ZINGERAY: A YIDDISH SINGING WORKSHOP 

You are invited to learn some Yiddish songs in a welcoming environment. Get the feeling of the Yiddish language in your mouths and the sound of Yiddish music in your ears! Whether you are brand new to singing or to Yiddish, or have been singing in Yiddish for years, this workshop will be a joyous celebration of Yiddish song - no experience with Yiddish or music necessary. 

Handouts with the lyrics in transliteration and translation into English will be provided and each song will be taught line by line. Different members of Abi Gezunt will take turns teaching a song from the group's repertoire that they have learned from recordings and other Yiddish festivals.


BIOS

ABI GEZUNT is a group of about five women who have been singing unaccompanied Yiddish music together in Ithaca for over five years. Only one of them has some knowledge of Yiddish and only two are Jewish. They are are united simply by a wish to sing together, thinking of the tradition of acapella singing that was all but lost as a result of the Holocaust. Abi Gezunt have sung at a variety of occasions from Holocaust Memorials to a Ramadan/Passover dinner.

DEBORAH (DVOYRE) BERMAN was born in 1952 in Queens to children of Jewish  immigrants from Poland and Russia. They sent her to a Workman Circle Shule, a Hebrew School that taught Yiddish language and culture. Every Friday they sang Yiddish songs for an hour and a half and on Pesakh they had a Third Seder in Yiddish. When she returned to the Yiddish world in 1987, instrumental klezmer music was the draw for most people but there was singing in the background. She learned new songs from stars of the klezmer world: Michael Alpert, Loren Sklamberg and Adrienne Cooper. 

MJ ERICKSON-EGER was born in Philadelphia in 1957 and attended public school where most of her classmates and friends were from Jewish families. She had the honor of attending occasional celebrations and met their families. She has sung with and accompanied various musical groups since the age of 11. Shortly after moving to Ithaca less than a year ago, Deborah invited MJ to join her small group focused on Yiddish folk songs. This has been a wonderful musical and linguistic stretch, and a welcoming way to feel at home in her new community.

KAREN SMITH didn't know a word in Yiddish until Deborah started our group in 2018. Now she loves to take workshops on unaccompanied Yiddish singing from Ethel Raim where she auditioned and was one of six people to sing live during the pandemic. Karen is the keeper of Abi Gezunt's Yiddish Song documents, with hundreds of songs in Yiddish transliteration along with English translations.

Both sets of PAULA WINNER's grandparents spoke Yiddish to each other and her father spoke Yiddish to his parents but they did not teach her sister or her, who only picked up a few common words and expressions. When Deborah invited Paula to join her Yiddish singing group, she was very excited. She has been able to share songs with her mother that Paula's grandmother sang to her mother.

RENATE SCHMITT grew up singing Latin prayers and has sung in many languages and settings since then. For many years, she sang with the Threshold Choir at the bedside of the dying, and now in the weekly Friday Yiddish singing group Abi Gezunt, since 2017. Renate owes her interest in Yiddish to her mother, who also loved to sing and used to listen to the Yiddish radio station in NYC, the dialect of German where their family is from being reminiscent of Yiddish. Remate’s husband, Leon, is Jewish and was close with his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, from whom Renate also learned some Yiddish.bio coming soon.


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 and Congregation Tikkun v'Or 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.