September 2022
Sholem Aleichem, Friend of Yiddish Culture,
Rosheshone (Rosh HaShana), the Jewish New Year, begins the evening of Sunday, September 25, bringing renewed hopes for a better and healthy year filled with Yidishkayt and music! We at KlezCalifornia wish you and yours...
לשנה טובה תּכּתבֿו L'shone toyve tikoseyvu!
May you be inscribed for a good year!
If someone has forwarded this newsletter to you,
WORKSHOP SERIES
Presented by KlezCalifornia
Sunday, September 11, 11am-12:45pm PT (calculate your local time HERE).
Music often leaves us speechless - or, at best, reduced to inarticulate, but deeply emotive, grunts. And yet, while we listen to music, so much happens in our minds, in our bodies. Memories, images, free associations, commentary, and a whole gamut of emotions can pass through in a matter of minutes. Poetry is one time-tested way of attempting to capture music's mystery with words. In this workshop on Zoom, we will read a few famous poems, written in response to music, and then attempt to write ourselves, while listening to klezmer played by Jim Rebhan. No previous experience with writing poems necessary!
Sunday, September 18, 12noon - 3pm Pacific Time (in-person)

Finally, after three years, it’s time for a KlezCalifornia party! KlezCalifornia’s donors are invited to come join our heymish PARTY at a lovely outdoor area in Tilden Park, in Berkeley, California. 
This lively gathering will bring together our wonderful donors with musicians, Board and Advisory Council members, and key volunteers. Lots of shmoozing, music, singing, a bisl (a little bit of) Yiddish, and good food! 

Donors to KlezCalifornia since July, 2021 were emailed invitations in August. We invite others to donate any amount now to also receive an invitation with which you and a guest may register. Space is limited and registrations are due no later than September 12.

Indecent in San Francisco

Thursday, September 22 - Saturday, November 5, Pacific Time (in-person)
In a first-time collaboration, Yiddish Theatre Ensemble (YTE) and San Francisco Playhouse are co-producing the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, Indecent by Paula Vogel.
Indecent portrays the real-life events and controversy surrounding God of Vengeance when it first ran on Broadway in 1923.

YTE and KlezCalifornia audiences can save 20% off tickets to Indecent. Click here and enter code YTE20 at checkout to receive the discount.

YTE’s award-winning 2021 video adaptation of God of Vengeance (94 min.) is again available for viewing at your leisure (multiple times through November 15) for $18 (per household). Link and password will be sent after purchase.

Yiddish Theatre Ensemble is a fiscally-sponsored project of KlezCalifornia and KlezCalifornia is a community co-sponsor of Indecent.

TASTES OF YIDDISH CULTURE SERIES
Presented by KlezCalifornia
Sunday, September 11, 2-3pm Pacific Time (calculate your local time HERE).
This monthly online conversation Salon is for fluent (flisik) Yiddish speakers.

Di teme far september vet zayn: Voz iz di umgerikhtste (the most out of character) zakh vos ir hot a mol geton? Volt ir es vider geton?

Klezmer & Yiddish Music Links
Since before the 18th century, Jewish folk melodies have had a rich influence on classical musical composition. An article in "Tablet" by Alex Weiser links to a one-hour YouTube performance.

A group of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn is reviving the golden age of cantorial music, which began in the 1920s.
Yiddish Language Links
U.C. Berkeley linguist Isaac Bleaman has received a National Science Foundation award to document the Yiddish language as it was spoken by survivors who were interviewed for the Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation. Read the story from The Forward.

What sort of Yiddish did Jews in Hungary speak? Hungarian Yiddish is today's most common Yiddish dialect. Although many Hungarian Jews in the Old Country didn’t speak Yiddish, today even Galician, Polish, and Lithuanian Hasidim use the Hungarian dialect. One reason could be that the Hungarian-descended Satmar Hasidim have been more successful at maintaining Yiddish as their daily vernacular. Read the story from The Forward.
Other Yiddish Culture Links
A short history of the bialy and how it is made: video in Yiddish, with subtitles and musical selections from Veretski Pass.

Meanwhile, a new restaurant, Delirama, featuring bialys (and pastrami) has opened in Berkeley, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Nu, What Else?
Freda Kirkham:
In memory of Grace Paley, a brilliant writer and magnificent human being. Also a self-described "somewhat combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist." She introduced me to written Yiddish, which, being a shikse myself, was transformative! She also answered my fan letter and hugged me after a lecture. I'll never forget it.
Lea Delson:
In memory of my beloved aunt, Ann Tukey Harrison, who left us too soon in October 2021. A brilliant scholar, she was exceptionally capable, loving and compassionate. She was a Professor of Romance Languages at Michigan State University and author of The Danse Macabre of Women: Ms. Fr. 995 of the Bibliothèque Nationale. She joined the Jewish people as an adult and became a leader in Reconstructionist Congregation Kehillat Israel in Lansing, Michigan, while also remaining close and loyal to her family of origin. She was an amazing wife, daughter, sister, and aunt.
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)
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