosses of his town appoint him “Aryan controller” of an old Jewish widow’s button shop. Humor and tragedy fuse in this scathing exploration of one cowardly man’s complicity in the horrors of a totalitarian regime. Directed by Ján Kádar and Elmar Klos during a time of severe Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia, The Shop on Main Street features intense editing and camera work which won it the Academy Award™ for Best Foreign Film in 1965.

Of special note to Yiddish theater fans is Ida Kaminska´s (1899-1980) performance which garnered her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Kaminska was born in Odessa into a leading theater family– her mother, Ester-Rokhl Kaminska (née Halperin), was a pioneering figure in the development of modern Yiddish theater, and Idaś father, Abraham Isaac Kaminski, was an accomplished actor, director and theater owner in Warsaw. Ida Kaminska went on to an iconic and staggeringly productive career as an actor, director, writer, translator, and founder of theater companies. When virulent antisemitic campaigns ravaged her work in Poland, Kaminska emigrated to New York where she died in 1980.

A discussion about the film will take place PM1 (2:30PM-3:45PM) on Monday, December 22 featuring Irena Klepfisz and Yelena Shmulenson with Eve Sicular and Josh Waletzky.

MONDAY LUNCHTIME, DECEMBER 22, 1:15PM
THE DUKES OF FLATBUSH – ANDY STATMAN, PETE RUSHEFSKY & DAN BLACKSBERG 🎵

the pioneering figures of klezmer’s revival. He returns to YNY in this showcase of old-time klezmer, including secret repertoire learned from his mentor, the legendary clarinetist Dave Tarras. The addition of fellow Dukes, tsimbl (cimbalom/hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky and trombonist Dan Blacksberg, makes it likely that a serious Yiddishe hootenanny (a yoot?) will ensue. 

MONDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 22, 7:00PM
NEW YIDDISH SONGS & SCANDALS from the quivering quill of MIKHL YASHINSKY 🎵+🎭

theater’s boldest contemporary voices, Mikhl Yashinsky, whose New York Times “Critic’s Pick”-awarded turn in the title role of The Sorceress was hailed as “extravagantly hammy if ham were kosher.” The audacious playwright/ lyricist/ singer/ actor/ translator/ what-have-you presents a collection of his own songs and scenes from his stage spectacles—Blessing of the New Moon, The Gospel According to Chaim, and Feast of the Seven Sinners—the first new and entirely original Yiddish plays to appear on New York’s stages for decades. These hot-from-the-forge scorchers radiate with controversy and comedy, drama and drollery, and enough khutspe to tickle you in the kishkes. He will be joined by a marvelous array of fellow artists with whom he has collaborated on these creations, including a band of composer-instrumentalists, Michael Winograd (music director), Raffi Boden, Mattias Kaufmann, and Rebecca Mac, along with singer-actors Miryam Coppersmith, Noah Mitchel, Keyn Shum, Ira Khonen Temple, Olive Benito, Lindsey Bloom, Jeff Jakobs, and Lonnie Miller.

Come early at 6:45PM to join in a Zingeray Yiddish sing-a-long led by songstress Sarah Gordon!

FILM: MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 8:30PM
PARTISANS OF VILNA 📽

Partisans of Vilna chronicles the amazing endeavors of the Jewish resistance fighters. Highly acclaimed during its theatrical run, the film has been described as “a stirring, extremely honest and heart rending celebration” (New York Magazine). The 1986 documentary was directed and edited by YNY’s Josh Waletzky (Image Before My Eyes) and produced and conceived by Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg), Partisans skillfully blends songs, newsreel and archival footage with interviews of over forty Holocaust survivors to paint an eye-opening portrait of the courageous Jewish resistance in Vilna.

A discussion about the film will take place PM1 (2:30PM-3:45PM) on Wednesday, December 24 featuring Josh Waletzky and Elye Palevsky.

FILM/CONCERT: TUESDAY LUNCHTIME,
DECEMBER 23, 12:45PM
BENYE KRIK (LIVE PERFORMANCE OF NEW SCORE BY MATT DARRIAU) 📽+🎵

is the setting for Isaac Babel’s story based on the life of gangster king Mishka Yaponchik (“Mike the Jap”) Vinnitsky. Murder is a way of life for Benya Krik and his gang. They profit from their criminal activities until the Russian Revolution when the local commissar sets them up as a “revolutionary” regiment, complete with tattooed red stars. But this new post backfires for Benya as he finds himself ensnared in a Bolshevik trap. Inflected with klezmer, Balkan music and jazz, Matt Darriau’s (The Klezmatics/Paradox Trio) new score perfectly matches the mood of this controversial 1926 Soviet film by director Vladimir Vilner, which was banned soon after its release.

TUESDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 23, 7:00PM
KHAZONES UNDERGROUND DOUBLE RELEASE CONCERT: THE RETURN OF THE IMMORTAL KHAZNTES & THE DREAM PAST BY THE SWAY MACHINERY 🎵+🙏

by musicians and scholars Judith Berkson and Jeremiah Lockwood dedicated to preserving and expanding the legacy of khazones–the spiritual music heritage of Yiddish-speaking Jews. This special record release event will feature a double header of performances of new albums coming out on Khazones Underground. The Return of the Immortal Khazntes pays tribute to the pioneering women cantors of the early 20th century and features Berkson, Riki Rose, Shahanna McKinney-Baldon (and special guests!). The Dream Past is the first album in a decade from The Sway Machinery; this new project from the band takes its inspiration from bootleg tapes of cantors. Expect virtuosic vocal performances, radical recontextualizations of the sacred, and a joyful noise scavenged from the mouths of ghosts!  

Come early at 6:45PM to join in a Zingeray Yiddish sing-a-long led by songstress Sarah Gordon!

