Program Descriptions

Thursday
July 4th

  • Led by Noam Lerman

    Come enter into grieving space using Jewish spiritual technologies as we mark July 4th as a day of mourning colonialism and imperialism. Bring your personal and collective grief(s).

  • Led by Jess Goldman

    If the tombstones of your ancestors (chosen or otherwise) asked questions, what would they be? What flowers would bloom from their graves? And from those flowers, what healing could you brew?

    This will be an introductory workshop to zine-making! In this workshop we’ll use the single-page zine to commemorate our big and little griefs and also those we don’t yet know the shape of (grief as we witness genocide, grief for the death of a past self or belief, for the death of a dream, a fear, a tradition, a space/place/mindset we can no longer visit, for the death of a dear one, etc.) by reimagining the tombstone as a monument that can speak back (perhaps, af yidish) –– a monument that can name our hurt but also metabolize it into resistance.

  • Join the Nachamu Queer/Trans Chevra Kadisha for a presentation and discussion on the work we’ve been doing to build culturally-specific and gender-affirming networks for death care and grief support. Nachamu is a community chevra kadisha for and by queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming people in so-called Western Massachusetts. Together, we will share about what chevra kadishas are, the ritual we engage and innovate, what our particular process has been like, and why this work is important. Bring your questions and curiosities!

  • Thursday's evening program will be a conversation, performance, and teach-in with KlezCummington festival artists exploring how Yiddish songs have been used, both today and throughout history, to bring about social change and a more just world. As artists and musicians, why and how do we engage with Yiddish cultural work? What is the importance of this work in the streets, and in reshaping larger societal narratives?

  • The evening program will feature a Yiddish electronic concert and singalong led by Chaia. The concert will showcase the radical roots of Yiddish, using archival material, contagious beats, and, of course, our voices.

Friday
July 5th

  • Led by Christina Chrowder

    Paying Kiselgof 2024: Shpil a Nign from the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Corpus

    This workshop will introduce some of the wonderful niggunim from KMDMP corpus. Though many of the niggunim are clearly meant to be sung, they are also really fun to play instrumentally. We will explore both approaches during this session! About KMDMP: A chance encounter in Tokyo a few years ago led to the unlikely release of thousands of unique musical manuscripts in a Kyiv archive previously unavailable to contemporary klezmer musicians and scholars. The Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project is an international digital humanities project connecting musicians today with the musical life of working klezmer musicians from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

    Tunes will be taught by ear and by sheet music – Mostly because this archival resource is sheet music and it is part of the process to work through the clues and enigmas we find on the manuscript pages! Charts will be provided in several clefs and keys. All ages and instruments welcome.

  • Led by Asya Vaisman Schulman

    Few people outside of the Hasidic communities of Williamsburg and Boro Park are familiar with the Yiddish musical creativity that takes place among the women in these locales. Come learn beautiful Yiddish songs created and/or sung by Hasidic women and girls over the past 50 years, collected by Asya Vaisman Schulman during several years of fieldwork.

  • Led by Eva Sturm-Gross

    In this printmaking demonstration artist Eva Sturm-Gross will be printing a big wood block by hand (or in this case, by foot). Participants will get to see the process and even assist by stepping on the block, using their bodies as a printing press.

  • Led by Yael Horowitz

    In this workshop we will focus on the basics of Yiddish dance, we will go over some introductory gestural vocabulary and learn some steps together. We will do a little of both group and individual dancing. Absolutely no experience necessary!

  • Led by Elena Baum

    In this workshop we will take a short walk around the woodland edge of the festival for hands-on exploration of local trees and shrubs. We will use all of our senses to interact with the bounty of awe-inspiring trees in our midst. There will be time for group learning and solo reflection.

  • Zoë Aqua

    My musical practice is an exploration of my roots: my ancestors were Ashkenazi Jews from all over Eastern Europe.

    While living in Transylvania, an idea that persistently inspired me was the Yiddish concept of doikayt, translated as “here-ness.” I thought a lot about what doikayt meant historically for Jews in Transylvania, as well as what it means for Jews in America and for myself. 

    My medium is music, how melodies flow and evolve through time and culture. But at its root my work is about interconnectedness, which to me is the meaning of doikayt. The catchphrase of the Bund (a Jewish labor movement started in Eastern Europe over 120 years ago) stated, “Wherever we live is our home,” because home means not only land but also people. Home is about how we coexist with others. How Jews are a part of the interwoven cultural texture of Transylvania, both past and present; and also of America; and of all the places around the world we’ve put down roots. 

    When I step inside an old synagogue in Transylvania, I feel the long history, strong interconnectedness and deep rootedness of Jews in that region. I also feel the agonizing loss of the Jewish civilization which existed for many generations there, of which only fragments remain today. 

