Below is 2023 information – check back in September for 2024 info!
We are excited to partner with Hebrew Union College (HUC) on this year’s festival. Please make sure to review YNY’s COVID safety policy prior to attending – all attendees must wear masks & we encourage you to get your updated booster vaccines in advance!
YNY’s Evening Programs & Special Events are curated by Aaron Bendich & Frank London.
See the programs below, and when youŕe ready CLICK HERE TO REGISTER/PURCHASE TICKETS
PAST EVENTS
EVENT ENDED
***SPECIAL PRE-YNY PARTNER PROGRAM***
1:00pm Play-Along Session & Tune Book Release Party with Susi Evans and Szilvia Csaranko
Online Event. Donations accepted. Produced by The Klezmer Institute & Yiddish New York.
Join Susi Evans & Szilvia Csaranko to celebrate the release of their tune folio & double CD “Fun an Altn Klezmer Heft”. The 44 included tunes come from the handwritten manuscripts released in the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project. Bring your instruments or your
dancing shoes back to Zoom to join the party!! Register here to attend. Purchase pdfs, the book, or the CDs.
EVENT ENDED
***SPECIAL PRE-YNY PARTNER PROGRAM***
The National Yiddish Theater – Folksbiene presents Amid Falling Waters
At the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Battery Park. Contact the Folksbiene about masking policy. Presented in Yiddish with English/Russian supertitles. Find more information and box office links by clicking here.
The stage is set, the lights have dimmed, and the reviews are pouring in for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s world premiere of Amid Falling Walls (Tsvishn Falndike Vent). Critics and audiences alike are singing praises for the authenticity, inspiration, and sheer brilliance of this groundbreaking performance. Amid Falling Walls has captured audiences’ hearts and minds.
Curated and arranged by Zalmen Mlotek, with a compelling libretto by Avram Mlotek, and directed by Motl Didner, this Off-Broadway production delves into the songs created and performed in ghettos, cabarets, partisan encampments, concentration camps, and clandestine theaters. The cast features YNY favorites Steven Skybell (Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), Mikhl Yashinsky and music by Frank London & Michael Winograd.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 9
***SPECIAL PRE-YNY PARTNER PROGRAM***
7:30pm Ol’ Broadway Khanike Party featuring music by Lauren Brody & Pete Rushefsky
At the Old Broadway Synagogue, 15 Old Broadway between 125th/126th Streets in Harlem. Old Broadway is one block east of Broadway. Admission is free. Masks optional. This event will not be livestreamed.
Please join YNY at the historic Old Broadway Synagogue in Harlem for a super-fun Khanike (that’s YIVO for “Hanukkah”) party. There will be food, good cheer, not-so-competitive dreydl-spinning, great music and wonderful people sharing the holiday spirit. Music will be provided by klezmer revival pioneer Lauren Brody (accordion) and tsimbl (cimbalom/ hammered dulcimer)
player Pete Rushefsky, who create a unique sound reminiscent of those ol’ classic recordings of Yankowitz and Goldberg. First-time visitors be sure to ask congregation president Paul Radensky for a fascinating account of the synagogue’s founding and survival in a changing neighborhood.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 11
***SPECIAL PRE-YNY PARTNER PROGRAM***
7:30pm Michael Winograd and the Honorable Mentshn w/ Special Guest Sasha Lurje
At the Flatbush Jewish Center, 327 E 5th Street in Brooklyn. Masks optional. Click here for information.
Michael Winograd and the Honorable Mentshn, perhaps your favorite klezmer band, will be joined by vocalist Sasha Lurje to to celebrate the festival of lights in Brooklyn. Program includes a special opening set
by Jax Weiss and Yoshie Fruchter. There will be singing, there will be dancing. Don’t miss it!! Featuring Michael Winograd (clarinet), Daniel Blacksberg (trombone, spoken word), Will Holshouser (accordion), Carmen Staaf (piano), Zoe Guigueno (bass), David Licht (the drums) and special guest vocalist all the way from Berlin – Sasha Lurje! The band will be touring with stops in Washington DC, Baltimore, Philly, Boston and Northampton.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 18
***SPECIAL PRE-YNY PARTNER PROGRAM***
3:30pm-5:00pm The Unity Club at the Crossroads: A Forgotten Chapter of Jewish Crown Heights
In-person program at 19-29 Rogers Avenue/Grant Square in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Admission is free, reservation not required. Masks optional. This event will not be livestreamed. Presented by YNY in partnership with Assembly Member Brian Cunningham and the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative.
