The JMI International Forum for Yiddish Culture (JMI IFYC) is a platform to celebrate Yiddish language, literature, music, song and dance and make it accessible to a new generation. Yiddish culture flourished in London's East End and in other parts of the UK and the world from the turn of, to the mid-20th century. This heritage was nearly obliterated in Europe in the Holocaust now in the 21st Century it is fast disappearing.
Yiddish Classes
and Activities in London
updatd 23 August 2005
1. The JMI International Forum for Yiddish Culture (IFYC) was inaugurated at the University of London and at House of Commons on 9/10 July 2003 with events chaired by its Vice Presidents Michael Grade CBE and Lord Janner. The third Vice President, Zalmen Mlotek, the executive director of the Folksbine Theatre in New York, performed and spoke at both these events.
The purpose of the Forum is to collect and disseminate information on Yiddish programmes run by a variety of organisations and to promote existing and new activities. This list, compiled by Dr Haike Beruriah Wiegand, is a result of the formation of the International Forum for Yiddish Culture.
The International Forum for Yiddish Culture has organized various Yiddish events, including a commemorative event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the famous Yiddish play Der kenig fun Lampeduse (The King of Lampedusa) at Toynbee Hall on 14 December 2003. The play itself has been published for the first time in Yiddish and English.
The IFYC has been collaborating with the Spiro Ark on a series of events 'Exploring Yiddish Drama and Literature' and helping to set up the Yidish-Hoyz at the Spiro Ark, with a Yiddish Library and a Book Club (see details below). The Yidish-hoyz has been the venue of many Yiddish-related activities, put on by the IFYC, including a Yiddish 'Third Seder' on 7 April 2004, an evening with the famous New York Klezmer group The Klezmatics on 2 May 2004, a one-day festival 'Celebrating Yiddish Literature' on 16 May 2004, organized by theatre historian David Mazower, which brought together Britain's most distinguished Yiddish literary specialists, and an evening of Yiddish Cabaret on 13 June 2004, featuring veteran Yiddish actress Anna Tselniker.
2. The Spiro Ark has been running Yiddish classes and cultural programmes for more than 15 years. Two years ago it opened the London Yidish-hoyz (at 164 Grays Inn Road , London WC1), which was inaugurated with a New Year’s Eve Party on 31 December 2003 . Since then many Yiddish-related events have taken place at this venue, partly organized jointly with the IFYC. The Yidish-hoyz also has sufficient space for the Spiro Ark’s Yiddish Library (c. 1000 books) to be displayed. This happy circumstance has allowed Nitza Spiro to achieve a dream of unpacking the books and making them accessible to the public who is encouraged to browse, borrow and read them. The Spiro Ark’s"Klinger-Kaizer Library" is now open every Wednesday from 3-7.30 pm . Please, contact the Spiro Ark for more details !
Regular Yiddish classes are taking place at SOAS (jointly run by the Spiro Ark and the JMI). There is a "Fast-track Beginners" class on Tuesday evenings, 7-9 pm , starting on 20 September 2005 , and Yiddish Intermediate continues on Monday evenings, 7-9 pm , from the 19 September 2005 . Both classes are taught by Dr. Haike Beruriah Wiegand. Yiddish Advanced classes continue at South Hampstead Synagogue (20/22 Eton Villas, Eton Road, London NW3) on Wednesday evenings, 8-10 pm , taught by Barry Davis.
Contact: Spiro Ark, 25/26 Enford Street, W1H 1DW
www.spiroark.org T 020
7723 9991 F 020 7723 8191
3. The Friends of Yiddish meet at Toynbee Hall (28 Commercial Street, near Aldgate East tube station) every shabes afternoon 3.00–5.30pm. Members prepare readings of Yiddish short stories, poetry or songs. Spoken language: Yiddish. All welcome.
Contact Chaim Neslen: chaimneslen[at]hotmail.com
T 020 8554 6112.
4. The London Yidish-svive meets every other Thursday (at 7.30 pm) evening from the 1 September 2005 (excluding Jewish Holidays) at members’ homes and is organised by Dr Haike Beruriah Wiegand. The svive meetings include Yiddish conversation, the reading of Yiddish literature (mainly plays) and Yiddish songs. All welcome. The venues will be announced by e-mail.
Contact: beruriahwiegand[a]aol.com T 020 8202 2056
5. The Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL is offering Yiddish language and literature classes. The Yiddish lecturer Dr. Helen (Khayele) Beer is on sabbatical this academic year. Instead classes will be taught by Lily Kahn : Elementary Yiddish on Mondays, 12 -2 pm and Thursdays, 12-2 pm ; Intermediate Yiddish on Thursdays, 3-5 pm. Classes can be taken as continuing education students and cost £ 400 per year (two terms of teaching only).
Contact: Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT jewish.studies[a]ucl.ac.uk T 020 7679 7171.
The library at UCL includes the Margulies Yiddish Library, which holds c. 8000 books.