    Trying to pick up those pieces makes me want to cry out, “never again,” but also to ask: what do we mean when we say “never again?”

    Spending time in those synagogue spaces has led me to a core belief that animates my work: To me, “never again” is a call to reject nationalism; to reject ethno-states; to reject barricading ourselves inside safe fortresses which never actually make us safe, only more isolated. “Never again” means that we need to build coalitions, to build connections, and to build the societies that we want to live in. “Never again” means doing the work of moving past our reactionary trauma, and learning from the past so that dictators and strongmen can’t utilize hate to dehumanize us and drive us apart. “Never again” means envisioning a better world – of Jews and non-Jews living side-by-side, in peace. Of a world where hate has no place. This is what drives me.

    The idea of a synagogue tour was inspired by a concert my friend Jeremiah Lockwood performed in the fall of 2022. Jeremiah followed his dream to perform a free concert in the town where his grandmother grew up, Valea Lui Mihai, Romania, and brought me on as organizer, driver, translator and guest musician. The excitement from the audience was palpable. No one could remember the last time a concert had been held in the synagogue, since there are only a few members of the Jewish community left in Valea Lui Mihai. We performed to a completely full house, with people bringing in benches from the nearby park to accommodate everyone. 

    Learn more about the project here!

  • Beila Ungar is a Yiddish singer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. They have performed at Kleztronica, New York Klezmer Series and with their new band Bris Baby.

  • Welcome in the evening with Yiddish songs to soothe the soul. The Levyosn (Ashkenazi Hebrew for “Leviathan”) is a mythical sea creature traveling the world’s oceans collecting songs, krill, and dreams. Like our namesake, we, the Boston-based ensemble Levyosn, love to spend our time in joyful play. Our debut album, Levyosn’s Lullaby (Borscht Beat, 2023), showcases our unique harmony-rich approach to both Yiddish folksong and our original compositions. Performers include Adah Hetko (voice, guitar), Lysander Jaffe (voice, violin), Kaia Berman Peters (accordion, voice) and Raffi Boden (cello, voice).

Saturday
July 6th

  • Come hang in the KlezCummington Zine Zone! Bring a zine & make a zine! Partake in the ultimate shabbosdik activity of browsing and reading zines! You will also have an opportunity to make your very own zine if it's in your practice! There will be a template to make a zine inspired around the question of "What does Olam Ha-ba [the World To Come] Smell/ Sound/ Look/ Feel/ Taste like?" as we experience our own taste of Olam Ha'ba throughout Shabbos. 

    Collaborative Zine Library: Please feel bring zines on all topics near and dear to your hearts to contribute to the Zine Zone ( make sure to write your names on them so that you can retrieve them afterwards).

  • Led by Ozzy Irving Gold-Shapiro

    What makes a food Jewish? What makes a pickle snap? Where do bagels really come from? Can you still get a bialy in Białystok? (Sadly, no.)

    Join Ozzy for a hands-on exploration of Ashkenazi Jewish food history! We’ll be exploring the ways in which diaspora, halakha, borders, neighbors, and immigration shape what appears on the table. Come ready to shape bagels, chop, salt, pickle, and brine! The food we make will be served as part of the bagel deli lunch!

  • Led by Lisa Gutkin

    All ages, levels, and instruments welcome! This jam will be an accessible jam geared towards klezmer beginners, but anyone is welcome. Tunes will be played slowly, and sheet music/charts will be provided. Bring a tune to play and share, or come to learn!

  • Led by Sonia Bloom

    Zayt bagrist”—stop by the Yiddish welcome table to chat with Sonia Bloom and make a Yiddish name tag (materials and Alef-beys instruction provided!)

  • Ira sings in Yiddish and English a collection of anthems and ballads, new songs and old nigunim. Lovingly translated, politically saturated, gender variegated. With Zoë Aqua and Kirsten Lamb.

    Ira Khonen Temple is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and embedded cultural organizer. Recent credits include accordionist for Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, and music director of Indecent at the Weston Playhouse, Great Small Works’ Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls, the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committe Purimshpil, and Zoe Beloff’s Days of the Commune. Ira is a founder of the radical-traditional Yiddish music group Tsibele.

  • Led by Susan Hoffman Watts

    Join Susan Hoffman Watts to learn about her unique klezmer family history and learn some tunes from her family’s collection. Attendees will be invited to play the tunes learned during this workshop in the finale of Susan’s evening concert! Open to all instruments and levels. Workshop will be taught by ear, with sheet music provided.

  • Led by Noam Lerman

    Come honor the Jewish day of rest by singing yiddish songs all about shabbes! We will sing a few different genres of Yiddish songs– from secular to religious, and you will walk away with some new ways to celebrate shabbes.

