A Roundup of Yiddish Culture/Klezmer Festivals and Series

Australia

Name of program: Yidish Sof Vokh Oystralye

Host/sponsor: Yiddish Australia, with support from The Penina Zylberman Yiddish Cultural and Educational Foundation Inc., Sholem Aleichem College, Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library, The J. Waks Cultural Centre Inc., ACJC: The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, and The Krystal Fund

Website: https://yiddishaustralia.weebly.com/what-is-sof-vokh.html 

Location: Victoria, Australia

Founding year: 2004

Approximate timing: A weekend in May (which is not summer in Australia!)

Description: “Join us in the leafy Yarra Valley for Yidish Sof-Vokh Oystralye. . . . Immerse yourself in a weekend retreat where we speak only in Yiddish. With activities such as games, discussions, walks, cooking, singing and literary readings, there really is something for everyone!” 

Europe

ROTATING

Name of program: Zumer Maraton (Yiddish Marathon) 

Host/Sponsor: La Maison de la Culture Yiddish - Bibliothèque Medem (Paris Yiddish Center-Medem Library)

Website: https://programme.yiddish.paris/?tribe_events=zumer-maraton 

Location: Historically, in Greece and Poland 

Founding year: 2019

Approximate timing: Historically, a week over New Year’s Day or in August. Held over News Year’s Day 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and in August 2023.

Description: “Join Maison de la Culture Yiddish for the third Yiddish Marathon: August 14-20, 2023 in Central Poland! Spend a week with Yiddishists from all around the world at Klub Mila Hotel on the shores of beautiful Zegrze Lake! Enjoy reading groups, music, cooking and dance workshops and more…All activities are in Yiddish! Everyone who wants to spend a week speaking only Yiddish is welcome, regardless of their level! Children under 6 are welcome even if they don’t speak Yiddish.”

AUSTRIA

Name of program: Friling Festival: Festival für Klezmer und jiddische Musik & Kultur

Host/sponsor: Organized by the Styrian Klezmore Orchestra and Cultural Association with content consultation from Isabel Frey & Esther Wratschko

Website: https://www.frilingfestival.at/ 

Location: East Styria, Austria

Founding year: 2018

Approximate timing: Several days in late May

Description: “‘Friling’ means ‘spring’ in Yiddish, the language of the once-rich Eastern European Jewish world, in whose sphere a multifaceted musical culture developed over centuries. In the meantime, this culture along with its language and music has spread across the globe and experiences an endless spring – and once a year we want to give this spring particularly special expression here in East Styria. After four successful years, with our festival for klezmer, Yiddish music and culture, we have established a firm anchor in the East Styrian cultural landscape, and we look forward to this special half-anniversary edition with a multifaceted program of events and workshops featuring our international teaching team, our Artist in Residence from Ukraine, and our festival guests. With a call for shared dialogue, we want to counteract a world plagued by polarization and above all place what unites us above what divides us. In the opening concert, three different narrative threads interweave into a shared sound poem (more details coming in 2026), and we're equally excited to present the multilingual ‘Voices in Dialogue’ concert for the first time in the Ilz Parish Church. Our Friling weekend is completed with a Yiddish celebration as our third evening event, where we showcase klezmer music in its original function as dance music and look forward to learning numerous circle dances led by one of the world's most renowned dance instructors. We'll give the festival weekend a gentle close with the ‘KlezWalk’ – a musical walk through village, forest, and meadow. In this spirit, we look forward once again to many exciting encounters, inspiring dialogues, and plenty of music and dance at the Friling Festival 2026 in beautiful East Styria!”

Name of program: KlezMORE Festival Wien

Host/sponsor: Self-organized with partners Stadt Wien Klutur, Okay Reiseproviant, 01 Clubm, ZukunftsFonds der Republik Osterreich, and more

Website: https://klezmore-vienna.at/ 

Location: Vienna, Austria

Founding year: 2004

Approximate timing: Several days in mid-November with other events throughout the year

Description: “When the days get shorter in November, Vienna takes on a special timbre - melancholic, lively, thoughtful and open to nuances. The KlezMORE Festival Vienna has been part of this atmosphere for over two decades as a cultural event of rare radiance. Since 2004, it has brought together international artists and local initiatives to present Jewish musical traditions in all their diversity, topicality and beauty. Today, the festival is one of the most important platforms for Jewish music and culture in Europe - a place of encounter, remembrance and renewal.” 

BELGIUM

Name of program: Klezmer Brussels: Shtetl Saint-Gilles / Sint-Gillis

Host/sponsor: Self-organized. Has received support from the UPJB (Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique)

Website: https://brusselsklezmer.wordpress.com/ 

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Founding year: 2017

Approximate timing: Happened in 2018 and 2023 and scheduled for 2026

Description: “The ‘Shtetl St-Gilles / Sint-Gillis’ collective was launched in 2017. Our first festival happened in May 2018 and the second edition, originally planned for 2020, happened in 2023. The collective was founded by Amandine Seifert and Joanna Blumberg Britton, and has since grown into a team of six Brussels- and Ghent-based volunteers who focus on organising events around Eastern-European Jewish culture. In addition to promoting knowledge about this rich culture and traditions, we also seek to create interactive spaces for community education. By organising one-off workshops and regular jams as well as our festival we hope to encourage people to exchange knowledge, ideas and experience, and be open to meeting and discovering different cultures. Our mission is to create community and space for people from different backgrounds and different generations to come together and connect with each other through culture. This philosophy underpins everything we do and we hope it will help us move towards our goal of fostering a real spirit of openness for our city and its inhabitants. Our team is: Pieter Sint-Nicolaas / Rafael Núñez Velázquez / Amandine Seifert / Joanna Blumberg Britton / Ann Boeckx / Alain Lapiower.”

FRANCE

Name of the program: Fun dor tsu dor 

Host: organized by Marthe Desrosières-Brodskis for the Association Lamed (past sponsor: Maison de la Culture Yiddish)

Location: Château de Ligoure Le Vigen , France

Website (from last year): https://www.helloasso.com/associations/lamed/evenements/fun-dor-tsu-dor-2025

Founding year: 2012

Description: “One week a year dedicated to the intergenerational transmission of Yiddish culture in a magnificent setting. Workshops are led by some of the biggest names in the international Yiddish world, such as Shura Lipovsky, Lorin Sklamberg, Polina Shepherd, Batia Baum, Andreas Shmitges, and Michael Alpert, to name just a few. Each year, a different theme is explored. The program includes instrumental workshops, singing workshops, Yiddish language classes, workshops for juniors, and cooking workshops. Welcoming about fifty people. The next session will take place the week of April 20, 2026.”

Name of program: Klezmer Festiv’Alpes

Host/sponsor: Les Carpes Augmentées and Joanne Lehmann

Website: https://klezmer-festiv-alpes.gitlab.io/ 

Location: Grenoble, France

Founding year: 2026

Approximate timing: One weekend toward the end of March

Description: A long weekend featuring concerts and musical workshops.