6. The Jewish Music Institute at SOAS runs regular Klezmer classes, taught by Ilana Cravitz and guest tutors. The term starts on Tuesday, 20 September, 7-9 pm , and costs £ 100 for ten sessions (£ 90, if booked by 20 September).This year the JMI also runs a Jewish Song School again, directed by opera singer Ruti Halvani. The term starts on Thursday, 15 September, 7-9 pm , at West London Synagogue (33 Seymour Place, London W1). The Song School includes sessions on Yiddish Song and costs £ 150 for ten sessions (£ 125, if booked by 15 September).
Registration forms will be available on the website:
The JMI also organizes
the annual Yiddish summer school “Ot Azoy!”,
directed by Dr. Khayele Beer, and “KlezFest”. Dates for next
year : “Ot
Azoy !”: 5-10 August 2007 & “KlezFest” : 12-17
August 2007.
The JMI has its own music library, including a lot of Yiddish
material. The main library at SOAS also includes Avrom Nokhem Stencl’s
Yiddish library.
info [at] jmi.org.uk, T 020 7898 4307.
7. The Jewish Museum holds important collections relating to Yiddish theatre, including posters, substantial photographic archives, oral history and video recordings. The museum produced a major exhibition on Yiddish theatre in London (curated by David Mazower) and an associated catalogue (still in print). This exhibition is available on the Jewish Museum's website. They also have a smaller travelling display, 'Wandering Stars', featuring Anna Tzelniker, Bernard Mendelovitch and Harry Ariel, and have available a 36-minute video documentary of the same title. They plan to include a substantial section on Yiddish theatre in their expanded museum. They also hold collections of Yiddish song sheets and gramophone records, as well as Majer Bogdanski’s compositions. They have held occasional events relating to Yiddish music and culture and are keen to continue to do so.
Contact: Rickie Burman, director of the Jewish Museum, Raymond Burton House, 129–131 Albert Street, London NW1 7NB, rickie.burman[a]jmus.org.uk T 020 7 284 1997
8. The London Jewish Cultural Centre (LJCC) offers the following Yiddish classes : Yiddish I (Total Beginners) : Tuesdays, 8-10 pm ; Yiddish II (Advanced Beginners) : Sundays, 11 am -1 pm ; Intermediate Yiddish : Mondays, 8-10 pm ; Yiddish Conversation : Wednesdays, 2-3.30 pm ; plus a Yiddish Film Club : Sundays, 4-6 pm (13 November, 27 November & 11 December). All classes are taught by Barry Davis.
Classes in September will be held at the Old House on Kidderpore Avenue. After the Jewish Holidays classes will resume on 31 October at the LJCC’s new home : Ivy House, 94-96 North End Road, London NW11 7HU (near Golders Green tube station).
Contact : LJCC, c/o King’s College, The Old House,
Kidderpore Avenue, London NW3 7SZ Email: admin[at]ljcc.org.uk T 020
7431 0345
www.ljcc.org.uk
9. The Borough of Waltham Forest has offered various Yiddish courses and an “Introduction to Yiddish Studies”, taught by Dr. Haike Beruriah Wiegand. Further Yiddish sessions are planned for the academic year 2005/06, led by Chaim Neslen.
For more information contact: 020 8523 9355 (Central booking line)
10. The University of the Third Age holds Yiddish conversation classes.
Contact: 020 8906 8621
Further afield:
The Paris Yiddish Centre (Parizer yidish-tsenter and Medem-biblyotek) is offering a wide variety of Yiddish classes (regular classes on six levels), lectures, seminars, workshops (e.g. Yiddish song workshops, theatre workshops, translation workshops, Yiddish cooking) and special events. For anyone who is fluent in Yiddish, it would be very worthwhile to travel to Paris for the monthly Yiddish Sunday seminars. The Medem-biblyotek holds c. 30,000 works, out of which c. 21,000 are in Yiddish. In October 2002 it moved to its new premises in passage Saint-Pierre Amelot and now forms part of the 'Maison de la Culture Yiddish', which also includes seminar rooms, a reference room, a booksale and a Yiddish café.
Contact: Maison de la Culture Yiddish/Bibliothèque
Medem, 18, passage Saint-Pierre Amelot, 75011 Paris, métro: Oberkampf,
medem[at]yiddishweb.com T 00 33 1 47 00 14 00
www.yiddishweb.com
IFYC Aims
1. To encourage the study of Yiddish language and so create access to the literature and culture
2. To encourage the study and performance of Yiddish song and Klezmer music
3. To encourage the study and performance of Yiddish theatre
4. To encourage new creativity in the arts in Yiddish
5. To encourage and promote collaborative Yiddish language and culture events and activities
6. To provide information on all Yiddish institutions in the UK and Europe
7. To provide information on all Yiddish related events in the UK. Europe and world wide
8. To create collaborative projects with Yiddish Institutions in London, UK Europe and world wide
9. To assist in the collecting and appraising of any Yiddish source material (letters from Eastern Europe, diaries, literary writings) in any small institutions or in private hands
10. To document the contents and whereabouts of any special collections, archives in the UK
11. To encourage the exploration of Yiddish culture of London 's East End and other UK centres
12. To assess social change in Britain by looking at how much Yiddish was spoken in the last century and how much still remains, to understand the process of language transference
