A zisn Peysekh!

For a real Peysekh (Passover) treat, listen to the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus sing two Yiddish songs in four-part harmony: Dayenu   (It Would Have Been Enough) » Afn Nil   (On the Nile, about baby Moses in his basket) » KlezCalifornia Donor Party! Save the date for our next semi-annual party: Sunday, June 2, 2-5pm , in Oakland. If you have donated in the past year, you will receive your invitation by early May. If you are not yet a donor, it's never too late!  Donate online »

An Evening with Veretski Pass: The Magid Chronicles Thursday, April 11, 7pm Jewish Community Library, SF Co-presented by KlezCalifornia Veretski Pass has embarked on uncharted territory with a new project dedicated to performing pieces collected by Sofia Magid, a Jewish ethnographer who worked intensively to document Jewish music in Belarus and Ukraine during Stalin's regime in the 1920s and 1930s. Magid's six hundred recordings, which had been left untouched since they were created, include music that was not only collected by a woman, but which also features rare examples of women's themes.  "The Magid Chronicles" is a collection of new compositions, improvisations, and re-compositions derived from and inspired by the Magid collection and drawing on cultures as diverse as Romanian, Turkish, and Greek, as well as the Hutsul traditions of western Ukraine and Romania.

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Isaac Babel and His Gospel with Gregory (Grisha) Freidin Sunday, April 14, 1:30pm  Jewish Community Library, SF   Isaac Babel (1894, Odessa - 1940, Moscow) was a Russian Jewish short-story writer known for his cycles of stories. Translated into many languages, his works have for decades exemplified both the achievement of Russia's literature of the revolutionary Soviet period and the dilemmas faced by a modern intellectual, a Russian, a European, and a Jew, caught in the swell of a violent social upheaval. Professor Freidin will speak about Isaac Babel's career and destiny as a Russian Jewish writer in the age of revolution and lead a close reading of three stories by Babel: "The King," "Rebbe's Son," and "Story of My Dovecote."

Co-presented by KlezCalifornia

KlezCalifornia's Monthly Klezmer Workshops! The Grizzly Bear Klezmer Band with Joshua Horowitz  Sunday, April 14, 3:30-6:30pm Kehilla Community Synagogue  1300 Grand Avenue, Piedmont 94610  Use the sidewalk door near the bus stop. Learn new klezmer tunes and traditional style as a whole group. Participants will be sent sheet music beforehand to learn as much as they can ahead of time. The emphasis will be on fine-tuning how to play in a klezmer orchestra.    $25 or whatever you can afford. Refreshments included! More info RSVP to receive links to recordings and sheet music.

Kaleh Bazetsns & Doinas with Joshua Horowitz Sunday, May 5, 2019, 2-5pm Santa Cruz Telling a Story: Bringing Klezmer to Life Through Creative Arrangement with Rob Reich Sunday, May 19, 12:30-3:30pm SF   Music of the Crossroads with Dan Cantrell Sunday, May 19, 2-5pm Sebastopol  Cookie Segelstein   Theme TBD  Sunday, June 23, 3:30-6:30pm, Piedmont

Monthly workshops in 2019 are made possible by a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Surdna Foundation

Flisik Yidish Salon

Fluent in Yiddish? Come to our free monthly conversation salon!

Sunday, April 21, 2-4 pm, Berkeley | Presented by KlezCalifornia

Tayereh fraynd: Mir veln zikh farzamlen zuntik, dem 21stn april, 2-4pm.  Brengt epes peysekhdik tsu esn. Mir veln shmuesn vegn di temes:  Dem bestn seyder vos ir hot a mol gepravet  Vos iz der vaytster plats vos ir hot bazukht un far vos?  Vertershpil  Peysekh-lider mit Gerry RSVP  to get the address.   Next month's Salon : Sunday, May 19, 2-4pm, Menorah Park, SF.

Farshidns

Tidbits of Yiddish culture from around the world

Roza Makes Kasha Varnishkes , in Yiddish with English subtitles. The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know » (thanks to Oren Rubin)   Sheet music for klezmer scales, a new feature of our website! » (thanks to Jim Rebhan)    African-American singer Elmore James performs "Es Brent" » (It's Burning, i.e. our shtetl)     "Der Dishvasher " Yiddish song! "O, I wash with my weak hands. I wash and wash and earn a few cents. From early to late for a dry piece of bread. I wash and pray for my own death."

Yiddish Culture, Dance & Music

APRIL

American Jewish Radicals , with Elaine Leeder, Yiddish songs by Gale Kissin Wednesdays, April 3 & 10, 1-2:30pm  Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael  Advance reservation required

Hava Nagila (the movie) Followed by  havdoleh , singing, dancing, and eating. Music and Yiddish song with Laura Eytan and Jacob Koff. Saturday, April 6, 7:30pm Congregation B'nai Israel, Vallejo

10th Jazz & Klez Summit , with Albany Jazz Band and Netivot Shalom Jazzkleztet Sunday, April 7, 1-3:30pm Congregation Netivot Shalom, Berkeley   Ink is not just for writing Yiddish novels: Jews and Tattoos with Eddy Portnoy (author of "Bad Rabbi")  Monday, April 8, 12:30-1:00pm  The Contemporary Jewish Museum, SF   The Seamy Underbelly of Yiddishland: Brawlers, Crooks, and Charlatans in the Yiddish Press , with Eddy Portnoy Tuesday, April 9, 5:30-7:30pm Stanford University, Stanford