Name of program: Rendez-Vous Klezmer Au Tapis Vert

Host/sponsor: LE TAPIS VERT, Centre de résidences artistiques en Normandie

Website: https://www.letapisvert.org/infos-evenement/rendez-vous-klezmer 

Location: Normandie, France

Founding year: 2015

Approximate timing: A few days in mid-August

Description: “The traditional pieces from the early 20th-century archives will be taught using traditional oral technique. The chosen themes are from original, little-known repertoires. The chosen repertoire is the pre-American style of klezmer, a style generally rich in phrasing, ornaments and variations. During the themed workshops, we will work on orchestration, the roles of instruments, arrangement and ‘non-arrangement’, group energy etc. Questions on the context of a klezmer dance and communication with the dance leader and dancers will be dealt with. Some time will be spent listening to resources, analysing archives in order to absorb and interpret them.” 

Name of program: Yiddish et Cie en Cévennes

Host/sponsor: L’association Yiddish et Cie en Cévennes

Website: https://www.rencontresdebreau.org/ 

Location: Breau, France

Founding year: Approximately 2002 

Approximate timing: One week at the beginning of July

Description: “The association ‘Yiddish et Cie en Cévennes’ is dedicated to the promotion and valorization of 'minoritized' languages, cultures, and voices, with an explicit commitment to countering discrimination and exclusion. Each summer in early July, it convenes the ‘Rencontres Interculturelles de Bréau,’ a week-long program combining workshops (for participants ages 7–107), public lectures, debates, and individual/collective creative activities, with parallel offerings for children and families.”

GERMANY

Name of program: Generation J

Host/sponsor: A project of Yiddish Summer Weimar. Currently an ERASMUS program.

Website: https://www.generationj.eu/ 

Location: Weimar, Germany

Founding year: 2021

Approximate timing: Two weeks in April

Description: “So what is Generation J? Creative community, summer camp, language school – you name it. All of that, and yet different. Generation J brings together arts and learning, debate and friendship. Come explore and build a Yiddish world with us. A world that goes far beyond Shtisl and grannies; a world that is creative, young, and avant-garde. Alongside other young people and wonderful teachers, you’ll develop your own creative project and learn so much along the way - about Yiddish, beauty and politics, music, Jewish history, literature, film, resistance and empowerment, vulnerability - then and now - and, finally, about yourself. This time we’ll spend time in both Paris and Weimar exploring Yiddish culture with a group of young people and teachers from the worlds of Yiddish language, music, art and much more. Young people ages 18-30 living in Poland, France, or Germany (with any nationality) are invited to join us! If you're over 30 or don't live in one of these countries, but you'd still like to participate, please get in touch and let's talk about it.”

Name of program: Jewish Culture Days Dresden “Lebendige Erinnerung” (Living Memory)

Host/sponsor: “Spielen gegen Antisemitismus,” The Haus der Brücke, The Neustadt Synagogue (a liberal Chassidic Community) and alternative venues across Dresden. 

Website: https://s-g-a.eu/juedische-kulturtage-lebendige-erinnerung/ 

Location: Dresden, Germany

Founding year: 2023 

Approximate timing: Late August / early September

Description: “The Jewish Cultural Days, founded in 2023, offer 4 days packed with Jewish cultural events in the Dresden Neustadt. These include a musical Shabbat with music hosted by the world’s only liberal Chassidic community; concerts with top artists from across the Yiddish Music scene; walking tours, workshops, exhibitions, film screenings, to name just a few of our offerings. For the 2026 edition, we will be adding two days of intense master classes with courses dedicated to Klezmer repertoire, Yiddish song, and Makam.”

Name of program: Jewish Music Today Fürth

Host/sponsor: Self-organized with support from iba and NORMA

Name of program: Jewish Music Today Fürth

Host/sponsor: Self-organized with support from iba and NORMA

Website: https://www.jewish-music-today.de/ 

Location: Fürth, Germany

Founding year: 1988

Approximate timing: Every other year over a week in March

Description: “Every two years in March musicians from all over the world meet in Fürth for ten days to present new compositions and arrangements in numerous concerts. Workshops with well-known musicians from the scene encourage the audience to make music and dance, and an extensive supporting programme with films, city tours, readings and talks invites people to engage with the diversity of Jewish life. What began as the Week of Yiddish Song in 1988 is now called the ‘International Klezmer Festival Fürth & Jewish Music Today’. The festival unites not only klezmer - the music of the Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews from the shtetls of Eastern Europe - but all varieties of Jewish music. There is a lot to discover, e.g. Yiddpop, klezjazz or Aramaic hip hop, because through the long history of migration of Jews, the music has absorbed a wide variety of influences from other cultures and has constantly evolved.”

Name of program: JiddischYiddish Woch Saarbrikn

Host/sponsor: Self-organized and sponsored by the Synagogengemeinde Saar KdöR and broad support from German governmental and cultural organizations

Website: https://jiddisch-woch.com/ 

Location: Saarbrücken, Germany

Founding year: 2025 

Approximate timing: Aa few days in June annually

Description: “Our festival offers five days of muzik, kultur un fargenign – all centered around the Yiddish language. We are bringing Yiddish and Jewish culture out of the synagogue into various locations across Saarbrücken. Join us to explore and experience this rich diversity through historical city tours, lectures, concerts, a theatre performance, workshops, a Shabbat meal,
and much more!”

Name of program: Klezmer.welten Gelsenkirchen

Host/sponsor: Klezmerwelten GELSENKIRCHEN ist eine Veranstaltung der Jüdischen Gemeinde Gelsenkirchen K.d.ö.R. und TIKWAH, Festival jüdischer Musik, in Zusammenarbeit mit: Stadt Gelsenkirchen, Philharmonie Essen, Alte Synagoge Essen, Folkwang Musikschule Essen, Städtischen Musikschule, Gelsenkirchen und Jüdisches Museum Westfalen Dorsten

Website: https://klezmerwelten.com/ 

Location: Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Founding year: 2003

Approximate timing: One week in March/April

Description: “Discover the world of virtuoso klezmer music! Be with us, participate and experience a one of a kind festival full of musical diversity.”

Name of program: Shtetl Berlin

Host/sponsor: self-organized with support from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion

Website: shtetlberlin.com 

Location: Berlin, Germany

Founding year: 2016

Approximate timing: Approximately a week in mid-June, with other events throughout the year

Description: “Shtetl Berlin is Berlin's grassroots festival for Yiddish culture and klezmer music — a gathering place for musicians, dancers, artists, educators, and curious hearts. Here, klezmer music fills the air, Yiddish songs are sung together, and the Yiddish language is studied, spoken, and celebrated. The Yiddish-speaking world is reimagined not as a distant memory, but as a living tradition full of joy, wit, and meaning. Through festivals, concerts, dance events, art programs, and community events, Shtetl Berlin creates spaces where Yiddish culture can breathe, connect, and belong to everyone.”

