August 2022
Sholem Aleichem, Friend of Yiddish Culture,
The arrival of August reminds many of us that school is around the corner. Whatever your age, are you are ready to study (more) Yiddish, learn (more) Yiddish songs, or upgrade your klezmer skills? In this newsletter, we suggest good ways to get started!

Our programs are taking a little break in August. KlezCalifornia's next online workshop will be Sunday morning, September 11, with poet Jake Marmer helping us write Yiddish-inspired poetry (in English). The next Flisik Yidish Salon will be that afternoon.

The following Sunday, September 18, will be our first in-person event since the pandemic began: a PARTY for KlezCalifornia's donors in a park in the Berkeley Hills (in the San Francisco Bay Area)! If you have donated in the past year, expect your invitation in about two weeks. And it's not too late to donate and then be invited to the party!

The next lecture, "Our Ashkenazic Family Names: What Our Names Mean About Our Families," will be presented by Binyumen Schaechter on Sunday, October 30.
Party A
If someone has forwarded this newsletter to you,
Grants to Sponsored Projects
We are pleased to tell you that three of KlezCalifornia's fiscally-sponsored projects were recently awarded grants:

• Yiddish Theatre Ensemble (YTE) (grant from Theatre Bay Area)
YTE will present a new online video production, Between Worlds, centered on the life of heralded writer Irene Klepfisz, a poet living in New York who has had a major impact on Jewish, American, and lesbian literature. She is also a pioneer in the recovery of Jewish and Yiddish women’s writing. The Bay Area's celebrated actor Naomi Newman is crafting the script and will perform the central role of Klepfisz.

• Doubly Suppressed, Doubly Forgotten: The Meir Noy Collection of Yiddish Songs (grant from Alliance for California Traditional Arts)
In Jerusalem lies a treasure: Yiddish songs collected by musicologist and ethnographer Meir Noy, starting in his native town of Kolomea, Galicia before the Second World War and continuing in Israel. He wrote the songs by hand (sometimes in red ink!) in 24 journals that contain rarities of international parodies, unconventional love stories, and twists on religious and social conventions. Sharon Bernstein and the Meir Noy Yiddish Song Project are bringing to light the songs in this collection through recordings, community presentations. and workshops.

• Makonovetsky’s Scion (grant from Alliance for California Traditional Arts)
The latest endeavor of Veretski Pass (Cookie Segelstein, Joshua Horowitz, Stuart Brotman), together with clarinetist Joel Rubin, is to research, develop, and create a CD recording of a repertoire of pre-Holocaust traditional, previously lost, music that has recently become available through the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project (KMDMP).
Klezmer & Yiddish Singing Skills
The Resources section of KlezCalifornia's website identifies music teachers (klezmer instrumental and Yiddish song style) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ask about lessons offered online (or maybe even in person).

Our Event Directory includes several ongoing online workshops (such as from KAILA/Klezmer Arts Institute of Los Angeles, and from New York-based Lisa Gutkin), Jewish dance classes with Bruce Bierman and Gilberto Melendez, and a weekly Yiddish sing-along from New York's Yiddish Singing Society.

There’s much more, of course, in the Yiddish-inspired world, but these are among our favorites.
Yiddish Language Skills
KlezCalifornia's website tells you about online Yiddish courses from sixteen organizations. There's one for your level, schedule and style! KlezCalifornia is co-presenting the two courses offered by Ken Blady through New Lehrhaus: Yiddish from Scratch and Yiddish II.

Check out five online Yiddish conversation groups, including KlezCalifornia's own Salon for fluent speakers. Whatever your level, there's a conversation just right for you!
Nu, What Else?
Jerryl Lynn Rubin:
In honor of Ellie Shapiro. Congratulations on your 70th birthday Ellie and thank you for all you have done to bring Jewish music to a larger audience in all your various roles including teaching and production! May you have many more healthy and fulfilling years to follow your passions.
Ann Bauman:
In honor of Bruce Bierman.
Anita Feinstein:
In honor of Bruce Bierman. Thank you Bruce for an interesting and passionate program.
Philip Prinz:
In memory of my parents, Ruth and Erwin Prinz.
View KlezCalifornia's Honor Wall. Become a donor to post your tribute.
Donate
Help us continue our mission to connect people and communities around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond with Yiddish culture.
If you prefer to mail a check, use the address below.
Please join KlezCalifornia's Goldene Pave Society by including a bequest in your will.

A sheynem dank! Thank you very much!
A bisl mer (a little bit more)
Want your event on KlezCalifornia's website? Tell us about it!