YIDDISH CULTURE FESTIVAL

The main aim of the Yiddish Culture Festival is to present the literary, musical, film and artistic achievements of the Yiddish-speaking Jewish Diaspora residing on the territory of Poland until the Second World War.
By underlining the significance of the Yiddish language, which has been dying since the end of the 19th century not only in communication but also as a “distinctive feature” of the entire Jewish artistic and cultural formation, we intend to make the audience interested in the specificity of the culture of Jews and the very language.
The Festival will be composed of several independent parts.
In the first part, during the Festival of the Yiddish Art of Filmmaking, we will present Yiddish films – feature films and documentaries with sound and silent, found in various film archives around the world. We improve their quality, if necessary, and prepare subtitles or complete and correct already existing subtitles.

The imported films become an unalienable part of the Polish national heritage.

The films are gathered in the Archives of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Jews Culture Heritage in Lodz, 18 Pomorska Street. The Foundation prepares them for educational purposes and organises screenings at the invitation of cultural institutions, local authorities, churches, religious organisations, higher education schools, non-governmental organisations or people interested in the Jewish culture.
By presenting Yiddish films, we are able to demonstrate the variety of Jewish traditions, customs and culture. The presentations are accompanied by lectures and public talks dealing with both the artistic and most of all cultural importance of the Yiddish cinema, with widely understood stage adaptation referring to the Jewish rites, mysticism, tradition, history and culture. We explain the significance of rituals, traditional situations and behaviour patterns present in the films.
During screenings, we show unique - and so far not known in our country - films produced mostly in Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, former countries of the USSR and the USA.
During the first edition of the Festival, we presented several Yiddish films produced in Poland. Usually, they are not known to wider audiences, and at the same time possess unquestionable historic, artistic and cultural values.
The Festival is distinguished among other film festivals dealing with the Jewish matters by the fact that we attempt to explain the rites, traditions and customs being a component of the film’s dramaturgy, which allows the audience to understand the films fully.

Despite a huge interest of the audience in the specificity of the Jewish culture, the people have not had a chance to become familiar with the rich offer of the Yiddish cinema so far. Our Festival provides such a possibility.
We do not restrict ourselves to presenting the popular version of Jewish culture; we try to dig deeper – to reach its authentic source.
The films, presented sporadically so far, are addressed to a narrow circle of audience. So far, they have only been films available in Poland and have not included the rich archival resources of various institutions we cooperate with.
We are planning to launch a DVD collection of Yiddish films produced in Poland (“Der Dibbuk” 1937; “Der Purimszpiler” 1937, „Frejliche Kabconim” 1937, „Jidl mit den fidl” 1936, „Mamele” 1938, “Un a hejm” 1939,„Briwełe der Mamen” 1939, “Pięć Miast” (Five Cities) 1938) together with a thorough artistic and cultural analysis.
This event will be a vital step in constant work aimed at improving the quality of Polish-Jewish relations.
The second part of the Festival – the Festival of the Art of Word – will be dedicated to the Yiddish literature. During festival meetings, we will present literary texts – the worldwide canon of Yiddish literature – and cabaret compositions in Yiddish and Polish performed mostly by Jewish actors. We will also discuss the problem of film adaptation of Yiddish literature.
 
The third part of the festival – the Festival of Fine Arts “Jung Idysz – Inspirations” is an exhibition referring to the artistic works of Lodz, Warsaw and Vilnius avant-garde groups of Jewish artists and works inspired by their activity.
During the exhibition, we will present unique works, found in museums and private collections, of artists associated with the Jung Idysz group – not very popular in Poland yet of great importance for the development of Jewish art.
The group looked to local traditions of the Jewish culture in Central and Eastern Europe.
The activity of artists associated in the Jung Idysz group is often referred to as “Jewish expressionism”, although they also drew on contemporary European artistic circles.
The purpose of the Jung Idysz artists was to create a national Jewish style that would refer to the inspirations in ancient art of the Middle East, ornamental traditions of the synagogue art and Jewish folklore (the so-called Jewish primitivism connected with fable-like and grotesque folkloric motifs).
The “Jung Idysz – Inspirations” exhibition will be the first exhibition of this scale organised in Poland presenting the artistic achievements of a not very popular group of Jewish artists and writers.
We will present nearly a hundred works during the exhibition, which will also be documented and included in the exhibition catalogue.
The works presented during the exhibition were prepared by among others Jankiel Adler, Marek Szwarc, Henryk Berlewi, Henryk Barciński, Ida and Wincenty Brauner as well as other artists drawing inspirations on artistic works of the “Jung Idysz” group and Yiddish culture.

 The Yiddish Culture Festival is a free-of-charge and non-for-profit event – no tickets are necessary.