Name of program: Yiddish Summer Weimar

Host/sponsor: Yiddish Summer Weimar, with some support historically from the German Federal Cultural Foundation

Website: https://yiddishsummer.eu/ 

Location: Weimar, Germany

Founding year: 1999

Approximate timing: Lasts one month from mid-July to mid-August annually

Description: “Yiddish Summer Weimar (YSW) began life as a weekend workshop in 1999. Today it spans a whole month and has become one of the world's leading summer programs for the study, creation and presentation of traditional and contemporary Yiddish culture. Following the vision of founding artistic director Alan Bern, YSW is a uniquely creative, intercultural community in which people of all ages and backgrounds are welcome. The week-long workshops that make up the backbone of YSW are taught by international, cutting-edge artists and scholars in an atmosphere that encourages learning, discussion, creativity, individuality and community.”

ITALY

Name of program: Festival Klezmer Città di Gradisca 

Host/sponsor: Musica Libera Association of Trieste with the support of the Municipal Administration of Gradisca d'Isonzo

Website: https://www.musicalibera.it/festival-klezmer-citta-di-gradisca/ 

Location: Gradisca d'Isonzo, Italy

Founding year: 2003

Approximate timing: Annually over two days in late August

Description: “Music, history, and laughter will take center stage in Gradisca in the coming days, as the eleventh edition of the Klezmer Festival opens this evening. The festival is organized by Associazione Musica Libera in collaboration with the Municipality of Gradisca d’Isonzo and is artistically directed by Davide Casali. Over the years, artists from across Europe, the United States, and Italy have gathered in Gradisca, and this year is no exception. Across the festival’s three evenings, an international atmosphere will prevail, enriched by a wide range of influences and inspirations accompanying the sounds of klezmer music.”

POLAND

Name of program: Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej SIMCHA/SIMCHA Jewish Culture Festival Host/sponsor: Fundacja PRO ARTE

Website: https://simcha.art.pl/ 

Location: Wrocław, Poland

Founding year: 1999

Approximate timing: A few days annually in July

Description: “The Simcha Festival in Wrocław is an annual Jewish Culture Festival held since 1999, aimed at popularizing and celebrating Jewish culture, history, and traditions in the city. It is one of the most important cultural events in Lower Silesia and the third largest Jewish festival in Poland. It takes place mainly in the Synagogue ‘Pod Białym Bocianem’ and other locations in Wrocław’s ‘District of Mutual Respect’ and city center. The festival includes a rich program of concerts, workshops, literary meetings, lectures, film screenings, guided tours tracing Jewish heritage in Wrocław, and traditional Jewish events such as the Sabbath welcoming service and Jewish street market (Jarmark Żydowski). The festival combines tradition with modernity, offering music performances (especially klezmer), educational activities, and opportunities to engage with Jewish rituals and customs. It promotes multicultural awareness and celebrates the Jewish contribution to the region’s culture and history. Each year, the festival may have a thematic focus; for example, the 2024 edition was dedicated to the memory of Abraham Geiger, a notable Jewish reformer and former rabbi in Wrocław. The event attracts artists, scholars, and audiences interested in Jewish culture from Poland and abroad. Many events are free, though some require tickets or prior registration. In summary, the Simcha Festival is a vibrant cultural celebration that fosters understanding and appreciation of Jewish heritage through music, art, education, and community gatherings in Wrocław.”

Name of program: Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej w Grodzisku Mazowieckim

Host/sponsor: Hosts are the Stowarzyszenie Nowa Kultura and the Edukacja oraz Wydawnictwo Taurus Edukacja i Kultura. Partners include the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Centrum Dialogu, Israeli Ambassador, and more.

Website: https://festiwalkulturyzydowskiej.pl/

Location: Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland

Founding year: 2020

Approximate timing: A few days toward the end of August

Description: “September 8, 2020 The first Jewish Culture Festival kicks off in Grodzisk Mazowiecki on September 12th. During the seven days of the festival, from September 12th to 18th, a total of 29 events will take place in the City Park, the Railway Station Waiting Room, the Media Library, the Public Library, and the Wolność Cinema. The organizers would like to remind everyone that Grodzisk Mazowiecki was also inhabited by Jews before the war, and there were many Jewish buildings there – now gone. ‘We will learn about their history and traditions, listen to Jewish songs or those inspired by klezmer music,’ the organizers assure. The concert portion will feature performances by Remek Hanaj and Paweł Nowicki (Nagrania fieldowe snów) and Shofar. The trio will perform new material, which will be released on an album later this year. This Saturday, and on Sunday, Paweł Szamburski will perform a repertoire of Moshe Beregowski, the MELECH quartet will play compositions by Mordechai Gebirtig, and the band Yiddishkayt from Łódź will perform. The festival will close on September 18th at The Park restaurant with a performance by DJ Fagot, aka Grzegorz Fajngold, a Łódź artist and member of bands such as 19 wiosen, już nie życiasz, and Demolka. Every day from Monday to Thursday, the Freedom Cinema will host screenings as part of the Israeli Embassy in Poland Film Club. Viewers will be able to watch the films The Band's Visit, The Matchmaker, Starting Up the Hill, and My Beloved Sister. This year's first edition of the Jewish Culture Festival is titled The Dybbuk of Grodzisk, so on Friday evening, at the end of the festival, the cult film The Dybbuk from 1937 will be presented at the Wolność Cinema. Book lovers will also find something for themselves. On Saturday, the first day of the festival (September 12th), there will be an author's meeting with Mikołaj Grynberg about his latest book, ‘Confidential,’ published by Wydawnictwo Czarne. On Tuesday, September 15th, in the PKP Waiting Room, you can meet representatives of the Odkryjamy Blisko Historie z Grodziska Mazowiecki association, who are preparing the year-end premiere of ‘Aby był był mówi’ (So You Could Say), the diaries of a Jewish woman from Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Fajga Burman. On Wednesday, there will be the premiere of a comic book board about Marek Edelman, commissioned especially for the Festival, in Grodzisk. Michał Rzeczpospolita, a screenwriter, cultural studies scholar, illustrator, and comic book creator, delved into the story of Marek Edelman, who hid in Grodzisk Mazowiecki after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising. On-site events will be broadcast live and available online.”  

Name of program: Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej Warszawa Singera

Host/sponsor: Fundacja Shalom

Website: https://shalom.org.pl/festiwal-kultury-zydowskiej-warszawa-singera/ 

Location: Warsaw, Poland

Founding year: 2004

Approximate timing: One week at the end of August

Description: “The Singer Festival in Warsaw (Festiwal Warszawa Singera) is one of the most important artistic events in Poland, presenting Jewish culture in a broad context of Polish and world culture. It is a celebration of music, theater, literature, and visual arts which, thanks to Gołda Tencer and Fundacja Shalom, has been held continuously since 2004. The festival aims to promote Jewish culture at a high artistic level–both in its traditional form as well as in a modern lens. For this reason, the festival invites both established artists with an extensive body of work and young, emerging creators fascinated by the richness of Jewish culture, reimagining it in contemporary projects. Distinguished representatives of Jewish culture from all around the world.”

