New York will celebrate its Yiddish heritage and soul with some of the most brilliant musical stars – and under the stars.
New Yorkers will come together on Wednesday, June 14 in Central Park when National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) and Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage present New York Sings Yiddish! – a concert filled with Klezmer artistry and Yiddish theater gems.
The one-night-only evening event will now feature a signature moment: world-renowned talk show host, author, and professor Dr. Ruth Westheimer will appear on stage, and the audience will sing “Happy Birthday!” – in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English – to the nonagenarian as she marks her 95th birthday.
“You don’t have to know Yiddish or be Jewish to appreciate the language,” says Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, who serves as the evening’s Master of Ceremonies. “This is an opportunity for New Yorkers to come together, which is vitally important at this time. The music is the medium that brings people together.”
The celebration is presented in partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and supported by the Workers Circle and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and features an all-star line-up: THE KLEZMATICS, Joanne Borts, Joshua (SoCalled) Dolgin, Cantor Magda Fishman, Sara Mina Gordon, Elmore James, Daniel Kahn, Lea Kalisch, Frank London, Daniella Rabbani, Eleanor Reissa, Avi Fox-Rosen, and Lorin Sklamberg.
Also appearing at the celebration is stage and screen star Dudu Fisher, widely known for his portrayal of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables on Broadway.
At the June 14 concert, Yiddish lyrics will be projected on a giant screen, and available on attendees’ phones via QR codes, as singers lead the audience in an unprecedented community chorus, joyously celebrating our precious cultural legacy.
“This will be a unifying experience,” says Rabbi Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. He notes how Yiddish is ingrained in New York City’s history and culture. “We all speak some Yiddish. I hear people talk about a schmear or schlepping or tchotchkes – the Yiddish vocabulary is pervasive. This is an occasion where we may come as many but leave as one.”
Led by Musical Director Zalmen Mlotek and featuring Musical Arrangements by Mlotek and Frank London, the celebratory event is produced by Moishe Rosenfeld, Golden Land Concerts & Connections.
The event will encourage the audience to participate in an unprecedented sing-along, celebrating the launch of Yiddish Songs.org, home of The Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection at the Workers Circle. This collection is comprised of songs compiled in five anthologies by beloved Yiddish culture anthologists and community leaders Yosl Mlotek and Chana Mlotek and contains songs that highlight important themes, cultural activities, daily life, celebrated musicians, undiscovered musicians, and much more.
“Hearing Yiddish songs brings our past to life and serves to inspire our lives today. Through our Yiddish songs, we hear the voices from our heritage speak of family relationships, love, resistance and revolution, and even war, and the voices of parents and grandparents singing lullabies,” said Ann Toback, CEO of the Workers Circle. “Yiddish songs are part of family celebrations, struggle, and success, and as the late Theodore Bikel once said, ‘the Yiddish song emerges, not as a flower which wilts in the winds of autumn, but as a perennial, which blooms no matter where, no matter when’.”
Seating and standing at the event are first-come, first-served until capacity is reached. For information about the event, visit nytf.org/summerstage.
Doors open at 6pm, and audience members should enter at East 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue.