The Unity Club is a name with some swagger. Beginning in 1914, this upscale Jewish club met here at 19-29 Rogers Avenue in Crown Heights to plan ambitious efforts to transform Brooklyn. By 1944, the club moved to Park Slope and another transformative movement took residence: the first Chabad yeshiva in the USA. This program led by local community history maven Raul Rothblatt will probe the building’s surprising & diverse history:
19-29 Rogers Avenue is situated on a Native American trail and a likely African burial ground, and was the site of a young Al Sharpton’s first sermon. The future may likely bring a new Jewish institution to the building. Our discussion concludes with a performance by Yiddish New York’s next generation of fiddlers.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 19 *Pre-YNY Event*
7:30pm Remembering Pete Sokolow (1940-2022)
Online program on Zoom. Admission is free, but registration is required (click here to register). Presented by YNY in partnership with Long Island Traditions.
Pete Sokolow (1940-2022) was an icon of klezmer music, a musician, author and teacher who bridged musical eras. Known as the ¨youngest of the old guys,¨ the Brooklyn-born Sokolow built his reputation performing in the Jewish Catskills, and became the first-call pianist for a coterie of leading New York klezmer musicians including Dave Tarras, the Epstein Brothers, Rudy Tepel, Paul Pincus, Ray Musiker, Sid Beckerman and Howie Leess.
On the bandstand, Sokolow’s prodigious musicianship and ability to tastefully synthesize elements of jazz with klezmer and Hasidic music was indispensable.
For young musicians participating in klezmer’s celebrated revival since the 1970s, Sokolow served as the consummate elder statesman and ambassador for the music’s rich heritage. He championed the artistry of the older masters, coaxing a number of retired colleagues back onstage while mentoring several generations of revivalists, including long-time collaborator Henry Sapoznik.
Sokolow’s towering legacy lives on in the continuing creative development of klezmer, numerous performances and interviews preserved in film and sound recordings, a corpus of published writings authored by or about him, and of course, in the cherished family he raised with Vera– their sons Michael and Daniel now lead growing families of their own.
Please join us in celebrating Pete’s remarkable life and legacy. This special program will be hosted by klezmer revival hero Henry Sapoznik and feature reflections by members of Sokolow’s family and a number of his musical colleagues.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 20 *Pre-YNY Event*
4:30pm-6:30pm Zog mir, ver bistu? (Tell Me, Who Are You?): YNY Visual Arts Opening Reception Featuring Special Performance by Zhenya Lopatnik & Oren Neiman
In-person event at Hebrew Union Collegeś Dr. Bernard Heller Museum, 1 W 4th St. in Manhattan. Admission is free, but you need to register for the event. Click here to register. The event will not be live streamed.
This year’s YNY Visual Arts Exhibition focuses on the portrait and how it reveals the history and significance of the individual it depicts. It is an invitation to establish a dialogue with the viewer, to engage with the sitter. The images tell stories, individual stories. To paraphrase the Mishnaic tractate of Sanhedrin: “(Saving) a single life is regarded as (saving) an entire world.” What are the
worlds we are encountering in this exhibition? Who is this person? What is its background? What can we say back to it? How can we establish a connection with the subject? What can it teach us?
In this exhibition curated by Tine Kindermann and Deborah Ugoretz we encourage you to engage with the prompt ZOG MIR, VER BISTU? Tell me, who are you? – Jew? American? Lover? Musician? Humanist? Inhabitor of the Earth? We will feature a way for YOU to Zog mir, ver bistu with an interactive piece. Respond to a prompt and record your own portrait in our exhibition. Look deeply or on the surface – this is your chance to share with our community. Let’s see what comes out of it…
The opening reception will feature a special performance at 5:30pm by renowned Yiddish singer Zhenya Lopatnik and guitarist Oren Neiman. The exhibition will remain open during YNY through December 28.
Images (clockwise from upper left) by Olga Hiiva, Phyllis Ruffer, Viktoriya Basina, and Nina Talbot
PLAYING DECEMBER 21-JANUARY 7
***SPECIAL YNY PARTNER PROGRAM***
New Yiddish Rep Theater Presents The Gospel According to Chaim / Di psure loyt khaim by Mikhl Yashinsky
At the Theater for the New City. In Yiddish with English supertitles. Contact the theater about masking policy. Find more information and box office links by clicking here.
