Loading....
WINTER IN YIDDISHLAND ONLINE, held entirely on Zoom, will offer a variety of programming on February 6, 2022.
Our program includes Yiddish classes for all levels and ages, lectures by Yiddish scholars (in English and Yiddish), Klezmer, Yiddish song and Yidishe nigunim workshops, concerts featuring Klezmer stars, Yiddish singalongs, children’s program and the opportunity to meet with ardent Yiddishists from around the world. We hope you will join us and become a part of our international Yiddishland mishpokhe!
The program starts at 10 AM EDT and ends at 6:00 PM ET.
Registration for Winter in Yiddishland Online is $25 per individual program.
We are also thrilled to offer free community events; KinderKlub Yiddish: Winter Edition, The Workers Circle Annual Lorraine Buch Yiddish Concert, and Yiddish Sing-Along with Cindy Paley. Advance registration for free events is required.
If you have any questions, please email Kolya Borodulin at nborodulin@circle.org or Baruch Blum at bblum@circle.org.
Welcome to Yiddishland
10:00 – 10:15 AM EDT
Meet our team and participate in our "group photo."
Period 1:
Taste of Yiddish for All Ages and Levels
Klezmer and Yiddish Song Workshops
10:30 - 11:45 AM EDT
Beginners with Gustavo Emos (Based on Colloquial Yiddish) Limited to 15 Students
Beginners with Yankl Peretz (Based on YiddishPOP)
Limited to 18 Students
Advanced Beginners with Moishele Alfonso (Based on "In Eynem")
Limited to 15 Students
Intermediate with Sheva Zucker
Limited to 18 Students
Advanced with Eugene Orenstein: The Kiev Group (1909-1920) in Modern Yiddish Literature
Advanced with Gennady Estraikh: A Scandal around Itsik Kipnis's 1947 Holocaust Story
Klezmer with Deborah Strauss
Attention all Instrumentalists, come get a taste of a Zoom klezmer session! Throughout the pandemic, internationally renowned klezmer violinist and master teacher, Deborah Strauss, has been leading weekly klezmer classes on Zoom with klezmorim from across the globe. In the Zoom format, there's lots of room for individual attention, questions and discussion. And for those with quieter instruments, you'll actually be able to hear yourself as you play along with the accompaniment part. As always, Deborah takes a holistic approach, using movement, singing and the Yiddish language to deepen the learning process. This short session is a great way to warm up your chops and dive into a new year of klezmer learning.
Yiddish Song with Zisl Slepovitch
Dr. Zisl Slepovitch will offer a workshop in Yiddish song from the multilingual collection of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University where Dr. Slepovitch serves as musician-in-residence / research affiliate. These songs do not necessarily reflect the Holocaust theme or even were created during that period, but rather present a vastly unknown part of the Eastern European Jewish music culture, as performed by dozens of survivors and reconstructed by Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble. Learn more about the Songs from Testimonies project at http://songsfromtestimonies.org.
Period 2:
Taste of Yiddish for All Levels and Ages
Klezmer and Yiddish Song Workshops
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM EDT
Beginners Conversation I with Motl Didner
Limited to 18 Students
Beginners Conversation II with Natalia Krynicka
Limited to 14 Students
Advanced Beginners Conversation with Miri Koral
Limited to 12 Students
Intermediate Conversation with Mikhl Yashinsky
Limited to 18 Students
Advanced with Yitskhok Niborski: Yankev Fridman's Life and Poetry
Learn more about one of the greatest Yiddish poets while analyzing his work.
Advanced with Avrom Lichtenbaum: Folklore and Everyday Life
We will analyze and hear folk creations, and discuss badchens, collectors, and artists who popularized Yiddish folk songs. We’ll mention Mark Warshawsky, Mikhl Gordon, Eliakum Zunser, Y. L. Cohen, Ginsburg-Marek, Prilutsky-Lehman, and Isa Kremer.
Klezmer with Aaron Alexander: Selections from the Kostavsky Repertoire
Aaron Alexander will teach a Klezmer workshop focusing on a few tunes from the Kostakovsky repertoire. We will learn the melodies together, the forms, the rhythms, the harmony, and accompaniment and ornamentation possibilities. Ability to read music and/or learn by ear is a plus.
A Snow-Covered Singing Journey with Polina Shepherd: In Vinter Farnakhtn
Join Polina Shepherd for a singing journey through Russian fields towards a Jewish home in a shtetl. In Vinter Farnakhtn by Dovid Hofshteyn is about a path surrounded by deep snows and memories. Let's walk this path with two very different melodies and see how the colors change from melody to melody.
Period 3: Lectures and Workshops
1:45 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Taste of Yiddish for Yiddish Speakers and Yiddish - challenged with Michael Wex
In English
We’ll look at a number of well- and not so well-known Yiddish idioms and expressions, few of which have the least connection with religion, but all of which are rooted in the Bible, Talmud, other rabbinic writings, or traditional liturgy. The class will be held in English; no knowledge of Yiddish or Hebrew is required.