Name of program: Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow

Host/sponsor: Jewish Culture Festival Association with many government and private sponsors

Website: https://jewishfestival.pl

Location: Kazimierz/Krakow, Poland

Founding year: 1988

Approximate timing: A few days annually in early July 

Description: “In 1988, Janusz Makuch and Krzysztof Gierat decided to remind the public of Poland’s Jewish history and the contribution of Jews to the development of our country, its culture and society. It was a successful attempt to restore the memory of Polish Jews and commemorate those who, having lived in Poland for centuries, were either murdered during the Holocaust or forced to emigrate in the postwar years. From an intimate event, the FKŻ has grown to become one of the most important cultural events in our city and country, one of the best known outside Poland. It is one of the best-associated brands of our city. Each year the festival presents almost 200 events (in the main and accompanying programs), and gathers about 30,000 people from all over the world to participate in workshops, lectures, discussions, tours and, of course, concerts and other musical events. 150 artists, lecturers and instructors share with our audience their experiences and achievements in developing Jewish culture.”

Name of program: ZBLIŻENIA – Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej

Host/sponsor:  Kultury Zbliżenia with many government and local sponsors

Website: https://zblizeniafestiwal.org/ 

Location: Gdansk, Poland

Founding year: 2013

Approximate timing: A few days annually in mid-September

Description: A festival of Yiddish Jewish culture with art workshops, book talks, historical walking tours, and concerts.

UNITED KINGDOM

Name of program: Klezmargate

Host/sponsor: Independently organized with support from the Early Career Promoter Fund; the Arts Council England; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; Ark

Website: https://www.instagram.com/klezmargate 

Location: Cliftonville, Margate, United Kingdom

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: A series of events will occur in April 2026 and occurred over a weekend in October 2024 

Description: “Come to KlezMargate! A unique festival celebrating the Klezmer tradition and diasporic Yiddish music, in the heart of Cliftonville, Margate. Bringing together leading UK artists and international talent from Europe and the US, KlezMargate offers an immersive weekend experience with workshops, concerts, community singing, and late-night jam sessions.”

Name of program: KlezNorth

Host/sponsor: Jewish Music Institute

Website: https://kleznorth.org.uk/ 

Location: Youlgrave, Derbyshire, United Kingdom

Founding year: 2010

Approximate timing: Weekend in April

Description: “KlezNorth is an annual festival of Klezmer music, dance and song welcoming both Jewish and non-Jewish people to the wonderful world of Klezmer. KlezNorth is based in Derbyshire, but in this context, ‘North’ regularly includes the Midlands, the Southwest, Wales and Scotland, the North East, East Anglia, and, dare we say, London and the South East. We have a few overseas participants as well. Over the years, we have kept the size the same, enabling us to retain the huge advantages of being based in Youlgrave – a wonderful location, low cost and self-contained… and beautiful too! We have also been able to retain the ethos of doing things ourselves; it is very much a participant event, but also each year have been able to supplement our home-grown tutors with people of national and international renown.”

Name of program: Yiddish Culture Weekend (formerly Klezfest)

Host/sponsor: Jewish Music Institute 

Website: https://jmi.org.uk/event/yiddish-culture-weekend-2026/ 

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Founding year: 2001

Approximate timing: A couple days toward the end of August

Description: “For more than twenty years, JMI’s Summer Schools have been a meeting place for learning, music-making, language, and community. In 2026, we are taking a deliberate pause in the current format in order to reimagine the programme for the future. This is not a step away. It is a moment to reflect carefully on how the Summer Schools can evolve — artistically, structurally, culturally and sustainably — so that they return in 2027 renewed, integrated, and built for the years ahead. We believe that taking time now will allow us to safeguard and carry forward what has been built over decades with care and responsibility. But 2026 will not be quiet. Instead, this year we are placing the spotlight on our community. Yiddish Culture Weekend 2026 is a concentrated, community-led celebration of Yiddish language, song, music, and cultural life in the UK. This interim year is about opening space, inviting ideas and celebrating the richness that already exists within our community.”

Name of program: Yiddish Sof-Vokh UK

Host/sponsor: Yiddish Café Trust

Website: https://yiddishcafe.com/sof-vokh/ 

Location: Lickey Hills (outside Birmingham), United Kingdom 

Founding year: 2022

Approximate timing: Annually over a weekend in late June

Description: “Since 2022, the Yiddish Sof-Vokh UK has offered Yiddish speakers the chance to spend a weekend entirely immersed in mame-loshn. The entire weekend is participant-led, with talks, workshops and performances organised and delivered by attendees. Regular contributors include teachers, specialists, and enthusiasts of all kinds, but this is not a summer program: no dictionaries are provided, nor is there any language instruction. Instead, participants come away learning from each other and from the rich variety of experiences and identities that makes up the Yiddish-speaking world.”

Israel

Name of program: Safed Klezmer Festival

Host/sponsor: N/A

Website:  https://www.safed-home.com/klezmerfestivalofsafed2026.html

Location: Safed, Israel

Founding year: Approximately late 1980s (2025 was the thirty-eighth year)

Approximate timing: Annually over a couple days at the end of August

Description: “The yearly Safed Klezmer Festival is a wonderful opportunity for people to come to the city and experience its history, heritage, and culture while enjoying traditional Jewish Klezmer music. The festival has eight open air stages which are set up around the parks and public squares of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter and Artists Quarter, all within a 10 minute walk of each other. Each stage will host a variety of musicians and bands, ranging from conventional Klezmer music to other traditional Jewish music.”

Canada

Name of program: Ashkenaz Fest

Host/sponsor: Ashkenaz: Celebrating Jewish Culture Through the Arts 

Website: https://ashkenaz.ca/

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Founding year: 1995

Approximate timing: Biannual long weekend festival at the end of August/beginning of September

Description: “The Ashkenaz Festival is one of the largest and most prestigious showcases of Jewish music and culture anywhere in the world. Since 1995, the festival has taken place biennially at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto’s premier venue for the presentation of world and folk culture and for the meeting of diverse communities through the arts. Originally founded as a showcase for Klezmer and Yiddish music and culture, the Ashkenaz Festival has evolved over the years into an eclectic showcase of global Jewish art and culture, encompassing not merely the traditions of eastern Europe, but also Sephardic, Mizrachi and Israeli culture, and all manner of cross-cultural fusion. The Festival is offered 90% free to the public and attracts a multicultural audience of over 60,000 people. Nowhere else in the world does so large and diverse an audience come together to experience Jewish cultural arts. Though strongly focused on music, Ashkenaz is a multidisciplinary festival, including dance, theatre, film, literature and talk, visual arts, and kids/family programs. Ashkenaz usually features over 80 performances and 200+ individual artists, hailing from across Canada and around the world. Over the years, Ashkenaz has presented artists from over 25 countries and 6 continents…The Ashkenaz Foundation celebrates global Jewish music, arts and culture that embraces the past, present and future. While rooted in the spirit and forms of the Yiddish culture revival, Ashkenaz seeks to spotlight a broad range of multi-ethnic Jewish identities and artistic/cultural traditions.  Emphasizing cross-cultural creativity across a wide spectrum of Jewish and non-Jewish traditions, Ashkenaz spotlights world-class artists and also nurtures emerging artists. Through its biennial Ashkenaz Festival and a robust slate of year-round programs across the GTA, Ashkenaz seeks to reach the largest possible audiences, establishing appreciation and demand for high-quality Jewish arts and culture in the mainstream consciousness, and providing its core Jewish audience with a source of pride, inspiration and community cohesion.”