New Yiddish Rep, New York’s daring producer of contemporary theater that has added several landmark productions to the Yiddish canon in recent years, presents the world premiere of “The Gospel According to Chaim.” As thrilling theatrically as it is thought-provoking due to its iconoclastic story, “The Gospel According to Chaim” features Yiddish theater
stars Melissa Weisz, Sruli Rosenberg, Joshua Horowitz, and Mikhl Yashinsky. The director is Dmitri Barcomi, founder of the new Museum of Drag. In 1941, Chaim Einspruch, an obscure Yiddish writer, translated the New Testament into Yiddish. Refused by every publisher he approached, Einspruch learned the art of printing himself, producing an elegantly illustrated manuscript, which nobody wanted to read. It is the story of this manuscript — discovered by the 33-year-old Yashinsky in 2016 – which is the inspiration for this play.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 23
7:00pm Dueling Opening Night YNY Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance Parties
Join us for an In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 W 4th St. in Manhattan. Admission: $25 (included in a Full Festival Pass). You can also pay at the door. Not available by livestream. OR You can attend a free online dance party led by Steve Weintraub on Zoom (registration required)!
IN-PERSON DANCERS – Lace up your dancing shoes for an evening of good ‘ol traditional Yiddish folk dance. No experience necessary – dance leader Sarah Myerson will show you the steps, while YNY’s All-Star Faculty Band and special guests will be cookin’ up a blend of the best Jewish horas, freylekhs & bulgars on the planet!
OR you can tune into a free ONLINE YIDDISH DANCE PARTY led by master dance leader Steve Weintraub on Zoom from 7pm-9pm!
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 24
1:15pm Lunchtime Concert – T-Klez featuring Dobe Ressler, Psachya Septimus & David Licht
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $10 in-person/$8 livestream (included in Full Festival Pass and Sunday Day Pass).
We’re so excited for the YNY debut of T-Klez, who, in our humble opinion, is absolutely the Garden State’s finest traditional klezmer ensemble. The band is led by clarinetist Dobe Ressler, long admired for a performing style that beautifully captures the nuances of the genre. Ressler is ably accompanied by the
band’s wonderful accordionist, Psachya Septimus, and drummer David Licht, well-known for his decades of work as a founding member of The Klezmatics.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 24
6:40pm Zingeray with Sarah Gordon
7:00pm In der heym/Down Home: An Evening With Michael Alpert (featuring Craig Judelman)
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $25 in-person/$18 livestream (admission is included in Full Festival Pass and Sunday Day Pass). Try to arrive for the show by 6:40pm to join in a Zingeray with YNY forzinger Sarah Gordon (she’ll bring the words so you can sing along).
It’s always a treat when Yiddish New York can welcome back fan-favorite & NEA National Heritage Fellow Michael Alpert. For over 40 years Alpert has been a pioneering Yiddish singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, researcher, organizer and teacher who has inspired and mentored thousands of aspiring Yiddish musicians.
This long-time New Yorker now resides on Britain’s Upper East Side, in a cozy Scottish fishing hamlet overlooking the North Sea. The intercontinentally central location has enabled Alpert to keep up an active calendar of performances in North America, Europe and cyberspace. He recently collaborated with Berlin-based violinist Craig Judelman on a groundbreaking new CD of original and traditional material that seamlessly interweaves motifs from Yiddish, East European, American and British folk musics.
Photograph by Tom Pich.
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 24
10:00pm – YNY Late Night Literary Salon Hosted by Sebastian Schulman
Online Event on Zoom. Admission is free, but registration required (automatically included in Full Festival and Sunday Evening Passes or you can register just for the salon).
After the concert, get snuggled in bed with your computer, a bowl of popcorn and (perhaps) a glass of red wine. Starting online at 10:00PM, we will call on literati, culture makers and lovers of the written word for the Late Night Literary Salon, a program of wordcraft and wonder that will stretch into the wee hours. Come to hear or recite poems, stories, plays, and any sort
of text you can imagine. Everything with a Yiddishn tam (Yiddish flavor) is welcome, no matter the language! The evening’s festivities will be hosted by writer and literary translator Sebastian Schulman of the Yiddish Book Center.
Sign up to perform HERE.
EVENT ENDED – MONDAY, DECEMBER 25
1:15pm Lunchtime Concert – Invocation: Songs in Memory of a Life in Translation
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $10 in-person/$8 livestream (included in Full Festival Pass and Monday Day Pass).
