The Other Europeans Band is an international gathering of 14 leading klezmer (Yiddish) and lautari (Roma) musicians. Created and directed by Alan Bern, this new intercultural supergroup is creating powerful, deeply emotional and virtuosic music that restores a centuries-old cooperation between two groups who cohabited the same space in present-day Moldova before being torn apart by war, holocaust and immigration.

Bringing together some of the most distinguished soloists from seven countries, the Other Europeans Band is building new cultural relationships between two peoples who are often considered marginally European, but have played a major role in creating and transmitting European musical traditions. Reservations suggested. 

Listen to "Edinets Suite" by The Other Europeans

Listen to "Short & Hot" by The Other Europeans

The Other Europeans 2010 North American tour is made possible through the collaboration of the Ashkenaz Festival (Toronto) and KlezKanada (Montreal), and by the generous support of Herschel Segal and David Sela.

Scholar Elisa New discusses her new novel, which traces the journeys of two family patriarchs from Eastern Europe and unravels the mysterious etchings on her great-grandfather’s elegant cane.

By Said Sayrafiezadeh
Discussion led by Pulitzer-prize winning author and professor at the University of Massachusetts, Madeleine Blais

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s critically acclaimed memoir When Skateboards Will Be Free was selected as one of the ten best books of 2009 by The New York Times. Madeleine Blais is a Pulitzer Prize-winner and professor at the University of Massachusetts.

Mayer Kirshenblatt
Purim Play

Mayer Kirshenblatt made it his mission to remember the world of his childhood in living color. In 1934, at the age of 17, Kirshenblatt left his home in Apt, Poland, for Canada, where he eventually opened a wallpaper, paint and flooring store. At the age of 73 he taught himself to paint and created a visual record of everything he could remember about his hometown. His paintings capture details of daily life in prewar Poland along with the personalities of those who lived and worked there. This traveling exhibition was organized by the Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow, and was curated by scholar and folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett.

The tale of the American Jewish experience in America -- the search for a balance between acculturation and identity -- has long been told in kitchen pots and grocery shelves, and it still continues today. This exhibit explores the ongoing conversation about the Jewish past, present, and future from the immigrant community of the early 20th century in America to today.

Alter Kacyzne
Lublin, Poland 1924. 'Giving a hint.'
Photo by courtesy of the YIVO Archives

in the Salon The kheyder curriculum remained essentially the same from the sixteenth century until the Second World War. In these small rooms ("kheyder" means "room") every Jewish boy - and sometimes girls - learned how to read the Hebrew Bible. Modern Yiddish writers and readers acquired their literary language, rich in moral teaching and symbolism, in kheyder. Yiddish writers sometimes recalled kheyder as a warm, stimulating environment, while others remembered the beatings, teasing, and pedagogic incompetence. This exhibit explores the spaces, people, and practices of kheyder through text, literature, and images. While visiting be sure to check out the plethora of primers in our Yiddish book collection used in Jewish schools to teach Yiddish. The primers range from turn-of-the-century America to the 1980s. Click here for more information and to view a slideshow of images.