Name of program: The Chutzpah! Festival: The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts

Host/sponsor: Vancouver West Side Theatre Society at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre

Website: https://chutzpahfestival.com/ 

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Founding year: 2001

Approximate timing: over an approximately two-week period in November

Description: “The Chutzpah! Festival: The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts is an annual festival of world-renowned dance, music, theatre, and comedy, through a lens of Jewish experiences, stories, and values in all their richness and diversity, creating unforgettable and unique experiences for audiences throughout the Lower Mainland. We foster artistic dialogue and collaboration between Jewish and non-Jewish artists and communities. The Festival offers artistic residencies, outreach programs, and other professional arts programming of interest throughout the year.”

Name of program: KLEZCADIA Festival

Host/sponsor: Emanuel of Victoria. KLEZCADIA’s American donation arm, “US Friends of KLEZCADIA,” is a fiscally-sponsored project of KlezCalifornia.

Website: https://klezcadia.org/ 

Location: Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada (and hybrid)

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: An annual week in mid-June

Description: “KLEZCADIA – A Safer Shtetl for Klezmer Music & Yiddish Culture, based in the beautiful Cascadian city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, is a fully-hybrid festival and learning retreat that prioritizes the safe experience of immunocompromised and high-risk participants. Thanks to our generous donors and volunteers, our 2024 inaugural season and our 2025 second season were FREE to both in-person and virtual attendees.”

Name of program: KlezKanada Summer Retreat

Host/sponsor: KlezKanada

Website: klezkanada.org 

Location: Lantier (near Montreal), Quebec, Canada

Founding year: 1996

Approximate timing: One week annually at the end of August

Description: “KlezKanada fosters Yiddish cultural and artistic creativity worldwide as a living tradition and a constantly evolving contemporary culture and identity. We create spaces where a diverse community of participants can gather together through their shared interest in Yiddish culture. Anchored by the annual Summer Retreat, our programs promote depth of knowledge through the transmission of Jewish history, language, and culture, cultivate excellence in artistic practice, performance, scholarship, and pedagogy, and spark cultural innovation through the cross-pollination of arts and research. Rooted in Montréal, Québec, KlezKanada is a Jewish arts and culture organization specializing in Yiddish culture. From its start as a small summer festival, KlezKanada has become one of the leading Yiddish cultural organizations in the world and an important site of the contemporary Yiddish cultural renaissance. KlezKanada cultivates its role in the international ecosystem of Yiddish cultural organizations as well as local connections in Montreal Jewish and arts communities. KlezKanada’s programming is anchored by an annual Summer Retreat in August and extends throughout the year through online and in local programs in Montreal. Our year-round work includes curated educational and performance programs, leadership development and mentorship programs, as well as consulting and advising.”

Name of program: KlezWest

Host/sponsor: KlezWest, supported by the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture and Or Shalom

Website: https://klezwest.ca/ 

Location: Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Founding year: 2023

Approximate timing: One Sunday per month

Description: “KLEZWEST is a Vancouver BC group of musicians, beginners and intermediate, who want to explore, learn and enjoy Klezmer music and dance. Inspired by KlezKanada, we meet monthly (roughly) and learn songs from sheet music and by ear.’

Name of program: Montreal Klezmer Jam

Host/sponsor: KlezKanada with support from the Azrieli Foundation and the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal

Website: https://klezkanada.org/montreal-klezmer-jam/ 

Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Founding year: 2025

Approximate timing: every third Sunday of the month

Description: “Every third Sunday of the month, join Montreal’s klezmer community to play klezmer tunes together. KlezKanada’s Montreal Klezmer Jam is a space where Montreal musicians – and guests from out of town – come together regularly to play klezmer music, discover new repertoire, and build community. Each session opens with a mini concert set at 6 PM, featuring performances from local and touring klezmorim. After the short concert set, the artists will open up the set to jamming. There will be a short break at 7 ish, followed by a second jam set.”

Name of program: “Put A Yid On It!” Festival Of New Jewish Culture

Host/sponsor: Rady Jewish Community Centre

Website: https://radyjcc.com/programming/festivals-concerts/put-yid-it-festival-new-yiddish-culture 

Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: Several days from late January to early February

Description: “Yiddish is a warm, funny, poetic language once spoken, written, sung, and dreamt by 11 million people. Our festival honours this rich history and celebrates the New Yiddish Renaissance, a dynamic movement of artists courageously creating and recreating in the language of our ancestors. This festival, going into its third year, features a total of eight unique events featuring world-class bands, films, and speakers.”

Name of program: The Toronto Klezmer Society Jams

Host/sponsor: Toronto Klezmer Society

Website: https://www.torontoklezmersociety.com/about 

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Founding year: 2018

Approximate timing: Every third Wednesday of the month

Description: “The Toronto Klezmer Society was founded in November 2018 with the intention to grow the Klezmer and Jewish music scene in Toronto and beyond, push the boundaries of the genre while upholding its history and origins, introduce the music to a new audience and share knowledge.This website is intended to be an archive and resource for anyone who wants to join in the music, or is curious/enthusiastic about Eastern European Jewish folk music, known as Klezmer. As our signature event, The Toronto Klezmer Society Jams are held every third Wednesday of the month at the Tranzac, which is located at 292 Bruswick Ave., off Bloor Street West. The intention of the jams is to bring together lovers, performers, explorers and friends of Klezmer music in a unique community space. All levels of musicianship are welcome. The jam is backed by a house band that knows the tunes and carries things along.”

Name of program: Yiddish Culture Jam

Host/sponsor: KlezKanada

Website: https://klezkanada.org/year-round/yiddish-culture-jam/ 

Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Founding year: 2026

Approximate timing: Several days at the end of February

Description: “The Yiddish Culture Jam is a heymish (cozy) weekend-long event with a special focus on contemporary Yiddish cultural creation and cross-cultural collaboration. The program will showcase and explore the tremendously rich outpouring of new Yiddish art and performance being created today and offer creative skill-building workshops. Alongside this focus on new work, the program will highlight the rich tradition of cultural exchange in Yiddish culture by connecting with our neighbouring cultural communities and cultivating spaces for collaboration. Taking place in the heart of Montreal, the Yiddish Culture Jam is an urban winter companion to KlezKanada’s internationally-acclaimed Summer Retreat. The weekend will feature a curated program of workshops, talks, concerts, and social events led by guest faculty, as well as a series of participant-led workshops that highlight the talent and knowledge of the Yiddish cultural community.”

United States

Name of program: The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music concert series

Host/sponsor: The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music 

Website: https://www.bostonjewishmusic.org/ 

Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Founding year: 2021

Approximate timing: Roughly monthly at different locations in the Boston area

Description: “The Boston Festival of New Jewish Music presents original music drawing from the Jewish cultural experience. From icons of Yiddish music to emerging Ladino voices, intimate song cycles to raucous dance parties, the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music highlights the best in Jewish-influenced music by composers and performers who live right here in our own backyard.”