Batia Baum (1941-2023) was a prize-winning Yiddish translator, scholar and teacher based in Paris whose translations opened the French-speaking world to dozens of classic Yiddish literary works. A survivor of the Shoah, Baum was active with Paris’s Medem Library Yiddish Center and also taught at programs such as
the annual Yiddish cultural institute at Château de Ligoure. Baum became an important mentor to two central members of the New York Yiddish music scene, singers/instrumentalists Eleonore Biezunski and Eleonore Weill. Please join us for this special program celebrating Baum’s life work & remembering her important contributions to the Yiddish world. Biezunski and Weill will collaborate with accordion wizard Christina Crowder to perform newly-composed settings of Baum’s translations.
EVENT ENDED – MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 25
6:40pm Zingeray with Joanne Borts
7:00pm Nitl Nakht Toyznt Tamen Cabaret
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $25 in-person/$18 livestream (admission is included in Full Festival Passes and Monday Day Pass). Try to arrive for the show by 6:40pm to join in a Zingeray with YNY forzinger Joanne Borts (she’ll bring the words so you can sing along).
We invite you to the Nitl Nakht Toyznt Tamen Cabaret: a prismatic evening of dance, music, stage illusion and the good kind of drama! YNY is thrilled to share work by this multi-generational group of artists who each bring rigor and refreshing talents to Yiddish performance. Our community contains multitudes! This variety evening will uplift facets of Yiddish thought,
feeling, and energy we didn’t even know we needed. Bask in what some of our performers are calling the “oyflebn,” the re-vernacularization of Yiddish. Thrill to an intimate encounter with the letter beys. Vibe to a virtuosic dance embodiment of Ashkenazic cantillation. Never look at eggplant the same way again! Featuring performances by dancer Hadar Ahuvia, voice actor Suzanne Toren, DC’s finest Yiddish burlesque ensemble Shmutzik Shmates, the Burikes new Yiddish music ensemble, and theater artists Michael Leibenluft, the GLYK Kolektiv as well as our cabaret curator, Jenny Romaine.
EVENT ENDED – MONDAY LATE NIGHT, DECEMBER 25
9:00pm (8:30pm doors) Yiddish Princess Reunion!
At Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery in Manhattan. Admission $25. Tickets are not included in Full-Festival nor Day passes and must be purchased separately. Livestream not available for this program.
Double guitar onslaught.
Drums beating you into submission. Precious analog synths beckoning.
And a voice that can shatter ice and coo you into mellifluous bliss.
Oyf Yiddish.
Looking to reconcile your love of power pop and hard rock with your love of Yiddish music? Your search is over.
Behold, Yiddish Princess.
No, ChatGPT did NOT write these elegant verses! Anyways – the band, the myth, the legend…. you won’t want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime YP Reunion performance! Featuring internationally celebrated Yiddish vocalist Sarah Gordon with keyboardist Michael Winograd, the dueling guitars of Avi Fox-Rosen & Yoshie Fruchter, bassist Ari Folman-Cohen & drummer Phillip Mayer.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26
1:15pm Lunchtime Concert – Levyosn
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $10 in-person/$8 livestream (included in Full Festival Pass and Tuesday Day Pass).
One of the most exciting new acts on the Yiddish scene, Levyosn takes its name from the Ashkenazi Hebrew word for the leviathan, a mythical sea creature traveling the world’s oceans collecting songs, krill, and dreams. Like this mythical fish, they spend their time in joyful exploration of Yiddish song, klezmer, original
compositions, and adjacent Jewish and East European folk traditions. Levyosn brings harmony-rich arrangements and driving dance rhythms to old gems and new tunes alike. The band’s intricate arrangements and rich vocal harmonies make their sound unique. Levyosn recently released their debut album, Levyosn’s Lullaby on the Borscht Beat label. Levyosn features Lysander Jaffe (violin, voice), Adah Hetko (guitar, voice, songwriting), and Kaia Berman-Peters (accordion, voice, songwriting).
TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 26
6:40pm Zingeray with Sarah Gordon
7:00pm YNY Accordion Summit
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $25 in-person/$18 livestream (admission is included in Full Festival Pass and Tuesday Day Pass). Try to arrive for the show by 6:40pm to join in a Zingeray with YNY forzinger Sarah Gordon (she’ll bring the words so you can sing along).
We’re gathering together some of the finest bellow-maesters in the biz for what is sure to be a unique program celebrating the squeezebox and its unique place in Yiddish music. Come on, admit it, your zayde has one up in the attic and you’re just dying to dust it off and learn some of Mishka Ziganoff’s showcase numbers. The evening will feature solo &
.
ensemble performances by virtuoso accordionists Lauren Brody, Rob Curto, Will Holshouser, Ilya Shneyveys, Peter Stan, Ira Temple and, we guess because someone has to keep the beat, drummer David Licht
TUESDAY LATE NIGHT, DECEMBER 26
9:00pm (8:30pm doors) Klezmah dub: Shabbos Ranks + Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars (Chronikah CD Release) + YNY Klezmer Jam Session!
