Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative for Jewish Communities
The Yiddish Book Center is pleased to announce the first cohort of our Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative for Jewish Communities. The fourteen communities listed below represent a range of organizations from across the U.S. and Canada, all of whom are excited to bring Yiddish culture into their communities.
Congregation Beth Sholom, Providence, Rhode Island
Congregation Beth Sholom is a vibrant synagogue dedicated to Torah and community, fueled by the diverse interests of its members and engaged in building a hub of Modern Orthodoxy that is empowering, relevant, and inclusive. Their Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative project will be to host a three-part series of standalone events about the historic and literary dimensions of the pogroms suffered by Jews during WWI and their aftermath; the assassination in Paris of Ukrainian leader Symon Petliura by Yiddish poet and anarchist Sholem Schwarzbard; and Schwarzbard’s subsequent trial and acquittal.
Congregation B’nai Emet, Simi Valley, California
Congregation B’nai Emet is committed to creating meaningful Jewish experiences that embed contemporary values with personal exploration, family involvement, and Jewish community education while looking toward the future of Reform Judaism and exploring the history behind our traditions. They plan to host a Shabbaton-style event with Yiddish storytelling, music, and food, integrating local personal stories through a Yiddish lens.
Eastside Jewish Commons, Portland, Oregon
The Eastside Jewish Commons (EJC)’s mission is to create and sustain a joyful, inclusive, and inspiring community space on Portland’s eastside where people can connect, learn, and grow. The Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative will bring klezmer singer Sarah Larsson’s ensemble Red Thread, a Yiddish four-part folk harmony, to EJC for a concert and Yiddish song workshop, and will also bring artist Sam Reider and his ensemble for two separate concerts. Building on the momentum of these three sessions, EJC will host klezmer teaching jams for three more learning sessions every other month.
Knobl un honik kollektiv, Vancouver, Canada
Located within the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil Waututh Peoples, The Knobl un honik kollektiv is a Yiddishist collective that organizes and supports intergenerational Yiddish events and programs. They connect to the deep healing and wisdom in our ancestral knowledge and language to mend and build the goldene keyt, the bond linking generations. The collective also contains a community chevra, whose purpose is to make Jewish end of life, death, and grief support and education deeply accessible and inclusive to all in the community. Their project will involve inviting community experts to share their wisdom about Yiddish cemetery rituals and candle-making, traditionally performed by women and queer wisdom-holders during the month of Elul.
J-Pride, a program of Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Golden Valley, Minnesota
J-Pride creates community through queer-focused Jewish programming for LGBTQ+ Jews and their allies throughout the Twin Cities. They will host a series of monthly programs that will be fashioned on the Yiddish literary cafés of the early 20th century, creating new Yiddish cultural opportunities and allowing for both independent and communal study. This program will culminate in a showcase during Pride month, which will provide an opportunity for folks to share what they’ve learned.
Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Westmount, Quebec
Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom is a warm and welcoming congregation that draws on Judaism’s wisdom to nourish a spiritual, educational, and cultural community. Members of their community, including Torah school students, will create artwork for two crankies, based on Yiddish texts related to the holidays of Chanukah and Shavuot. The presentation of the crankies will feature original musical settings and arrangements of the Yiddish texts performed by their community choir.
Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School, Northridge, California
Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School, a community Jewish day school, provides a rich dual-curricular education that encourages independent and critical thinking, lifelong learning, self-awareness, and compassion. They will create a yearlong elective on Yiddish language and culture for sixth through eighth graders, featuring music, art, language, literature, and cuisine to help students gain a foundation in Yiddish culture.
Golden Lakes Temple, West Palm Beach, Florida
Golden Lakes Temple, founded in the 1970s by survivors of the Shoah, is the only seniors’ synagogue in the Golden Lakes residential development in West Palm Beach. The synagogue serves those living in Golden Lakes and neighboring communities, addressing people’s spiritual, social, and Jewish educational needs. For the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative, they plan to run a series of adult educational programs highlighting Yiddish music, literature, history, and film.
Lander-Grinspoon Academy, Northampton, Massachusetts
LGA is a pluralist Jewish day school in Western Massachusetts, offering rigorous academics and a compassionate earth- and justice-loving curriculum, including organic farming, music, and theater. For the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative, LGA will be working with the Magid Ensemble to bring modern Yiddish music and theater into the classroom, and will launch a yearlong program on Yiddish storytelling, including field trips to the Yiddish Book Center.
Temple Hesed, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Founded in 1860, Temple Hesed has played an active role in both the Jewish and broader community in Northeastern Pennsylvania. A member of the Union of Reform Judaism, they provide spiritual and educational programs for children and adults and engage with issues ranging from climate change to welcoming the stranger. They will host three events in the fall, spring, and summer of 2024–2025: “Crossing Borders: Stories of Exile and Homecoming” will focus on the role of immigration past and present; “Shifting Concepts of Sex and Gender: Queerish Yiddish” will highlight Yiddish creatives past and present who explored and expanded concepts of gender; and “Innovating Identities: Diverse Expressions of Jewishness” will explore shifting conceptions of Jewishness and how they might point us toward the future.
Recent Press on Temple Hesed's YACI program: Temple Hesed brings Yiddish culture to Scranton
Congregation B'nai Israel, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Congregation B’nai Israel is a welcoming and diverse congregational community offering a foundation for living a fully modern life which is sanctified by Conservative Jewish values and practices, and a variety of cultural and educational opportunities. Their goal for the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative is to provide compelling ways for participants of all ages to connect with Yiddishkeit creatively and intellectually through musical events, lectures, and film screenings.
Der Nister, Los Angeles, California
Der Nister holds religious services and hosts plays, concerts, readings, gatherings and more for the downtown and greater Los Angeles community. Their goal for the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative is to host a series of Yiddish literary evenings that celebrate Yiddish history and culture, including an open-mic-night-style forum where audience members can each take a turn reading or reciting literary work in Yiddish.
B’nai Shalom, Walnut Creek, California
Congregation B’nai Shalom is a Conservative congregation in San Francisco’s East Bay Area committed to inclusion for all, and deeply rooted in tradition. Their goal for the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative is to create three special Shabbat programs focusing on Jewish culture through Jewish languages, with a special emphasis on Yiddish, highlighting the roles of Jewish languages and cultures across geographies, with a special focus on liturgical music.
Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtibel is a home for people of all backgrounds seeking Jewish life to land, feel safe, and be welcomed. They are a spiritual community that celebrates Diaspora Judaism through ritual, learning, song, and prayer, committed to pursuing justice and to acting in fierce solidarity with their neighbors in Baltimore, Maryland. Their goal for the Yiddish Arts and Culture Initiative is to create a three-part series of combined concerts, jams, workshops, and dance parties highlighting klezmer and Yiddish song and dance for new audiences who might be uncertain about how or where to engage with Yiddish culture.