Experience the world premiere concert of The ¡Viva Yiddish! Project, a debut band celebrating the rich interplay of contemporary Yiddish and Latin American music. Don't miss this tradition-fusing, dynamic and ecstatic concert after sundown.  Pack your dancing shoes, brush up on your Spanish and Yiddish, and groove the night away.

350 S Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles (map)
Parking: $7.50. Picnicking allowed.
Directions are on our website.

 

The ¡Viva Yiddish! Project is the new sound of Yiddish-Latino music, a celebration of our ciudad, our shtetl. Los Angeles is a cultural capital of Latin America. But is L.A. also a capital of Yiddish culture? Certainly there was a time when you could read the paper, discuss politics, and buy a knish - all in Yiddish. In neighborhoods like Boyle Heights, Jewish and Latino worlds met and cultures converged: imagine standing between Jewish and Latino nightclubs, hearing the souls of Yiddish and Latino music mix together.

The ¡Viva Yiddish! Project will present ear-blowing fusions of klezmer, pachuco, 1950s mambo, banda and more, played by a world-class collective of up to two dozen musicians. The all-star creative team includes Frank London (Klezmatics, Hasidic New Wave, Klezmer Brass Allstars), Josh Kun (LA-based writer, critic, professor at USC), Michael Alpert (Brave Old World, Yiddish music scholar), Rock en Español pioneer Ceci Bastida, and famous surprise musicians. Special guest appearance by Mike Burstyn.

And don't miss the chance to enter The ¡Viva Yiddish! Project Raffle to win big, details below.

Visit our website for more information about the concert, the raffle, parking and directions.

Hosted by Grand Performances at California Plaza.

This concert is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support generously provided by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Forward Association.

 

 

Grand Prize:	Una Noche en La Ciudad One weekend night in a Deluxe Room at the Omni Los Angeles at California Plaza with a gift certificate for two ($75) to Ciudad Restaurant +Autographed cookbook: City Cuisine by Mary Sue Miliken and Susan Feniger
First Prize:	Cooking Workshop of your choice at the Epicurean School of Culinary Arts
Second Prize:	$25 Gift Certificate to Chichen Itza Restaurant (The Flavor of the Yucatan)
Third Prize:	Exclusive CD Set of Latin-Jewish Music
GO TWO FOR TWO! Purchase two raffle tickets and get 1 FREE MOJITO from Ciudad plus 1 FREE MARGARITA from the Border Grill! (Limited supply, one per purchaser. Drink is free with purchase of one appetizer or entrée at each restaurant.)
Sponsors of The ¡Viva Yiddish! Project Raffle include:     Hatikvah Music

9/9 JDub Presents: Balkan Beat Box & DeLeon



9/14 ANGELS & DYBBUKS
Klezmer Workshops and Evening Concert

9/14 Musical Brunch: The Klezmer-Ladino Convergence

Back in the 1970s (or was it the 60s?) a mercifully short-lived parlor game involved categorizing elements of popular culture as "high brow," "middle brow" or "low brow." In Yiddish, as in all languages, there are both folk-speech ("low brow") and academic ("high brow") words for the same concept or item. In English, for one extreme example, there's the difference between the Latinate "intercourse" and the equivalent Anglo-Saxon four-letter term.



Look up "trumpet" in Uriel Weinreich's Modern English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary (1968), and you'll find the single word, trumeyt. But, check Alexander Harkavy's 1898 dictionary, and you'll find "trumpet; trube."

At the turn of the 19th century, trumpet, (Yiddishized by stressing the last syllable) being a direct takeover from English, would have been considered "high brow," while trube, being folk-speech, would be "low brow." Weinreich, being academic to a fault, would have none of either: trumeyt is his sole acceptable word. (Even in his Yiddish-English section, you'll find only the verb truben, to honk.)

However, the Vortsman is an all-inclusive type. All three words are acceptable. As far as "brows" are concerned, we might now, in 2008, classify the words in this order from "high" to "low:" trumeyt, trube, trumpet.



A similar development occurs around Yiddish terms for "lottery." Back in 1898, Harkavy said loteray (accent on the last syllable).  In 1968, Weinreich insists on loterye (second syllable stressed). However, the Yiddish-speaking folk had a richer, more evocative term: dos groyse gevins - the big win, the grand prize.

Want proof? One of Sholom Aleichem's beloved stories, adapted several times to the stage, concerns a lottery won - and lost to swindlers - by an ordinary tailor named Shimele Soroker. The story's name? Dos Groyse Gevins (200,000).

I'll rank loterye as "high," dos gruse gevins as "middle," and loteray as "low."

Now, let the corrections and disputes roll in!    

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Have a question for the vortsman? Send him an email and ask the meaning of a favorite, or confusing, word or phrase.