Name of Program: Chicago YIVO Society Summer Festival of Yiddish Culture

Host/Sponsor: Chicago YIVO Society

Website: chicagoyivo.org

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Founding year of festival: 2004

Approximate timing: About a dozen programs offered over the course of June, July, and August every year

Description: “The festival runs during the months of June, July, August. The Chicago YIVO Society Summer Festival of Yiddish Culture is part of Chicago YIVO's mission. The mission is to entertain and educate the local community through subsidized lectures, music programs, and film screenings that reflect the rich heritage and diversity of Jewish culture, and to ensure the future of Yiddish through language education. To this end our summer festival offers music programs, films, and lectures at local public libraries. The libraries provide the venue and we provide the program. All our programs are free and open to the public.”

Name of Program: Humboldt County Jewish Music and Culture Festival

Host/sponsor: Temple Beth El in Eureka, California, USA

Website: None

Location: Eureka, California, USA

Founding year: 2020 

Approximate timing: Annually in the spring

Description: “Weekend festival each spring of Jewish Music including instrumental, and singing workshops, educational workshops, Yiddish dance party and a concert. We have different guests featured each year. We provide optional catered meals between events. Each year, we have two or three featured Performers and since we also share meals it is a warm intimate setting. Previous guests include Craig Judelman, Sasha Lurje, Lorin Sklamberg, Michael Alpert, Jeff Warschauer, and Deborah Strauss. Receive more information by emailing [email protected].”

Name of program: Klez Fest Midwest

Host/sponsor: WORT-FM, Wisconsin Science Festival, Hamel Music Center, and the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music & Mosse, Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, and the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Website: https://music.wisc.edu/klezfest/ 

Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: One weekend in September/October plus additional performances

Description: “Klez Fest is back for a second year, and this time it’s going by Klez Fest Midwest. It kicks off this evening and runs through Sunday, October 26, 2025. There’s also a bonus event on March 19, 2026. It features klezmer clarinet virtuoso David Krakauer, pianist Kathleen Tagg, Elm Duo, Tsuzamen, Yid Vicious, and singer Laura Elkeslassy and her band. All events are free and open to the public! Klez Fest Midwest is sponsored by the Mead Witter School of Music, the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture, the Wisconsin Science Festival, and WORT-FM.” 

Name of program: KlezCalYidFest

Host/sponsor: KlezCalifornia, with some support historically from the Living Cultures Grant at the Alliance for California Traditional Arts 

Website: https://klezcalifornia.org/events/klezcalyidfest/ 

Location: Berkeley, California, USA

Founding year: 2003, inactive from 2017 to 2024, rebooted in 2025

Approximate timing: Annual weekend in September 

Description: “Between 2003 and 2016, KlezCalifornia produced fourteen Yiddish Culture Festivals that each attracted 300-450 participants. Each included between sixteen and sixty workshops in Yiddish singing and dancing, klezmer music, theater, humor, Yiddish language, East European Jewish history, and history of Ashkenazi Jews in America. Festivals incorporated one or two klezmer concerts and dance parties . . . In 2016 and 2017, we produced four Cabaret by the Bay, each with 3-5 individual performers, blended with music from a klezmer band, and concluding with a klezmer dance party . . . In September 2025, KlezCalifornia resumed holding Yiddish Culture Festivals. KlezCalYidFest was a huge success, with a sold-out opening night, lots of joyful dancing, outstanding concerts, inspiring workshops — people learned so much and had a great time. The jams and afterparties at a nearby restaurant were special treats!”

Name of program: KlezCummington

Host/sponsor: Self-organized

Website: https://www.klezcummington.com/ 

Location: Cummington, Massachusetts, USA

Founding year: 2021

Approximate timing: Annually over a long weekend in early July

Description: “KlezCummington is a homegrown festival dedicated to the creation and deepening of Yiddish diasporic cultures, serving as a vibrant community hub for contemporary Yiddish performance, musical exploration, cultural transmission and learning, resilience, and joy! Last year’s festival featured a landsmanshaft mutual aid banquet.” 

Name of program: KlezFest CNY

Host/sponsor: JCC of Syracuse

Website: https://www.facebook.com/KlezFestCNY 

Location: Syracuse, New York, USA

Founding year: 1999

Approximate timing: Annually on an afternoon in September

Description: “The Sam Pomeranz Jewish Community Center will transform into a vibrant celebration of Jewish culture, welcoming the entire community for an afternoon of music, food, and connection. Building on last year’s successful reimagining, the 2025 festival continues to evolve beyond its traditional klezmer roots into something even more special . . . The festival runs from noon to 4 p.m., with an expanded culinary lineup that reads like a love letter to Jewish cuisine. Expect fresh, authentic Jewish dishes—all Va’ad kosher, all delicious. The menu reflects KlezFest’s unique status as the only fully Va’ad kosher Jewish festival in upstate New York, making it a rare opportunity for authentic cultural immersion.”  

Name of program: KlezKolorado

Host/sponsor: JCC Denver

Website: https://tickets.jccdenver.org/klezkolorado or https://www.instagram.com/klezkolorado/ 

Location: Denver, Colorado, USA

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: Annually, one weekend in May

Description: “KlezKolorado is a weekend-long Klezmer festival that centers local and national Klezmer acts, Yiddish culture, workshops, and Colorado’s Jewish community. We want to highlight the burgeoning Klezmer revival in Denver, Boulder, and beyond, and create a new space for Yiddishists to gather and celebrate our culture. We are a queer-led and queer-focused group that would like to welcome folks of all backgrounds to come and join in the fun. KlezKolorado is structured primarily as a retreat, inviting participants to join us for a long weekend full of concerts, workshops, community meals and fun nature-based activities. Guests can also choose to exclusively come for the Klezmer concerts on that Friday and/or Saturday. The festival will be held at the JCC’s beautiful Ranch Camp, situated conveniently between Denver and Colorado Springs. Guests who are attending for the full weekend will be provided with cabin-style accommodations, meals and snacks (including a special Shabbos dinner), and full access to all activities throughout the weekend.”

Name of program: KlezMAINEia

Host/sponsor: Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine

Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1411948379575619/ 

Location: Windham, Maine, USA

Founding year: 2023

Approximate timing: Only happened once in May 2023

Description: “Join us for a full day of workshops, dance, music, and Klezmer mayhem, led by the boisterous and elegiac klezmer band Mamaliga! We are pleased to offer a variety of workshops in Klezmer music, Yiddish, Israeli and Eastern European dance, and Yiddish singing, all led by members of Mamaliga and local favorites the Casco Bay Tummlers and Rabbi Sruli & Lisa. The festival will take place at Center Day Camp in Windham Maine, along the picturesque shores of Sebago Lake. Bring your instrument if you wish to take part in the music workshops. All ages, instrument types, and abilities are welcome! After a community dinner, the festival will culminate in a joyful and celebratory concert, headlined by Mamaliga. Come take part in this welcoming and intergenerational festival, with participants of all different skills, histories, and relationships to Klezmer music, as we gather to dance, sing, play, eat, learn, and build community!”

