PROGRAMEN (PROGRAMS)

Festivals
In October 2004, Yiddishkayt Los Angeles produced its fifth citywide festival of Yiddish culture since 1995. These community-based festivals attract thousands and are the largest festivals of their kind in the United States. They have become the hallmark of Yiddishkayt Los Angeles as well as the national model for celebrating Yiddish culture within the framework of contemporary multi-culturalism.

Avada Project [Visit Avada]
Avada, a program of Yiddishkayt Los Angeles, offers an alternative vision of what it means to be Jewish in Los Angeles. Avada ('avade' means 'of course' in Yiddish) infuses Yiddish culture and expression into L.A. life by exploring the music, art, and history that developed for a thousand years around the Yiddish language in Central and Eastern Europe. Avada engages Angelenos in their 20s and 30s with the history, complexity and depth of Yiddish culture through unique, experimental programming.

Education Program
Download a recent Los Angeles Times article here.
Yiddishkayt’s education initiative aims to reintroduce Yiddish as a course of study in the existing system of Jewish day schools. The pilot program, launching in the fall of 2005 with major support from the Righteous Persons Foundation, will include 3 local schools. As the program broadens and the curriculum further develops, Yiddishkayt’s goal is to introduce Yiddish as part of the core curriculum in K-6 schools, and as an elective in high schools. The reintroduction of Yiddish language and culture to the Jewish school curriculum is a pivotal tool in ensuring further transmission of this priceless heritage to future generations.

Svives
By developing and sponsoring neighborhood-based Yiddish reading and conversation groups (svives) for all levels throughout the city, Yiddishkayt Los Angeles promotes an environment in which individuals are encouraged to speak Yiddish, and further extends our overall strategy of engaging people in Yiddish, step by step. Small svives groups provide an opportunity for even deeper involvement in the language than our core arts and culture programming.