At DROM, 85 Avenue A in Manhattan. Admission $25. Tickets are not included in Full-Festival nor Day passes and must be purchased separately. Livestream not available for this program.
Shabbos Ranks is an exploratory trip through experimental dub, klezmer, and improvised music, formed by trumpeter Celeste Cantor-Stephens (Bristol, UK) and guitarist/mandolinist Sam Day Harmet (Brooklyn, USA). This borderless collaboration was ignited by a shared interest in the language of Jewish music, spun through a kaleidoscope of
experimental influences at the intersection of Bristol and Brooklyn. Here, klezmer meets spaced-out skanking, Downtown jazz, dubby post-punk, and swirling headphone psychedelia.
Next, Grammy-winning trumpeter Frank London (The Klezmatics) brings his sensational Klezmer Brass All-Stars up on the stage for the world premiere of music from their new CD release, Chronikah (Sir Frank gave us a sneak listen and it’s a sensational mix of brass & electronica!). Dancing shoes are a must!
And bring your instrument – the evening ends with an always fun YNY Klezmer Jam Session!
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27
1:15pm Lunchtime Concert – Isabel Frey & Benjy Fox-Rosen
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $10 in-person/$8 livestream (included in Full Festival Pass and Wednesday Day Pass).
Vienna comes to YNY! Isabel Frey is a Yiddish singer and social justice activist based in Vienna. She specializes in Yiddish revolutionary and resistance songs, and seeks to revive the tradition of left-wing Jewish activism by connecting her music to contemporary political issues. When not on stage, Frey is a PhD candidate at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in ethnomusicology, researching unaccompanied Yiddish folksong.
Originally from Los Angeles, Benjy Fox-Rosen is a singer, bassist and composer based in Vienna. His recordings have been recognized by the Forward in the top-five Jewish music album of the year category. Fox-Rosen is the conductor of the Vienna Stadttempel Choir, and he performed at Celebrate Brooklyn, the Chicago World Music Festival, Wiener Festwochen, the Krakow Jewish Festival as well as many other festivals and venues throughout the Americas and Europe. He has taught workshops at KlezKamp, KlezKanada, New England Conservatory, Yiddish Summer Weimar, and was a Fulbright scholar in Romania from 2012-2013.
WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 27
7:00pm The 12th Annual Adrienne Cooper Memorial Dreaming in Yiddish Concert & Award
This event is produced in cooperation with GOH Productions. In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $25 in-person/$18 livestream (admission is included in Full Festival Pass and Wednesday Day Pass). Planning on attending just this event? Click here.
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 12th 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 evening is always a special one, full of artistry and love. It is a performance, award ceremony and community gathering that anchors YNY and is looked forward to all year. We hope that you join us!
We’re so pleased to announce that this year’s 2023 recipient of the prestigious Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Award is Daniel Kahn. Well-known to audiences around the world, Kahn is a Yiddish singer, songwriter, translator, actor, playwright, director, and multi-instrumentalist, based in Germany. Daniel was a student of Adrienne Cooper, and his prolific work embodies her legacy.
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. Previous awardees: Jenny Romaine, Michael Wex, Joshua Dolgin, Irena Klepfisz, Shura Lipovsky, Yefim “Fima” Chorny & Suzanna Ghergus, Nikolai “Kolya” Borodulin, Shane Baker, Jeffrey Shandler and Rokhl Kafrissen.
Detroit-born expat troubadour Daniel Kahn combines English, Yiddish, and German in a radical mix of klezmer, lyrical folk ballads, dark cabaret, and political punk. His projects and groups include the award-winning cult band The Painted Bird, as well as Brothers Nazaroff, Semer Ensemble, The Unternationale, and his recent duo with Jake Shulman-Ment, “The Building & Other Songs.” He played the original Perchik in Folksbiene’s hit “Fidler afn Dakh,” Yosl in “Amerike,” Biff in NYR’s “Death of a Salesman,” the Badkhn in the Netflix series “Unorthodox,” and was featured in Carnegie Hall’s “From Shtetl to Stage.” He works frequently as composer and actor at Hamburg’s Thalia and Berlin’s Gorki Theater and co-founded the Shtetl Berlin festival. Videos of his Yiddish versions of Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Tom Waits songs have received millions of views. Ashkenaz Foundation named him the inaugural Theo Bikel Artist-in-Residence. In 2018, he received the Chane and Joseph Mlotek Award for Yiddish Continuity. After being based in Berlin for 16 years, he currently harbors on a houseboat in Hamburg with Yeva Lapsker and their son Leon.
