YIDDISH NATURE WALK

We will walk together in Stewart Park and learn some Yiddish vocabulary for nature, while enjoying one of Ithaca's beautiful places, along with its o-ze-re (lake), feyglekh (birds), and beymer (trees). The walk will in English, accessible to all levels of Yiddish (no previous Yiddish knowledge needed).

If enough Yiddish-speaking participants attend, a second group will form to enjoy the same walk entirely in Yiddish.

9:30-10AM Bagel & Lox Breakfast at Lifelong

Meet at the Lifelong Center by 10AM to offer or join a carpool to Stewart Park, or meet at Stewart Park at 10:30AM at this meeting point.


BIOS

DOVID FORMAN, PhD, is the grandson of the Yiddish author Solomon Simon. He was first a calligrapher, then a psychology professor before finally returning to his early love of writing. A published poet, he began studying Yiddish in his fifties, to fulfill a lifelong vow of reading his grandfather’s work. Dovid lives in Ithaca, New York where he has taught Yiddish privately, in adult education classes and at Cornell University. His English translation of Simon's The Clever Little Tailor was published in a bilingual edition by Kinder-Loshn Publications.

SORKE SCHNEIDER is a musician, bird watcher, and folk arts enthusiast, who does what she can to keep Ithaca Yiddish. Sorke plays flute with the Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University, organizes online Yiddish cultural programming with Rad Yiddish and Queer Yiddish Camp, and serves on the board of Hands Four Dancers of Ithaca. Her other hobbies include cooking (and feeding the results to her fellow musicians), fiber crafts, and Yiddish study.


FESTIVAL INFO

This event is part of Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes (YFFFL), a new three-day arts and cultural festival taking place April 25-27, 2025 at the Lifelong Community Center downtown and other venues in Ithaca, NY.

Featuring live klezmer music, folk dancing, a community potluck, cooking and cultural workshops, a nature talk, an academic lecture, an open mic, and other community events, this intergenerational, all-ages festival is open to the public, including those new to Yiddish music and culture.

*Please see YFFFL Full Festival Schedule for YFFFL full festival pass & links to other individual events of the festival.


YFFFL SUPPORTERS

We thank our partners: Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University and Jewish Studies at Cornell University for working with us to put on this festival!

We thank our sponsors: Temple Beth El, Congregation Tikkun V'Or, and Ithaca Area United Jewish Community for supporting Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes!

We thank our funder: This festival is made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Community Arts Partnership.