Photos from LA Yiddish Day
LA Yiddish Day, by most accounts, was a success. But to me and Aaron Castillo-White, as co-organizers, it was a bit of a shock. We weren’t certain that anyone would come at all, and furthermore, it was difficult at times to lock in all the details we needed. But when the time came last Sunday at Hebrew Union College, a lot of miraculous things happened: we had bagels and all other necessary supplies, volunteers to plug gaps that I could not fill personally, and hundreds of people who streamed in to enjoy the immensely talented musicians and lecturers who dedicated their time to amazing work. But rather than taking any more time to kvell or marvel, I’m going to devote this column to some photos of the Day, and what they meant. The top was taken by myself, the others by Jackie Castillo for Kultur Mercado.
Ruth Judkowitz of the Arbeter Ring gave a lecture about the Los Angeles Yiddish poet Chaim Schwartz, and there were many who enjoyed it! It was hard to fathom after years of seeing the decline of the Ring that perhaps there was some hope for it and everything it stands for. With this momentum, the Ring will be having fundraisers to fix up the building and make it another year — support them!
Schwartz wrote extensively about Los Angeles, and I have translated a fair amount of his civic-minded poetry. It was always filled with sharp critique of the difficult social conditions of the city, perpetuated by the wealthy.
Imagine seeing an entire orchestra for klezmer just show up at the Hebrew Union College parking lot! For perhaps the first time, the KAILA ensemble met in person with greater part of its members, led by Gustavo Bulgach of Klezmer Juice. It was fun to see how members of the band joined other groups to back them up on pieces.
A special shout-out to Di Svingers, Chloe Resler and Ilana Zackon for debuting their uncannily pitch-perfect Yiddish swing to a non-KlezKanada audience.
Here we see Aaron instruct Samuel Kriloff with the registration station. Samuel was basically everywhere on Yiddish Day, and Aaron calmly and helpfully walked everyone through every task. This whole enterprise would have ground to a halt had it not been for the combination of graceful "fire-extinguishing" and volunteers who literally asked to help and did so at the most crucial moments.
I don’t actually know who any of these folks are, but from what I can tell, they had a great time. Until next year!