Name of program: Klezmer on Ice 

Host/sponsor: organized by Josh Rosard and Sarah Larsson and hosted at various locations throughout Minneapolis, including the Art Shanty Projects, the Minnesota JCC Capp Center St. Paul, and Center for Performing Arts 

Website: https://www.klezmeronice.com/ 

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Founding year: 2023

Approximate timing: Annually over a long weekend in January/February 

Description: “Co-organized by Josh Rosard and Sarah Larsson, Klezmer on Ice is a festival seeking to create inclusive spaces that celebrate Jewish culture alongside Minnesota winter traditions and build relationships and connections across generations, identities, and religious affiliations through the sharing of music and dance. In response to widespread interest in a secular, inclusive space to learn Klezmer music in Minneapolis, in 2020 a group of Twin Cities cultural organizers founded the Longfellow Village Band; a learning circle open to individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical experience. Over the past few years, these roughly bi-monthly meetups became a space for musicians and the music-curious to meet, learn selections from Klezmer music repertoire, and break bread and share conversation.  As the icy roots of this community grew, Minnesotans of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical experience continued to ask for more opportunities to participate in this music, not just as listeners, but as active participants in enjoying and re-invigorating it. Enter Klezmer on Ice: a weekend-long festival bringing the top klezmer artists and teachers to the Twin Cities and inspiring the next generation of players and audiences to explore and revive klezmer as both a connection to those who came before and part of a living, constantly evolving expressive tradition.”

Name of program: KlezmerQuerque

Host/sponsor: Congregation Nahalat Shalom

Website: https://www.facebook.com/KlezmerQuerque/ or https://www.nahalatshalom.org/klezmerquerque-2025 

Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Founding year: 2003

Approximate timing: Annually over a long weekend in March

Description: “KlezmerQuerque is an internationally recognized festival featuring Jewish traditional dance, Yiddish folk songs and 'klezmer' instrumental music rooted in the traditional wedding ceremonies of the Eastern European Jewish people. Join us for three days of music, dancing, concerts and hands-on workshops with featured guest artists.” 

Name of program: KlezMitten-Michigan Klezmer Festival 

Host/sponsor: Self-organized, held at the International Institute of Metro Detroit 

Website: https://www.instagram.com/klezmitten 

Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: Held annually on a Sunday afternoon in September

Description: “KlezMitten is Detroit’s premiere klezmer music event, celebrating the vibrancy and diversity of Jewish music from Michigan and beyond. Following a sold-out debut year (250+ attendees!), we’re expanding in 2025 from four to seven amazing bands.”

Name of program: LA Yiddish Day (also known as LA Yiddish Fest)

Host/sponsor: LA Yiddish Day with partner organizations Kultur Mercado, Der Nister, Holocaust Museum LA, SoCal Arbeter Ring,  SoCal Arbeter Ring (Workers Circle) @circlesocal, California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language (CIYCL), the HUC-Jewish Language Project, Yiddishkayt (now a part of New Lehrhaus), and the Sholem Community 

Website: https://layiddish.org

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

Founding year: 2025

Approximate timing: One day in November, may happen again in a different format

Description: “This day-long celebration will bring together Yiddishists, cultural enthusiasts, educators, students, and the wider Jewish community for lectures, workshops, performances, and community-building centered on the Yiddish language and its enduring legacy.

Programming will feature sessions for both beginners and advanced speakers, cultural events highlighting Yiddish music and literature, and special presentations to connect audiences with the lived experience of the Holocaust through survivor testimony. LA Yiddish Day aims to reignite Yiddish cultural life in Los Angeles by catering to all levels of interest and creating a platform for intergenerational learning and exchange.”

Name of program: Midwest Yiddish Fest

Host/sponsor: Organized at the University of Urbana-Champaign with institution and community sponsors of Illini Hillel, the Yiddish Book Center, Sinai Temple, Champaign Public Library, Jewish Federation of Springfield, Illinois, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Program in Jewish Culture and Society, the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation, and more

Website: https://www.cujf.org/yiddishfest 

Location: Urbana, Illinois, USA

Founding year: 2025

Approximate timing: Long weekend in November

Description: “We are excited to announce the inaugural Midwest Yiddishfest, a three-day Yiddish arts and culture festival held November 14-16 across Champaign-Urbana. This regional celebration features live music, cooking and printmaking workshops, Yiddish 101, children’s story time, scholarly lectures, and more. The Midwest Yiddishfest is an intergenerational, all-ages festival, and is open to everyone, including those new to Yiddish language and culture.”

Name of program: New York Klezmer Series

Host/sponsor: New York Klezmer Series, with Center for Traditional Music and Dance as the fiscal sponsor and support from public funds

Website: https://nyklezmer.com/ 

Location: New York, New York, USA

Founding year: 2010 

Approximate timing: regular events at various locations in New York City

Description: “The NY Klezmer Series (NYKS) has presented music and dance in New York City weekly in a fall and spring season from Sept. 2010 until the pandemic in Mar. 2020. In 2023 we began offering a scaled down schedule of events, roughly once or twice a month. NYKS presented Concerts, Workshops, Jam Sessions, Tantshoyz – Yiddish Dance Party with live klezmer music. We have recently begun a Community Klezmer Band, and have presented Kids Klezmer NYC, a sort of ‘All-City’ youth klezmer band.  The series has been based in several places over the years – First at the invitation of Rabbi Greg Wall at the 6th St. Synagogue in the East Village, then at Stephen Wise on the UWS, at Jalopy in Brooklyn, at the Town & Village Synagogue on E.14th St, and now at the beautiful and historic Hudson Yards Synagogue on West 34th St. between 8th & 9th Ave. The series has featured leading international and local performers in an intimate setting while celebrating, and educating musicians and the public on, vital (and often neglected) traditional and contemporary expressions of Yiddish culture. The series is run by Aaron Alexander with a lot of help from the worldwide Klezmer Music and Yiddish Culture Community, especially Pete Rushefsky and CTMD, NYSCA, Mike Ritz, President of the Hudson Yards Synagogue, Jordan Hirsch, Greg Wall (co-founder), Suzanne Schwimmer, Michael Winograd, Sarah Myerson, Chelsea Simon, and all the artists who contribute playing, teaching, dancing.”

Name of program: Phoenix Yiddish Culture Festival

Host/sponsor: Beth El Phoenix with support from arts+culture City of Phoenix, Arizona State University Jewish Studies, Musical Instrument Museum, Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix, and Samz Sweetz

Website: https://www.bethelphoenix.com/yiddish-festival 

Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Founding year: 2024

Approximate timing: A Sunday in December

Description: “The second edition of the Phoenix Yiddish Culture Festival celebrates Ashkenazi art, music, dance, and food through a series of workshops, discussions, concerts, and more. The centerpiece concert at Beth El Phoenix features guest artists Jordan Wax and Miryam Coppersmith with the Phoenix-based Little Chef Klezmer Band. Festival programs engage Phoenix community members of all ages and backgrounds. The festival is committed to accessibility, with programming offered free of charge with an optional donation.”