13. To provide access in the UK, to the best experts, practitioners and teachers world wide
14. To promote excellence in all ventures
15. To raise appropriate funds to support these aims.
IFYC Activities to achieve these aims
1. Collect data and create accessible information networks of Institutions
in the UK and abroad
2. Collect data and create accessible information networks of Yiddish
language and music activities in London (eg. the London 'Svive' group,
Friends of Yiddish, JMI Ot Azoy! and JMI KlezFest, Spiro Ark classes and
Yiddish projects etc) also Europe and America and elsewhere
3. Help to promote existing local groups, Svive, Friends of Yiddish, JEECS,
Springboard
4. invite top professionals in Yiddish culture to visit the uk for teaching
and performance
5. Collect data of lecture topics and lecturers and performance programmes
that will travel
6. Compile databases of UK people and Institutes interested in Yiddish
Culture
7. Compile and promote a programme of new and existing regular or one
off events: song and Klezmer workshops, language classes, lectures, seminars,
conferences, concerts, films etc
8. Compile and distribute regular emailed and or printed information and
Newsletters
9. Review books and recordings
10. Create performance opportunities for professional and amateur artists
11. Offer translation services
12. Make contact with communities who have Yiddish as a first language
13. Set up the Yiddish Road show. Travel to different centres and local
people bring their Yiddish memorabilia for assessment and discussion
14. Create Yiddish Cultural evenings, days or weekends, with workshops
and lectures in language, literature and song and offer these to other
Institutes eg Arts Centres, Schools, Colleges or Limmuds (Jewish Study
days) around the county. (Contents could include: Talks eg. What is Yiddish,
Aspects of Y. in the East End, Y. theatre. David Mazower; Yiddish humour,
Dave Schneider; Learn some basics in one session Helen Beer, Haike Beruriah
Weigand; About Y. folk song Ruti Halvani, Storytelling/Y. folklore Derek
Reid, About some London Yiddish writers, Heather Valencia; Song workshops,
Ruti Halvani and Judith Silver; music workshops, Merlin Shepherd, Sophie
Solomon; Films, Modern and vintage, about the subject; Performances 2
strands: bring international stars and encourage local performers.
IFYC People
Directorate
Vice Presidents:
Michael Grade CBE, Chairman of Camelot and former Head of Channel 4 TV
Lord Janner of Braunstone QC
Zalmen Mlotek, Executive Director Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre, New York
JMI IFYC International Advisory Board
Members chosen for the Advisory Board of the Forum are some of the most,
active, internationally acclaimed, researchers, teachers and performers
in the field:
Michael Alpert, musical researcher, teacher and performer (Yiddish song/violin)
New York
Pesakh Fiszman, teacher, Yiddish language and culture, Columbia, New York
Itzik Gottesman, Yiddish folklorist, writer and editor of the Yiddish
Forverts, New York
Yitskhok Niborski, Chairman of Medem Bibliotheque at the Centre for Yiddish
Culture, Paris.
Lecturer in Yiddish, 'Institut de Langues et Civilizations Orientales'
, University of Paris, 7.
Arnold Schwartzman, award-winning filmmaker and designer, Los Angeles
Joseph Sherman, ex South Africa now Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish
Studies
Lea Szlanger, actress and singer, Yiddish Radio and press, Israel Iosif
Vaisman Moderator of the Mendele list and Shtetl Website Michael Wex,
Yiddish language and culture teacher and performer, Toronto
Coordinators
Helen Beer, Lecturer in Yiddish UCL and JMI Director of Yiddish Studies
Chairman
David Schneider, Writer, actor, director and comedian
Michael Joseph, Bookseller and café proprietor
Betty Sagon Collick, musician and stage producer
Geraldine Auerbach, Director Jewish Music Institute
Haike Beruriah Wiegand (Yiddish scholar, poet and translator, Information
Officer IFYC)
Ruti Halvani (opera and Yiddish singer, Vocal Consultant JMI)
IFYC Collaborations
IFYC will be establishing collaborative activities with
Chicago Public Library Jewish music Archives USA
Dept of Hebrew and Jewish studies University College London
The Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre, New York
JEECS
The Jewish Museum
Jewish Renaissance British Jewish culture magazine
Judaica Music Rescue Project Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Medem Biblioteque, Maison de la Culture Yiddish, Paris
SOAS Language Centre University of London
SOAS Department of Music University of London
Southampton University
The Spiro Ark
YIVO New York
Pennsylvania Yiddish Song Archives Bob and Molly Freedman, University
of Pennsylvania
JMI International Forum for Yiddish Culture
SOAS University of London
last modified: 9 March 2004
 Michael Grade CBE launching the International Forum for Yiddish Culture July 2003 |
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