Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Europe -- Jewish culture festivals

Cantorial concert Jewish Culture Festival Krakow, 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber


By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A number of Jewish culture festivals of all sorts take place around Europe in the spring and summer. Some are dedicated just to music. Others are much broader. As far as I know, there is no central web site where you can find information on all of them. I will begin to post information here on dates and venues. I ask my readers to please send me information to include!

The culture festivals and other smaller events make good destinations around which to center a trip. Some, like the annual Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, are huge events lasting a week or more, which draw thousands of people and offer scores or sometimes hundreds of performances, lectures, concerts, exhibits and the like. Other festivals are much less ambitious. Some are primarily workshops but also feature concerts. Many of the same artists perform at more than one festival.

Dance workshop, Krakow, 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

A highlight this summer will be three concerts by the 14-person ensemble of The Other Europeans project on Jewish and Roma culture, music and identity. This is an EU-co-financed project of the Yiddish Summer Weimar, The Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow and the KlezMORE Festival Vienna.

Here is a partial list, with links to web sites -- I will add to it (here or on separate posts) as information comes in:


All Over Europe -- 10th annual European Day of Jewish Culture. Sept. 6. Events take place in nearly 30 countries. The theme this year is Jewish Festivals and Traditions.


Austria


Vienna -- KlezMORE Festival -- The festival itself is Nov. 7-22. But on June 28 it will present The Other Europeans concert. For detrails contact weimar@the-other-europeans.eu or Ruth Schwarz, tel. +43(0)699 - 1270 8645; e-mail: ruth(at)klezmore-vienna.at


Canada

Montreal -- International Yiddish Theatre Festival -- June 17-25. Not in Europe,
but with a lot of European Jewish/Yiddish Theatres participating.

Laurentian Mountains, Quebec -- KlezKanada Summer Institute, Aug. 24-30

Czech Republic

Boskovice -- Boskovice Festival 2009. July 16-19. Many types of music, performance and exhibitions, etc, aimed at supporting the restoration and promotion of the historic Jewish quarter


France

Paris -- Klezmer Paris -- July 6-10. Mainly workshops in dance, singing, playing.

Germany

Weimar -- Yiddish Summer Weimar. Workshops and concerts the whole month of July. The Other Europeans concert will be July 5.

Great Britain

London -- Nine Gates International Festival of Czech-German-Jewish Culture. May 30-June 1.

London -- Klezfest. August 9-14. There is also a Yiddish crash course August 2-7.

Hungary

Bank Lake -- "Jewstock", August 6-8 (Now called Bankito, with new web site.)

Budapest -- Jewish Summer Festival, Aug. 30-Sept. 7

Lithuania

Vilnius -- Klezmer Festival. Aug. 25-29 (This will take place within the framework of the Third Litvak Congress, a meeting of Jews with origins in Lithuania, Aug. 23-31)

Poland

Wroclaw -- Simcha - 11th Jewish Culture Festival in Wrocław. May 31-June 5

Gdansk -- 10th Baltic Days of Jewish Culture. June 14-15

Lodz -- Jewish Culture Days, Lodz. June 14-30.

Bialystok -- 2nd Zachor Festival of Jewish Culture. June 15-16

Chmielnik -- VII Meeting with Jewish Culture, June 19-21

Krakow -- Festival of Jewish Culture, June 27-July 5. The Other Europeans concert will be July 3.

Warsaw -- Singer's Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture, Aug. 29-Sept. 6. A big festival, increasingly similar in scope to that in Krakow.

Lodz -- Festival of the Dialogue of Four Cultures. Usually in September

Romania

Oradea, Cluj, Sighet -- Mamaliga and Gefilte Fish. Klezmer workshops and dance house. June 16-24. Oradea June 16, Sighet June 21, Cluj june 24. For Information contact klezromania@gmail.com






8 comments:

  1. Hi! Can you point me to more information about the Other Europeans concert in Vienna on 28 June? I've searched around but I can't find any details.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seth -- Contact weimar@the-other-europeans.eu for details. (I hope...)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Seth -- Also contact

    Ruth Schwarz
    tel. +43(0)699 - 1270 8645
    e-mail: ruth(at)klezmore-vienna.at

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is a Jewish festival now in Bialystock, this is their second year - Zachor festival.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks! I already had mentioned this on the list!

    ReplyDelete
  6. HI EVERYBODY, MY SON, DAVID SHASHAR IS GETTING MARRIED TO ROTEM NIR THIS SEPTEMBER 10th.,2009, BE-SHAA TOVA IN ISRAEL, NORTH OF NATANYA, YOUNG FRIENDS THAT ARE COMING FOR THE WEDDING ARE ASKING ME IF I KNOW OF A FESTIVAL IN ISRAEL DURING THE FIRST 15 DAYS OF SEPTEMBER...?????MAINLY BETWEEN
    SEPTEMBER 6th. AND THE 11th.
    CAN YOU HELP?
    irene.shashar@gmail.com
    THANKS,
    Irene LEWKOWICZ (LOOKING FOR HER FATHER'S TRACES
    DAVID LEWKOWICZ BORN IN GROJEC, POLAND, MARRIED HELENA KIRSZENBERG )

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the post it will be of great help to me during my forthcoming trip to europe. Coming from a big multicultural country i always had fascination for such places.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah this post reset my ideas of europe of being a momolith to something totally diffrent.

    ReplyDelete