Name of program: The Portland Jewish Music Festival (formerly the Bubbaville Portland Klezmer Festival) 

Host/sponsor: Eastside Jewish Commons with Co/Lab, Neveh Shalom, P'nai Or, Bubbaville as co-sponsors

Website: https://jewishportland.org/community-calendar/the-portland-jewish-music-festival-1744923231 (formerly https://bubbaville.org/klezmer/) 

Location: Portland, Oregon, USA

Founding year: 2023

Approximate timing: Two weekends annually in May

Description: “Eastside Jewish Commons, Portland's premiere Jewish Arts and Culture space is proud to present the Portland Jewish Music Festival, a dynamic multi-event celebration of Jewish music, bringing together world-class musicians, local talent, and diverse musical traditions from across the Jewish diaspora. The festival will take place two week-ends in May, May 8th-11th and May 15th-18th at Eastside Jewish Commons. This year’s festival will feature an extraordinary lineup of performances, film, workshops, and lectures highlighting the rich and varied traditions of Jewish music. From Ladino to Klezmer melodies, Sephardic and Mizrachi rhythms to contemporary Jewish Flamenco Fusion, the festival aims to showcase the breadth of Jewish musical expression and its evolving cultural landscape. Formerly the Bubbaville Portland Klezmer Festival, this new iteration of the festival, now with EJC at the helm, showcases the best of Klezmer and Yiddish music and also expands the festival to include a week-end focusing on the musical and cultural contributions of Jews of North Africa, the Iberian peninsula and Ottoman lands, and the contemporary fusion of Sephardic melodies with the art form of Flamenco.”

Name of program: Richmond Yiddish Week

Host/sponsor: self-organized, with partners including Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for the Study of Global Religions and Spiritualities, the University of Richmond, Révéler, and several local businesses

Website: https://www.richmondyiddishweek.com/ 

Location: Richmond, Virginia, US

Founding year: 2026

Approximate timing: Happening for the first time over one week in January 2026

Description: “Richmond Yiddish Week is a new festival inviting Richmonders of all backgrounds to explore Yiddishkayt (Yiddish culture) through cultural offerings around the city. Founded by young local Richmonders with a passion for preserving and celebrating this vibrant heritage, Richmond Yiddish Week is entirely grassroots and volunteer-run.”

Name of program: Seattle Yiddish Fest

Host/sponsor: Seattle Yiddish Fest. In the past, fiscal sponsor The Rhapsody Project and support from The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle 

Website: seattleyiddishfest.com 

Location: Seattle, Washington, USA

Founding year: 2019

Approximate timing: annually over a long weekend in March, may be April or October in the future

Description: “Celebrate Yiddish Music, Art & Culture! Bringing the world’s leading performers and instructors of Ashkenazi art and culture to Seattle! Seattle Yiddish Fest is a weekend of immersion in the music and culture of Yiddish speaking Jews and a celebration of the community that has blossomed in Seattle and around the world to honor and continue this culture.”

Name of program: Shtetl Philly Workshop Series

Host/Sponsor: Shtetl Philly, a collective of artists & scholars interested in Yiddish culture, art, music, dance, theater, and language

Website: https://www.instagram.com/philly_yid/ 

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Founding year: 2025

Approximate timing: Two days in March

Description: “Join us for Shtetl Philly's peer-led spring workshop series! Explore dance, theatre, music, art, and language with fellow Yiddishists.”

Name of program: Trip to Yiddishland: The Workers Circle Summer Retreat in Upstate New York

Host/sponsor: Workers Circle

Website: https://www.circle.org/yiddishland 

Location: Hopewell Junction, New York, USA

Founding year: 2005

Approximate timing: Annually over a week toward the end of August

Description: “The Workers Circle’s Trip to Yiddishland is our seven day, six night retreat. This trip features five levels of Yiddish classes, dance and klezmer, theater and music workshops, concerts, and children’s program. All are welcome, from brand-new Yiddishists to fluent speakers. Come explore our mameloshn at our Circle Lodge on Sylvan Lake in nearby Dutchess County. Enjoy and learn with Yiddish yoga and bingo, nightly evening concerts and cabaret, with pool, lake, boating, tennis, and more.”

Name of program: Yiddish Folklife Festival Finger Lakes

Host/sponsor: self-organized with sponsors Congregation Tikkun v’Or; Ithaca Area United Jewish Community; Temple Beth El and Ithaca Bakery and partners Jewish Studies at Cornell University and the Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University

Website: https://www.instagram.com/yff_fl/ 

Location: Ithaca, New York, USA

Founding year: 2025

Approximate timing: Over a long weekend in April and should happen again at some point in the next couple years

Description: “Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes is an interactive and intergenerational festival dedicated to Ashkenazi Jewish and Yiddish folk arts and culture. YFFFL brings local creators from the Finger Lakes region as well as visiting artists and scholars to learn, share, and celebrate Yiddish culture in Ithaca, NY.”

Name of program: Yiddish New York

Host/Sponsor: The Center for Traditional Music and Dance

Website: https://www.yiddishnewyork.com/ 

Location: New York, New York, USA (and hybrid)

Founding year: 2015

Approximate timing: Five-day festival held annually during Christmas-time

Description: “Mission: Yiddish New York (YNY) nurtures a diverse international and intergenerational community committed to the celebration and creation of art, scholarship and social activism informed by Yiddish culture. Drawing upon the cultural riches of New York City, YNY’s December workshop/festival program provides a gathering place for community members to join together and deepen their engagement with Yiddish culture.”

Name of program: Yidish-vokh

Host/sponsor: Yugntruf — Youth for Yiddish

Website: https://www.yugntruf.org/yvokh/ 

Location: Copake, New York, USA

Founding year: 1975

Approximate timing: Annually during the third week in August

Description: “[Yidish-vokh] is the only annual weeklong Yiddish-language immersion retreat. Up to 170 people come from all over the world each August in order to live in Yiddishland, the place where everyone speaks Yiddish. It has been described as a mixture of Woodstock and a kibbutz – without the drugs and loud music – because it is a community in the truest sense of the word. Anyone can volunteer to lend their talents, knowledge and ability in any way they can. Because some of the top Yiddish experts and talents come to the YV, the program is always top-notch. The YV invites the participation of the young and the young at heart. It does not discriminate in terms of religion, race, political affiliation, sexuality, or gender identity, only in terms of readiness and willingness to speak Yiddish for the entire week.” 

Name of program: Yidstock: The Festival of New Jewish Music

Host/sponsor: Yiddish Book Center

Website: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/events/upcoming-public-programs/save-date-yidstock-2026

Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA (and hybrid)

Founding year: 2011

Approximate timing: annually for a long weekend in mid-July

Description: From 2025: “Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music returns to the Yiddish Book Center July 10 through 13! Now in its thirteenth year, this four-day festival will include musicians and performers at the forefront of the Yiddish music scene. In addition to seven concerts, the lineup also includes four workshops, nine talks, and two special tours, all in celebration of Yiddish music, language, and culture.” 

South America

BRAZIL

Name of program: Kleztival 

Host/sponsor: Instituto da Música Judaica Brasil (Brazilian Jewish Music Institute)

Website: https://www.instagram.com/kleztival/?hl=en or https://www.imjbrasil.com.br/ or https://www.imjbrasil.com.br/kleztival.html 

Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Founding year: 2010

Approximate timing: Annually over a week in October 

Description: A Jewish music festival with klezmer concerts.