The Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture—one of the most celebrated arts festivals in Poland—returns to New York City, November 17-19, 2019 for the second year. The most highly anticipated event on Warsaw’s cultural calendar, this year’s NY program features a cantorial concert by Yaakov Lemmer and Frank London, film screenings, readings of short stories by I.B. Singer, and plays by the Jewish Theater in Warsaw, one of only two Jewish theaters in Europe.
Now in its 16th edition, the Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture is an iconic annual event organized by Warsaw’s Shalom Foundation in cities associated with the Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. The artistic director is Golda Tencer, director of the The Ester Rachel and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theatre in Poland – Center of Yiddish Culture and creator of the Shalom Foundation.
The festival opens November 17 at the Lincoln Square Synagogue with a concert by the world-class cantor Yaakov Lemmer and Grammy Award winner Frank London, featuring the work of Gershon Sirota and Mordechai Gebirtig. This unforgettable musical event will be followed by a performance of Itzik Manger’s play Humesh Lider by the Jewish Theater in Warsaw, directed by Andrei Munteanu, with a score by Dov Seltzer, one of the world’s most acclaimed contemporary composers and conductors. The play will be performed in Yiddish, with English subtitles.
Naturally, the festival will also showcase the work of its namesake, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Children and adults are invited to attend Singer Storytime at the Brooklyn Public Library – Midwood Branch and the New York Public Library – Riverside Branch.
The festival continues at the City College of New York, which will host screenings of the films Yentl and Enemies, A Love Story, both adapted from the writings of I.B. Singer.
The festival will conclude with a performance of A Wall, directed by Maciej Wojtyszko and starring Ewa Dabrowska on November 19 at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York. This monodrama by the Jewish Theater in Warsaw is inspired by the true story of Irena Sendler who, during World War II, saved the lives of thousands of children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. This important dramatic presentation forms the appropriate closing event of the second annual NYC celebration of Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture.
Visit PolishCulture-NYC.org for more information.
[Source: press release]