Aaron Lansky is the founder and President of the National Yiddish Book Center, an organization he created in the early 1980s to help salvage Yiddish language publications. When Lansky issued his first public appeal for Yiddish books most experts believed there to be fewer than 70,000 such volumes extant. Today the National Yiddish Book Center’s collection totals well over a million volumes, housed in a state of the art facility in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Book Center also sponsors public events, internships and a wide range of cultural and educational programs designed to illuminate the treasures of Yiddish culture for a new generation. Lansky’s work has been widely featured on National Public Radio and network television, and has been the subject of articles in Time, Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and countless other publications. Lansky’s “Outwitting History” (2004), an autobiographical account of his efforts saving Yiddish books, won the 2005 Massachusetts Book Award.
In 2010, Aaron Lansky appeared in
Hosted by Canadian filmmaker and media personality Ralph Benmergui, this panel discussion brings together artists of varying ages and diverse expertise in various realms of Sephardic and Mizrachi music. Exploring the linkages and differences between the traditions they each represent, musicians Flory Jagoda, Gerard Edery, Yair Dalal and Galeet Dardashti will debunk popular myths and discuss their experiences as performers of these musical styles, both within and beyond the Jewish musical world. The panelists will consider the burning question of whether Sephardic and Mizrachi music is endangered or in the midst of a renaissance.
Conductor of the acclaimed Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus, musical director of “Di Shekhter-Tekhter,” and composer of songs for five off-Broadway shows, Binyumen Schaechter is the scion of an influential family of American Yiddishists. As the son of Mordkhe Schaechter z”l, widely considered the world’s leading Yiddish linguist of the last 50 years, and the nephew of acclaimed Yiddish poet/songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, Binyumen has come by his Yiddish musical gifts honestly. Growing up in post-war New York, Binyumen’s parents insisted that their four kids speak only Yiddish with them, an effort that has rewarded them today with sixteen fluent Yiddish-speaking grandchildren. Come hear the inside story of this unique family from the perspective of a masterful musician, humourist and storyteller.
In 2010, Binyumen Schaechter appeared in
This talk looks at the interactions between Jewish Klezmorim and Romani (Gypsy) musicians in Europe, from a historical and anthropological viewpoint. While much has been romanticized about Jews and Roma, the reality reveals a complex cultural history of musicians from peripheral social groups making a living in a Europe where identity is defined by land ownership. The lecture will use history, linguistics, and ethnomusicological approaches to the history of Roma musicianship in East Europe, the relationship of Jews and Roma, as well as Bob Cohen’s personal anecdotes. Musical examples will illustrate the talk. Bob Cohen is a musician, journalist and ethnomusicologist based in Budapest, and leads the Jewish/Hungarian klezmer band Di Naye Kapelye
In 2010, Bob Cohen appeared in
Presented in Yiddish with intermittent English translation.
Can a newspaper influence readers? This year we celebrate the 150th birthday of Abraham Cahan—founder of the Yiddish publication “Forverts". Through decades of its existence the “Forverts” has maintained a consistent position regarding its relationship to the Socialist movement, Israel and Zionism, Yiddish and Yiddish literature. Today’s “Forverts” is a weekly secular Yiddish newspaper reflecting, first and foremost, the cultural aspects of a global Jewish life. Still, the question remains: who are Ab Cahan’s inheritors on today’s Jewish streets? Two short Yiddish videos with English subtitles will accompany the talk. Translation by Professor Kalman Weiser.
In 2010, Boris Sandler appeared in
Flory Jagoda was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where her mother’s family, the Altaras, were well-known singers and musicians for generations. Following the tragic obliteration of Sarajevo’s Sephardim in the Holocaust, Jagoda immigrated to the US, and for the last six decades has made it her personal mission to keep alive the rich Ladino musical tradition of Bosnia’s Jews, earning her the sobriquet "Keeper of the Flame.” Now in her eighties and residing in Washington, DC, Flory continues to perform and is known world-wide as one of the only authentic performers of Ladino music. Though in danger of extinction, Ladino music has recently experienced a minor revival, in no small part due to Flory Jagoda’s stewardship. In 2002, Flory was honoured with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for her contribution to preserving a traditional art form. Featuring Flory Jagoda (vocals, guitar), Susan Gaeta (vocals, guitar), and Howard Bass (guitar), with special guests Milos Popovic (accordion), Aleksandar Gajic (violin), and Eric Stein (mandolin).
In 2010, Flory Jagoda appeared in
Concert - Saturday, September 4th at 7:00pm at the Enwave Theatre
What started out as a mutual affinity for kitschy Jewish album covers soon became a quest for identity, history, and culture between the grooves of LPs. Over the past decade, Josh Kun and his collaborator Roger Bennett have embarked on a thrilling journey, scouring the world to collect thousands of vinyl LPs from attics, garage sales, thrift stores and dusty archives. Pieced together, these scratched, once-loved and now-forgotten audio gems tell a vibrant tale spanning the history of Jewish recorded music from the 1940s to the 1980s. Beginning with sacred songs and ending with the triumvirate of Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, and Barry Manilow, these LPs also capture forgotten moments in Jewish American pop history—well-dressed cantors singing Christmas tunes, Long Island suburbanites dancing the mambo, and Chassidic prog-rockers. Josh Kun will share projections and audio selections from the duo's rediscovered treasury of sound, spanning the good, the bad and the ugly. Kun is Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and co-founder of Reboot Stereophonic, a non-profit record label dedicated to re-releasing lost classics from the Jewish past.
In 2010, Josh Kun appeared in
Meet the fourteen members of The Other Europeans, a unique intercultural ensemble of Jewish and Roma musicians hailing from seven different countries. Over the past three years this unique assemblage of world-class soloists has worked to explore and rekindle the historic musical symbiosis between Klezmer and Lautari musicians, along the way developing into one of the most exciting groups in contemporary world music circles. Joined by the entire ensemble, creator and musical director Alan Bern will present the project’s vision, objectives and historical context, revealing the challenges and successes encountered over the last three years of cross-cultural collaboration and performance. Featuring perspectives from each group member and video footage of research expeditions by members of the group to Israel and Bessarabia.
In 2010, Meet The Other Europeans appeared in
Award-winning author, Yiddish raconteur and Ashkenaz fave Michael Wex returns to the festival to launch his latest book. Michael Wex's brilliant and hilarious new novel is a family saga for the twenty-first century, a lovingly accurate portrait of middle-class Canadian life at the turn of the century and of Bathurst Manor, the Toronto neighbourhood that produced such famous Canadians as Howie Mandel and Wex himself. Imagine Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks without the stodgy Germans or The Brothers Karamazov with only one brother. Finally, a novel that does for Jewish Toronto what Mordecai Richler's books did for Montreal.
In 2010, Michael Wex appeared in
