News

Yiddish New York — the nation’s largest festival of Yiddish music, culture and language — returns December 26 – 30, 2020, and this time you can participate online in your own home!

Yiddish New York (YNY), the nation’s largest workshop/festival celebrating Yiddish language and culture — including its signature music, klezmer — is proud to announce its return for its sixth year, taking place from Saturday evening, December 26th to Wednesday, December 30th, 2020. YNY 2020 will feature some of the leading performers and scholars of Yiddish culture, including:

• Trumpeter Frank London of the Grammy Award-winning Klezmatics
• Pioneering folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (POLIN Museum, Warsaw)
• New York Times bestselling author Michael Wex (author of Born to Kvetch)
• Legendary folksinger and NEA National Heritage Fellow Ethel Raim (Co-Founder of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and leader of the famed folk revival ensemble The Pennywhistlers)
• Renowned folklorist Itzik Gottesman (University of Texas at Austin)
• Award-winning record and radio producer Henry Sapoznik
• Celebrated violinist Deborah Strauss
• Innovating klezmer clarinetist and composer Michael Winograd (KlezKanada)
• Acclaimed anthropologist Jonathan Boyarin (Cornell University)
• Pew Fellow/trombone innovator Daniel Blacksberg
• Award-winning historian James Loeffler
• Yiddish singer, composer and filmmaker Josh Waletzky
• Visual artists and curators Tine Kindermann and Deborah Ugoretz
• Yiddish singer and educator Sarah Gordon (Yiddish Princess)
• Leading klezmer flute player Adrianne Greenbaum (Mount Holyoke)
• Activist and theater curator Jenny Levison (Center for Social Inclusion)
• Acclaimed klezmer tsimbl (hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky (Center for Traditional Music and Dance)
• Dance leader and literary scholar Sonia Gollance (Ohio State/University of Vienna)
• London-based historian and Yiddishist Vivi Lachs
• Multi-disciplinary artist and educator Marion Horowitz
• Genre-blending klezmer-bluegrass clarinetist Margot Leverett
   

And that’s not all — dozens of featured artists and scholars are being confirmed each week!

A group of leading artists/cultural activists founded YNY in 2014 in response to the closure, after 30 years, of KlezKamp, which had been the world’s longest-running arts program dedicated to the continuity of traditional Yiddish folk culture. Usually held in an urban setting, YNY annually draws 500 people of all ages and backgrounds for its daytime workshops, plus thousands more for its evening concerts, dance parties, theater performances, and more. This year you can avoid the commute and join the festivities right in your own home!

“Yiddish New York is the place for people who want to celebrate Jewishness during the peak of the Christmas season through Yiddish culture and klezmer music. While the format of this year’s YNY will be virtual, the community and connection to culture is deeply real and all the more needed in our too-often isolated current world,” says trombonist and composer Dan Blacksberg.

“I’ve met some of my closest friends through the New York klezmer and Yiddish scene,” says 26-year-old Esther, a participant of the festival. “This community is a huge part of my identity, and I love that Yiddish New York is helping to keep our traditions alive.” 

Each day, YNY participants can take advantage of a full schedule of workshops in Yiddish language, klezmer music, theater, and more, plus a wide variety of performances, lectures, and films presenting many of the leading figures in Yiddish culture today. Evening programs feature an eclectic series of online concerts and theater performances.

2020 program offerings include:

• Lectures by leading scholars of Yiddish history, literature and culture
• Yiddish language instruction (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
• Klezmer music lessons and ensembles (for all instrumentalists)
• Annual Adrienne Cooper Memorial Dreaming in Yiddish Concert & Award, this year honoring Yiddish actor Shane Baker.
• Yiddish vocals/singing workshops
• Folk dance workshops led by internationally renowned dance instructors.
• Yiddish theater
• Visual arts exhibition
• The world’s largest annual Yiddish Film Festival 
• Creative activism combining arts, politics and community organizing

YNY welcomes individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of Yiddish (no prior Yiddish required!). Special programs for kids and teens are led by leading educators and performers. 

Event passes are now available at www.yiddishnewyork.com. YNY also has scholarships and work-study options available to students and participants with financial need.

Partner Organizations: The Center for Traditional Music and Dance (fiscal sponsor), The Museum of Jewish Heritage,The 14th Street Y, The Forward, The Center for Jewish History, The Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center, The Educational Alliance, The Museum At Eldridge Street, The New York Klezmer Series, The Town and Village Synagogue, The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, The Stanton Street Shul,The Workers Circle, The Forward Newspapers, The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, The Yiddish Book Center, The League for Yiddish, Yiddishkayt, The New York Jewish Guide, JewishWorldLife.com, and The New York Jewish Parenting Guide. International partners: Institut Européen des Musiques Juives (Paris), Instituto da Musica Judaica Brasil, KlezKanada (Montreal, QC).

Yiddish New York is grateful for support from the Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation, the Atran Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Covenant Foundation, Con Edison, the Adrienne Cooper Fund for Dreaming in Yiddish, the Yiddish Artists & Friends– Actors Club, Itsik (Jonathan) Sunshine, and Nicola Bird, Nan Bases, Ellie Schweber, Seth Weisberg and family. Promotional support provided in part by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and NYC & Company Foundation.

About Yiddish New York:

Yiddish New York celebrates and engages with East European Jewish (and other Jewish and co-territorial) traditions to foster new creativity, building bridges across borders – a culture under construction! Drawing inspiration from the historic cultural riches of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Yiddish New York is an intergenerational gathering featuring daily workshops and a broad spectrum of performances and programming. Yiddish New York evenings feature concerts, dance parties, and jam sessions at clubs and other venues around this vibrant neighborhood.