  • Led by Madison Safer & Yankl Krakovsky

    Participants will have the opportunity to build and decorate their own paper puppets, learn foundations of puppet performance, and participate in collective storytelling.

    Suitable for storytellers of all ages.

  • Curated by Yael Horowitz

    noentkeyt: A Manifesto Performance Installation explores the various intimacies of a shared Yiddishland. Through art and performance installations noenkeyt asks what happens when our relationships to each other and to our creative work is at the center? The performance installation will bring together writers, visual artists, theatre makers, musicians to create a shared experience of intimacy with Yiddish and with our svive. Parts of noentkeyt will be self-guided and parts will be collectively experienced.

  • Led by Richie Barshay & Tracy Einstein

  • Susan Hoffman Watts represents the youngest generation of an important klezmer dynasty that reaches back to the Jewish Ukraine of the 19th century, beginning with her great-grandfather, musician, composer, cornet-player, and poet, Joseph Hoffman. Susan is the sole living purveyor of the family’s traditional klezmer-style trumpet sounds which electrified audiences for decades. Susan and the Hoffman family are the features of several televised documentaries.

    In addition to playing with a variety of noted klezmer musicians from around the world. Watts has recorded, performed and sang with, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, Henkus Netsky, Klezmer Concervatory Band, The Klezmatics, So-Called, Claire Barry, Mandy Pitankin, Dudu Fischer, Mikveh, Shtreimel, The Klez Dispensers,. Susan also has performed with her mother, the great klezmer drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts, in their Philadelphia-based group, the Fabulous Shpielkehs.

    Watts is a composer and arranger. Her repertoire is filled with Hoffman family repertoire: generations of klezmer compositions from her great grandfather, grandfather and now Susan’s additions to the family cannon. She has been commissioned to compose klezmer for Amsterdam’s Fiddle Kapelye and the American Composer’s Forum. As one of the leading klezmer trumpet players of the modern klezmer scene, Susan has taught at klezmer festivals in New York, France, Canada and London.

    Susan is a 2015 Pew Fellow and the recipient of two Leeway Foundation Grants. Both projects are centered on using klezmer as a social change agent. Susan's concept is the focus of a Pew Fellowship Project Grant granted to the Philadelphia Folklore Project. The Project is entitled, Soul Songs: Inspiring Women of Klezmer. This projects brings together 12 of the top Klezmer instrumentalists in North America (whom all happen to be women) to perform new Klezmer compositions all penned by women. This event, directed by Watts is the blueprint by which modern klezmer can take its cue.

    Susan Watts’ contribution to the present day landscape of klezmer is notable. Being a fourth generation klezmer is something that no other contemporary klezmer can acclaim. Her passion for Yiddish culture, klezmer music and its history has informed her life’s journey to this moment. Carrying the mantle of klezmer, keeping it in the forefront of the Jewish cultural experience and keeping it full of life is the essence of Susan Watts.

    Susan will be joined at KlezCummington The Fabulous Shpilkes: Susan's nephew Bradley Siegel (percussion), Ilene Stahl (clarinet), Christina Crowder (accordion), Kirsten Lamb (bass), Aani Kisslinger (trombone), and Richie Barshay (percussion).

  • Burikes (boo-rri-kess, meaning “beets” in Yiddish), is based on Nipmuc, Nonotuck, and Pocumtuc land and plays klezmer, Balkan, and Eastern European folk musics. Rooted in a love for Yiddish language and diasporic cultures, Burikes brings communities together to dance and sing with driving rhythms, lush harmonies, and lyrics to welcome in a besere velt (the world to come!). Along with playing for weddings, events, and community celebrations around the valley, Burikes can be found organizing and playing for local klezmer jams, mutual aid fundraisers, and parading through the streets with the People’s Puppet Parade, a community-based, devised spectacle theater production exploring radical histories and communal expressions of grief and joy. The band includes Clarissa Lyons on clarinet, Rachel Leader on fiddle, Matthew Thornton on cello, Ariel Shapiro on accordion, and Ozzy Gold-Shapiro on ukulele and vocals.

  • We'll wrap up the festival as a community around the fire, marking the end of Shabbos and our time together with song and storytelling. The Magid Ensemble will share their debut work "Shterna & The Lost Voice"—an immersive storytelling performance that combines the telling of an original Yiddish folktale with a beautifully crafted papercut crankie (story scroll) and a live original klezmer score. For all ages!

    The Magid Ensemble (magid, meaning “storyteller” in Yiddish) is a new collaboration featuring award-winning klezmer musicians and composers Mattias Kaufmann, Raffi Boden, and Rachel Leader, Yiddishist storyteller A. C. Weaver, and visual artist Kiah Raymond. The Magid Ensemble explores the interplay of sound, story, light, and shadow to create expressive and immersive storytelling landscapes.