|
|
|
|
|
Yiddishkayt in November
Sholem Aleykhem!
As the days get shorter, we at Yiddishkayt start pining for the summer. Two of our newest programs are gearing up to start in the summer of 2012: the Helix Project, connecting students directly with the Jewish past, and Yiddishkayt Expeditions, a brand-new adventure touring the historical centers of Jewish literature, theater, and music in Eastern Europe. You can find out more by visiting our website, yiddishkayt.org, which in typical L.A. style, just underwent a mini-facelift.
But until then, there are plenty of ways to connect to Yiddish music without having to cross an ocean. Look for our calendar of upcoming programs in your (old-fashioned) mailbox in the next couple of weeks. If you aren't getting snail mail from us, drop us a line with your address. And, as always, if it's Yiddish music you're after, you can go directly to the Klezmer Calendar by visiting: yiddi.sh/laklezmer.
zayt gezunt!
Yiddishkayt
|
|
|
NOVEMBER 2011
|
YidBits Vol. 6 No. 11 a bisl yiddishkayt
|
|
|
the helix project
| |
The Helix is Yiddishkayt's newest initiative and maybe our most exciting yet.
 Each year, we'll be selecting college and university students for a summer of exploring Jewish history, culture, and heritage: a kind of Rhodes Scholarship to Yiddishand. The program starts with seminars in Los Angeles, followed by the core part of the program -- an all-expense-paid adventure in the historical heartlands of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe. After the trip, Helixers return to Los Angeles for a full debriefing about their travels and workshops exploring the past, present, and future of Jewish culture and identity.
This coming summer, we'll be launching a pilot, taking a small group
of students in June. If you are currently enrolled in a degree-granting program at a California college or university and are interested in a life-changing experience immersed in the history of Jewish life, contact Yiddishkayt (or, if you know someone who you think would be perfect, forward this on to them).
|
An Evening with Joanne Borts
11.18.11
For this Friday's Shabbes Farbrengen, Valley Beth Shalom in Encino is presenting Harts un Neshome [Heart and Soul], featuring Joanne Borts and led by Cantor Herschel Fox. Joanne Borts has performed with Neil Sedaka, Theodore Bikel, The Klezmatics, Khevrisa, the Klez Dispensers, the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Joe's Pub and Carnegie Hall. Her numerous Broadway, off Broadway and National Tour credits include Fiddler on the Roof with Topol, Cinderella with Eartha Kitt, Funny Girl, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, and The Golden Land. Joanne recently co-starred with Bruce Adler in A Yiddish Vaudeville at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and with Mike Burstyn in the critically acclaimed On Second Avenue at the American Jewish University here in L.A.
The performance starts at 8:00 p.m. at Valley Beth Shalom's Sher-Lopty Chapel: 15739 Ventura Boulevard, Encino.
|
|
Der Vortsman
shtiklekh un breklekh [bits & pieces]
 | |
True Woman/Kapote
|
A dear friend's family is deeply involved in such backwoods outdoorsy activities as week-long pioneer-era re-enactments called "rendezvous." The long coats they wear are called capotes, pronounced "cap-oats." Hearing of this, Der Vortsman smirked that, somehow, these 100% Yankees had adapted the Yiddish word, kapote [ka-PO-te], the name of the long black coats worn by khsidim (Hassids, as the media call them) and other Orthodox Jews.
 | |
Truman Capote
|
Turns out that ye olde Vortsman was talking through his kapelyush (hat).
A quick search revealed that the Latin word "cappa" means "cloak" and came into English as "cape," via the French version, "cap." Further, the French word "capote" means a long coat, so it was obviously taken into Yiddish with no other change than a shift in the accented syllable. Gey veys - who knew?
A nearby neighbor emailed:  "My father used to use a Yiddish word to describe psychic energy/inner resolve...It sounded like keckas." Replied Der Vortsman: "Could it possibly have been kishkes? That's the all-purpose Yiddish word for guts, innards, AND it can also refer to inner strength. (Stuffed cow's kishke is, of course, either a delicacy or an acquired taste, depending on one's upbringing.)" Genteel usage refers to the dish as "stuffed derma."
A very prestigious - and deservedly so - organization dedicated to the survival and promotion of Yiddish sent out an email message in English listing the website addresses of useful sources. It added, in correctly transliterated Yiddish: "Tsu onkukn di inhaltn, git a kvetsh af..." Torn between laughter and tears, Der Vortsman advised the sender that the first part of the phrase was an unfortunate, literal, word-for-word translation of "To view the contents..." and suggested these alternatives that are Yiddish in both syntax and feeling: "kedey tsu zen dem inhalt..." or "tut a kuk af dem inhalt..." The worst error had been to render "contents" into a non-existent Yiddish plural; inhalt covers both singular and plural. Kedey tsu zen di gantse rubrik funem vortsman... |
Klezmer Jam
11.20.11
You can always keep up with klezmorim around town by visiting our calendar of Yiddish and Klezmer music events at yiddi.sh/laklezmer.
This month a Klezmer jam will be led by Keith Wolzinger of the South Coast Simcha Band and the Klezmer Podcast in Seal Beach, playing both from sheet music and learning some by ear. This is a potluck -- bring something good to eat (and your music stand). This jam can accommodate 25-30 people and all levels are welcome.
For more information and to RSVP, write: laklezjam at gmail.com.
|
The Ukrainian Time Machine
Los Angeles Premiere
12.12.11 
In 2006, experimental filmmaker Naomi Uman returned to the land her great-grandparents had left a hundred years earlier. Living among the babushky of a tiny Ukrainian village, she discovered a lifestyle that didn't seem to have changed much in a century, and set out to make a series of "precise miniatures of a rural life that's fading" (Robert Flaherty Film Seminar) shot in 16mm, while keeping a video diary.
In Kalendar (2008, 16mm, silent, 11 min.), a series of exquisite snapshots examine the meanings of the months in the Ukrainian calendar. Videodiary 2-1-2006 to Present (2011, video, 83 min.) reframes the previous elements into a larger narrative struggling with issues of identity, gender, and her intimate connection with the history of Judaism and global immigration.
Discussion with Naomi Uman will follow.
At REDCAT: Calarts' Downtown Center For Innovative Visual, Performing, And Media Arts
631 West 2nd Street, Downtown Los Angeles
|
 YidBits and YidPicks are made possible in part by a grant
from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs 
3780 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1000 | Los Angeles, CA 90010
|
|
|
|
|
|