Loving Another, Yet She Married My Father with Sheva Zucker
In Yiddish
“Mayn mame hot lib gehat an andern / un iz gevorn dos vayb fun mayn tatn” (Loving another, yet she married my father).” With these haunting words Rokhl Korn begins her poem “Doyres (Generations),” one of the most moving and beautiful poems in Yiddish literature, written by a female poet. We shall read this poem in tandem with a rare, unpublished in Yiddish, autobiographical chapter that gives insight into these lines and into the lives and creativity of Yiddish-speaking women. Materials will be provided in both Yiddish and English translation.
Folksbiene: The First 107 Years with Motl Didner
In English
Join National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Associate Artistic Director Motl Didner and trace the NYTF’s journey from amateur drama club (Branch 555 of the Workers Circle) to a post-war haven for professional artists who survived the Holocaust, to the contemporary Drama Desk Award winning Off-Broadway Theater and producer of innovative online programs.
What do you know about Yiddish women poets in Yisroel? with Miriam Trinh
In Yiddish
Varemt Zikh On: A Lefl Varems Untertsulenen dos Harts -- Cozy up: Comfort Foods from the Yiddish Hearth to Warm the Heart with Eve Jochnowitz
In Yiddish
Yiddish homemakers sustained their households through the long, dark Eastern European winters with delicious and comforting tsholnt, soups, and gogl-mogl. This course, conducted entirely in Yiddish will provide much-needed fuel for the bitterest days of the season.
Warm Melodies from Cold Places: Hasidic and Yiddish Nigunim with Cantor Jeff Warschauer
Each week, throughout the pandemic, a wonderful and sweet international group has been meeting online to learn and sing deep and soulful melodies, from quiet and introspective to joyous and foot-stomping. Join us at a vinter-rayze in Yiddishland! In keeping with our winter theme, we will focus on warm Jewish melodies from cold Northeastern Europe. Open to absolutely everyone, all ages, all backgrounds, no special knowledge or previous experience necessary.
Lid-Arbeter Varshtat / Song-Worker Workshop with Daniel Kahn
Are you a singer, writer, composer, translator, adapter, mixer, collector, tinkerer, maker, faker, taker, or breaker of Yiddish songs? Join this progressive, polyglot, transnational, amalgamated, multi-lingual workshop of contemporary song work. We'll be using this special one-time session to take apart a classic radical Yiddish song, find what makes it powerful, and explore ways to translate, adapt, and perform it for a 21st century audience.
The Art of Interpretation Yiddish Theater Workshop with Daniel Galay
In Yiddish
Children's Program
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
KinderKlub Yiddish: Winter Edition
All 6-12 year olds are invited to celebrate February with other Yiddish-loving kinder from across the globe! Come join klezmer master fiddler and award-winning children's educator, Deborah Strauss, for 45 minutes of Yiddish music, language-learning, and fun, all from the comfort of home! Be sure to bring a musical instrument, if you have one, and lots of paper and drawing supplies. There will be music, dancing, games, and even a crazy scavenger hunt — all in celebration of Yiddish!
Musical Performance
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
The Workers Circle Annual Lorraine Buch Yiddish Concert
Lorraine (Libby) Buch z”l was a longtime member of the Workers Circle, passed away in May 2019. Libby left the Workers Circle a generous legacy donation in her will that reflects her commitment to lifelong learning and celebrates her love of Yiddish, music, and Jewish culture. The legacy Libby left for the Workers Circle will be memorialized with an annual Yiddish Music concert named for her. The inaugural Lorraine Buch concert will be held at our first Winter in Yiddishland program and features an exciting blend of Yiddish song, poetry, wit, and klezmer music from Svetlana Kundish (Germany), Tania Grinberg (Brazil), Yasmin Garfunkel (Argentina), Daniel Kahn (Germany), Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer, Michael Winograd, Jake Shulman-Ment, Nicole Borger (Brazil), Teressa Tova (Canada), Mikhl Yashinsky, Cindy Paley, Zhenya Lopatnik, Psoi Korolenko, Lloika Czaskis (France), Motl Didner & Leyzer Burko, Timur Fishel (Estonia) , Annie Cohen, Sheva Zucker, Miri Koral, Daniel Galai (Israel), Gustavo Emos (Brazil), Polina Shepherd (England), Zisl Slepovitch, and more.
Texts in Yiddish and English translation will be provided.
Musical Performance
5:15 PM - 6:00 PM EDT
Yiddish Sing-Along with Cindy Paley
Singer and educator, Cindy Paley, shares some of her favorite songs. Lyrics will be available in Yiddish, Yiddish transliteration, and English.
Thank you to the following funders of our Yiddish programming for their support: Atran Foundation, The Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation, Chaim Schwartz Foundation, Slomo & Cindy Silvian Foundation, Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation.
Please note: All times are Eastern Time (ET). Yiddish classes have limited student enrollment capacity.
Lectures and concerts do not have a capacity limit. Participants should only register for one class or lecture during each period.