FILM: TUESDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 23, 9:00PM
A TANGO FOR RACHEL 📽

Immediately after the film we will have an interview with the director via an intercontinental video link.  

WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME, DECEMBER 24, 1:15PM
A GLEZELE TEY 🎵

& its signature summer Yiddish fête KlezCummington, A Glezele Tey invites you into their living room for a little glass of tea from the samovar, bringing audiences into an intimate and enthralling world of klezmer, Yiddish folk song, and tkhines (traditional Ashkenazi prayers). Featuring acclaimed musicians/composers Ariel Shapiro (Burikes), Rachel Leader (Mamaliga/Magid Ensemble), and Richie Barshay (The Klezmatics/Herbie Hancock). The band’s music is an act of deep care—rooted in community gathering, lineage, and ritual, lifting collective voices to build a frayer velt (a freer world).

WEDNESDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 24, 7:00PM
14th ANNUAL ADRIENNE COOPER DREAMING IN YIDDISH CONCERT HONORING MICHAEL ALPERT 🎵+💃+🥇

Adrienne Cooper (1946-2011) was an inspirational performer, activist, teacher and mentor to so many of us in the Yiddish velt. Each year, YNY and the AC-DIY Committee remembers Cooper with the annual Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Concert and Award, the centerpiece of the festival’s programming. Now in its 14th year, the concert is always a spectacle, and serves as a place for the community to honor an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to Yiddish language, arts, scholarship  and/or activism. The Dreaming in Yiddish Award was created to support artists and scholars as they embark on, in Adrienne’s words, “the boundless, utterly unexpected adventure of working in Yiddish.” Each year we honor Adrienne’s memory by gathering musicians, artists, activists, Yiddishists and friends in celebration of the world that she helped create and grow. This year’s recipient is Michael Alpert, one of the most influential figures in the global renaissance of Yiddish music and culture.

Kapelye, Khevrisa, and Itzhak Perlman’s In the Fiddler’s House has shaped generations of performers and listeners alike.

A native Yiddish speaker and cultural bridge between East European-born tradition bearers and contemporary artists, Alpert is celebrated both for preserving the roots of Yiddish folk and klezmer music and for composing a new body of Yiddish songs that speak to today’s world.

The Dreaming in Yiddish Award Concert — presented in association with Yiddish New York and GOH Productions — will feature Michael Alpert and friends in an evening of music, memories, and celebration.

Previous awardees: Jenny Romaine, Michael Wex, Joshua Dolgin, Irena Klepfisz, Shura Lipovsky, Yefim “Fima” Chorny & Suzanna Ghergus, Nikolai “Kolya” Borodulin, Shane Baker, Jeffrey Shandler, Rokhl Kafrissen, Daniel Kahn and Deborah Strauss.

☛ yny symposium 2025
THURSDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 25, 9:30AM
KHAZONES UNDERGROUND: CONVENING A YIDDISH SACRED MUSIC COMMUNITY 🗣+🎵+🙏

relationship does it bear to Yiddish language and culture? Who are the multiple contemporary communities that claim khazones as the basis for creative projects and artistic careers?  What is the musical substance of khazones and how have the sounds and affects of the cantorial voice been preserved or disappeared over the course of the American Jewish 20th century? What meaning can be reclaimed from the lost prayers of our ancestors?

In this three-part symposium, scholars of cantorial music Judith Berkson and Jeremiah Lockwood of Khazones Underground, along with ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin, present a broad ranging conversation on the topic of cantorial revival, providing an overview of the history of the music, personal reflections on performance and pedagogy, and a look into the cantorial revivalist community. A distinguished group of scholars and practitioners will address themes of revival and the changed meanings of musical traditions in new cultural contexts. The program will be capped by a special musical performance by Cantor Rachel Weston. Participants: Cantor Judith Berkson, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Cantor Yanky Lemmer, Jeremiah Lockwood, Shahanna McKinney-Baldon, Riki Rose and Mark Slobin.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1:00PM
THE ALWAYS AMAZING YNY TEEN PERFORMANCE & THE ALWAYS GREAT YNY STUDENT CONCERT 🎵+💃+🎭

At 1PM we’ll start with The Always Amazing YNY Teens Performance in the downstairs Conference Level (not Livestreamed). Then at 2PM the 1st Floor Chapel will be the site of the grand festival finale – The Always Great YNY Student Concert (this will be Livestreamed).

FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 26, 6:00PM
YNY KABBOLAS-SHABBOS & POTLUCK DINNER ON ROOSEVELT ISLAND🙏+🎵

The davenen will be led by Cantors Sarah Myerson and Jeff Warschauer with klezmorim Deborah Strauss, Ilya Shneyveys, Zilyin and friends including M Miller. A Potluck dinner follows across the street (address provided on registration).  Please bring a dairy or pareve (meatless) dish and serving utensils to share.  Sign up here to register.  This evening is open to everyone. No previous knowledge needed, and no previous, current or future religious affiliation is necessary or expected. 

5:45pm — drop off food at the potluck room (location provided on RSVP – accessible by elevator or stairs)
6:00pm — service at the Main Street Theatre, 548 Main Street (accessible by elevator or stairs)
7:30pm — potluck dinner back across the street 

RIJC is best accessed by public transit. The F/M subway stops at Roosevelt Island, from which you can take an elevator or escalators to street level. It’s a 10-minute walk north from the subway station to the Theatre, and there is a free Red shuttle bus along that route.  Detailed directions here. RIJC is also accessible by ferry (the Astoria route), the Q102 bus from Queens Plaza,  the tram from Manhattan, walking across the Roosevelt Island Bridge from 36th Avenue Queens, or car..

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