“Kahn writes great crooked songs between Leonard Cohen and Mordechai Gebirtig, between Nick Cave and Hirsch Glik. With a light hand, he translates and adapts old songs, making them his own.” -Die Zeit
Image of Adrienne Cooper by Eric Drooker. Photo of Daniel Kahn by Adam Berry.
WEDNESDAY LATE NIGHT, DECEMBER 27
10:00pm – The Late Great YNY Cabaret! Hosted by Ira Khonen Temple & Rachel Weston
Online Event on Zoom. Admission is free, but registration required (automatically included in Full Festival and Wednesday Evening Passes or you can register just for the cabaret).
Be sure to find your computer after the concert for the Late Great YNY Cabaret. Emcees Ira Khonen Temple and Rachel Weston will have you howling into the wee hours of morning (don’t forget your charger). You won’t believe the talent of your fellow YNYers (we saw a recent Cabaret viewer comment “did he really do that with a rubber chicken?”).
Sign up to perform HERE! (ONLINE EVENT)
THURSDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 28
9:30am YNY Symposium:
The Yiddish Song on the Move
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 West 4th Street in Manhattan. Livestream available on Zoom. Registration is included in Full-Festival Passes and Thursday Morning Pass.
This year’s YNY Symposium, The Yiddish Song on the Move, brings together older and younger singers/songwriters who have been carrying the Yiddish Song into its currently flourishing moment. Along with short performances, they’ll present their thoughts and stimulate a wide-ranging discussion.
The symposium will be chaired by the distinguished ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin (Wesleyan emeritus), and features five of our favorite contemporary Yiddish songwriters: Michael Alpert, Isabel Frey, Adah Hetko, Daniel Kahn and Josh Waletzky.
THURSDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 28
2:00pm YNY Student Concert
In-Person Event at Hebrew Union College, 1 W 4th St. in Manhattan.
We’re excited to cap off this year’s workshops with the always-fun-and-we-beg-you-to-be-not-too-long student concert. Cheer on your fellow workshop participants and dance along as they strut their stuff in this live performance at Hebrew Union College. Hot tip – never miss the YNY Teens presentation, and a big dance party usually breaks out at the conclusion of the student concert!
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 28
*POST-YNY PARTNER EVENT*
8:00pm Kleztronica – An Official YNY Afterparty Presented by Borscht Beat
At Berlin-Under A, 25 Avenue A in Manhattan. Please check with the venue for information on masking policy. Click here for tickets. Presented by Borscht Beat Records.
Celebrate the end of Yiddish New York 2023 and Kleztronica’s one-year anniversary! Kleztronica is a radical Jewish-electronica performance and rave space. Over the past year, Kleztronica has brought thousands of Jews and non-Jews from across New York City together to
dance and celebrate. Shows bring together archival recordings, Yiddish dance, drag, and, of course, our wonderful queer and multifaceted community. The evening will feature drag sensation Sir Cum Sized, Jewish burlesque artist Brenda Roses, electro-trumpeter Frank London, DJ SHNEY (Ilya Shneyveys) DJ Diva Nigun, sampling artist Chaia, and brass band menace Tusl and the Muscle. See you on the dance floor! This show is presented by Borscht Beat Records, as the official after party for YNY. @chaialeh, @franklondontrumpet, @diva_nigun, @giveus_brendaroses, @sircumsizeddrag, @djshney, and @daniel.toretsky
EVENT ENDED – DECEMBER 29
*POST-YNY Partner Event*
5:30pm Klezmer Shabes with Kane Street Synagogue
At Kane Street Synagogue, 236 Kane Street, Brooklyn. A dairy vegetarian potluck dinner will follow the service (please bring a dish to pass). Sign-up for the potluck HERE. Please check with the synagogue for information on masking policy.
YNY is excited to join with Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn for a special post-festival klezmerish/yidishlekh Kabboles-Shabbos service! The evening will feature Hazzan Sarah Myerson of Kane Street, Hazzan Jeff Warschauer, singer M. Miller, multi-instrumentalist Ilya Shneyveys and violinist and singer Deborah Strauss. With special contributions by YNY participants!