The Navel of the Dream : Freud's Jewish Languages , with Naomi Seidman • Tuesday, April 9, 7pm | Freud, Anna O, and the Linguistic Architecture of the Modern Jewish Self • Thursday, April 11, 7pm | A Different Diaspora: Translation, Dispersion, and the Rewriting of Psychoanalysis in Jewish Languages • Tuesday, April 16, 5:30pm , followed by reception | Weinreich's "Freud Laboratory": The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis. RSVP requested for each event. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Berkeley

Klezmer Creek Thursday, April 11, 6:30-8pm Gaia’s Garden, Santa Rosa An Evening with Veretski Pass: The Magid Chronicles Thursday, April 11, 7pm  Jewish Community Library, SF (See details above) Co-presented by KlezCalifornia   It Only Hurts When I Don't Laugh , an evening of Jewish humor, with MC Lisa Geduldig, Judi Leff, Rabbi Sydney Mintz, Joe Nguyen, Cathy Ladman  Saturday, April 13, 7:30pm The Glaser Center, Santa Rosa    Isaac Babel and His Gospel , with Gregory (Grisha) Freidin  Sunday, April 14, 1:30pm Jewish Community Library, SF Co-presented by KlezCalifornia The Grizzly Bear Klezmer Band , a workshop with Joshua Horowitz  Sunday, April 14, 3:30-6:30pm  Kehilla Community Synagogue, Piedmont   (See details above)   Presented by KlezCalifornia Improvising a Klezmer Doina , with Marian Concus Tuesday, April 16, 5-6pm $20. Enrollment by telephone only, beginning April 9, 610 917 6800 X330 Community School of Music and Art, Mountain View     Klezmer Melody Learn melody and harmony for Yiddish song Yoshke, with Marian Concus  For instrumentalists and singers  Tuesday, April 16, 6-7pm $20. Enrollment by telephone only, beginning April 9, 610 917 6800 X330 Community School of Music and Art, Mountain View     Ellis Island Old World Folk Band Wednesday, April 17, 7-9pm Le Bateau Ivre, Berkeley

 Jubilee Klezmer Ensemble Part of Russian River Jewish Community Seder  Friday, April 19, 5pm Monte Rio Community Center, Monte Rio  More info: 707 632 5545; no web site

KlezCalifornia Flisik Yidish Salon   Sunday, April 21, 2-4pm Private home, Berkeley (See details above) Presented by KlezCalifornia   House Concert of Yiddish Songs with Cindy Paley, accompanied by Asaf Ophir  Sunday, April 21, 6:30pm Private home, SF $15, sliding scale. Space limited; RSVP »     Yes, We Sang! Concert, with Achi Ben Shalom, Nigunim Chorus, SF Jewish Folk Chorus, others  Remembering the songs cherished by the victims of the Holocaust.  Sunday, April 28, 3pm JCC East Bay, Berkeley

Coming in May

Kaleh Bazetsns & Doinas Klezmer workshop with Joshua Horowitz   Sunday, May 5, 2-5pm UC Santa Cruz Hillel, Santa Cruz Presented by KlezCalifornia Yes, We Sang! Concert, with Achi Ben Shalom, Nigunim Chorus, SF Jewish Folk Chorus, others  Remembering the songs cherished by the victims of the Holocaust.  Sunday, May 5, 3pm  Congregation Sherith Israel, SF   Klezmer Creek Thursday, May 9, 6:30-8pm Gaia’s Garden, Santa Rosa Telling a Story: Bringing Klezmer to Life Through Creative Arrangement Klezmer workshop with Rob Reich Sunday, May 19, 12:30-3:30pm Jewish Community Library, SF Presented by KlezCalifornia Music of the Crossroads Klezmer workshop with Dan Cantrell Sunday, May 19, 2-5pm Private home, Sebastopol Presented by KlezCalifornia  KlezCalifornia Flisik Yidish Salon Sunday, May 19, 2-4pm Menorah Park, SF Presented by KlezCalifornia

Honor Wall

Judith Offer:

I was raised a Catholic, but my paternal great grandparents, Sigmund and Rosa Spitzer, were Orthodox Jews. They immigrated in 1905 from Hungary to Niagara Falls, opening the first kosher restaurant in upstate New York. Their son, my "Grampa Rudy," married a Catholic; their children were raised Catholic. I married a Jew, Stuart Offer. My work includes two plays based on Jewish themes/history, "A Shirtwaist Tale" and "It Could Always be Worse; a poem about Yiddish published in J Magazine, and one coming out in September in "CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly," "On Studying Sacred Texts."

Nava Shaham:

In honor of Talia Shaham for her hard work for KlezCalifornia and her extended family.

Millie Chazin:

In memory of my husband, Julian Chazin, and my parents, Beckie (Rivka Sklar) Becker and Abraham (Abie) Becker who did not let me forget our Yiddish language and culture and who inspired me to learn more of our history and to work to perpetuate our Yiddish culture.

Pinny (Paul) Switzer:

I wish to honor my teachers at the Peretz School in Winnipeg, Canada, 1945-1952. We had classes in Yiddish all morning Monday through Friday on an array of subjects, starting with learning to read and write, and progressing through history, literature,  tanakh,  and Hebrew language. These teachers included Lapin, Zolf, Cantor, Halper, Greenberg, Tseitlin, Taft, and Fiterman.

View KlezCalifornia's Honor Wall . Become a donor to post your tribute.

Donate Help us continue our exciting mission to connect people and communities around the Bay Area with Yiddish culture. Donate $18, $36 or $54 here »   If you prefer to mail a check, use the address below. A sheynem dank! (Thank you very much!)

A bisl mer (a little bit more)

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