Society - "Yiddish Summer Weimar" celebrates Erfurt's World Heritage title
A highlight of the "Yiddish Summer Weimar" this year will be an entire day in Erfurt. On August 11th, the state capital will celebrate its World Heritage title, which it received from UNESCO last year for its Jewish-medieval towns. And for this day, the Jewish-infused cultural festival has planned the program. "It will be a big participatory program for the whole family, not dry or academic," said Festival Director Alan Bern to the German Press Agency. A Open-Air-Concert is planned on Herderplatz in Weimar for the first time to open the festival. "Approximately one million people speak this contemporary variant of Jewish, which has developed far from standard Jewish and is very lively," Bern told the German Press Agency.
New Language Course
For the first time, an Open-Air-Concert on Herderplatz in Weimar and a new offering of a language course specifically for Chassidic Jiddisch will open the festival. "The language courses and music courses - for example, traditional Jewish Klezmer music - are the core of the festivals," said Bern. Jiddisch is a colloquial language for some Jews, but is also learned and spoken by others. The roots of the language go back a long way, in which Hebrew and German have intermingled.
Festival Week with Free Offerings
This year, the Yiddish Summer begins on July 12th and ends on August 17th. In addition to Erfurt and the traditional location of Weimar, there are also events planned in Jena and Eisenach, as well as outside of Thuringia. 100 concerts and other events are on the program.
"Whoever wants to get a good overview and impression of what the Yiddish Summer is all about should come to us best during the festival week from July 7th to 11th. Then there are free taster courses and other participatory events, for which no prior knowledge is required," emphasized Bern.
Bern, himself a musician, emphasized how important participatory offers are for the festival. "The Jewish culture is traditionally focused on participation. To only follow it on stage would be wrong. And whoever has taken a course with us understands the evening concerts better."
Unearthing Common Roots
Thematicly, the festival takes up the topic "Ottoman Routes and Roots" again. Connections between Eastern European Jewish and Ottoman music cultures will be shown. "Our philosophy is not to build bridges, but to open up the partially hundreds or even thousands of years old roots that connect cultures," so Bern.
The YAM-Ensemble with young people from Greece, Turkey, and Germany, for example, shows the common traditions of Turkish, Greek, and Jewish music. The Caravan Orchestra brings young people from Israel - Jews, Muslims, and other non-Jews - together with young people from Germany.
Unease about Looking to the Future
Despite great excitement about the festival, Bern has concerns looking to September 1st. "We are very concerned about the upcoming state elections. The cultural understanding and philosophy of the AfD is quite the opposite of our ideas. A cooperation with an AfD government is hardly thinkable for us."
The Yiddish Summer, in addition to the Jewish-Israeli Cultural Days and the Achava Festival, counts among the three Jewish-infused festivals in Thuringia.
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- The state capital of Erfurt in Thuringia will celebrate its World Heritage title, granted by UNESCO last year, during the Yiddish Summer Weimar festival, with a focus on Jewish-medieval towns.
- The German Press Agency reported that an Open-Air-Concert is planned on Herderplatz in Weimar to open the festival, marking the first time for such an event.
- In Erfurt, an entire day of celebrations is planned as a highlight of the Yiddish Summer Weimar festival, featuring a participatory program for the whole family, as stated by Festival Director Alan Bern.
- The Yiddish Summer festival includes events in Erfurt, Weimar, Jena, and Eisenach, as well as outside of Thuringia, featuring over 100 concerts and events, according to Bern.
- The Yiddish Summer festival also offers language courses in Chassidic Jiddisch and traditional Jewish Klezmer music, which are considered the core of the festivals, as mentioned by Festival Director Alan Bern.
