It's always something...

Never have Emily Litella’s words been more true; it’s always something. It's the middle of the homestretch towards the finish line of KlezKamp and we can’t get into our office! As Henry mentioned in his entry today, there was a major flood in the basement of the Workmen’s Circle Building and the elevator shaft and other parts of the basement (not our office or our storage area, thank goodness) were filled with water and sewage. The office is off limits until the haz-mat guys are finished pumping and cleaning. They tell us I'll be able to get back in by tomorrow morning. We honestly don’t know what we will do if that is delayed but as Sherry wrote earlier, like Passover, KlezKamp comes around every year and we always manage to get ready.

Until yesterday, when we first heard that Lauren Brody broke her arm in a fall, followed by news that it was a health hazard to breath the air in the office, we had been having a fairly uneventful, if unpredictable, run up to KlezKamp. The registration pattern was different this year. Many more people registered later, causing us to worry that the numbers would be down this year. Fortunately, the last minute rush did indeed come and we will have about the same number of KlezKampers as last year-- over 400 people coming together to share their love of our Yiddish folk culture in all is permutations.

KlezKampers can look forward to an amazing array of classes, evening programs, dancing, forshpayzn (programs before dinner), in house Radio KlezKamp, and a chance to make and meet friends. Many families are attending, including a number of grandparents choosing to spend the week with their grandchildren while the parents have a week off. We will have one four-generation group this year—great–grandmother, grandmother, mother and child. We have KlezKampers who are only a few months old and we have KlezKampers in their nineties. One of the best parts of my job is that I get to speak with so many of them on the phone before we even meet in person.

Another thing KlezKampers can look forward to is the amazing KlezKamp zhurnal (journal), edited with great skill by Faith Jones. Faith put together a wonderful array of articles and photo essays focusing on our theme of Mame Loshn: Women in Yiddish Culture. There is even a crostic puzzle on the theme, created especially for KlezKamp for the second year in a row, by Rick Winston. The zhurnal will be posted on our website after KlezKamp so that those of you who are not able to attend can still enjoy it.

We’ll do our best to chronicle KlezKamp for you here on the blog.

Wish us luck that we’ll be able to get into our office tomorrow!!

Sabina

After 23 years it's still a challenge!

Wednesday: Hard to believe that's it's imminently erev KlezKamp. As I sit here translating Yente Telebende vaudeville 78s for my class, it feels like back in the olden days of KK when all we had to worry about was producing a full week of deeply textured, original programming run smoothly and with great care and good cheer.
Yet, amid the kind of enthused, excited "finals week" ambience which characterizes our KlezKamp preparations, we've had some challenges: On Monday, our good friend (and KlezKamp accordion instructor) Lauren Brody, fell down a flight of stairs and broke her arm in three places. As of now, we're still without her replacement (as if she were replaceable...!) We wish her a full and speedy recovery.
More critically, only weeks ago we learned that our year round home (the Workmen's Circle building in midtown Manhattan) has been sold and that, as soon as this spring, we're going to be out on the street with nowhere to go! (Does anyone know of affordable office space in NYC???) And if that weren't enough, as if in some kind of weird foreshadowing of our imminent enforced departure, yesterday the building suffered a flood of bite sized-Biblical proportions: diluvial effluvia of raw sewage spilled into the basement -- where our office is -- and filled two elevator shafts to heights of six feet! As of this moment, we are locked out of our offices with no clue as to when we will be allowed back in.

Such is the magical pixie dust environment in which we create KlezKamp.

Stay tuned....

HS

Passing time...

Let me start by setting the scene: I am sitting at my desk in the basement of the Cincinnati JCC (not a fancy place), some random musical is playing from playbillradio, and I sit here dreaming of Klezkamp.

Yes, I am the pathethic person dreaming of a hotel filled with Jewish and non-Jewish, Yiddish loving, artistic types that flock to the cold every year. Each year I dream of being the cool one at KK...the one everyone wants to sit with...that people all know (and secretly wish to be)...the life of the party. The reality is...I take a week off from my job every year to work at KK...and I love every minute of it.

I wont get any work done this week. I know I fly up to NY on Saturday and the rest of the week is just trying to make time pass. I know I am only a week away from the Dance Band playing "shark in the mikvah"...one of music's great tunes. I know I am only a week away from a hotel lobby filled with music, conversation, and people sitting checking their email (just to stay in touch with the real world). I know I am only a week away from the best music I hear all year. Ahh...I can smell that kosher food already. See you all Sunday! Amber

Why is this week different from all other weeks?

It occurred to me this morning, as I fielded emails and phone calls from various KlezKamp staff members and worked on getting my own class materials in order, that getting ready for KlezKamp was a lot like preparing for Passover. We keep a kosher home, so there's always a lot of cleaning to do, and we host two seders, so I spend an entire week shopping and cooking. As in my preparations for KlezKamp, I wear two hats: I'm the cook, but I also lead the singing and have to help my wife Carol make decisions about the overall logistics for the household. And there always comes a moment, usually within 36 hours of that first sundown, when it feels as though it's never going to get done, that we'll start the seder and discover huge holes in our preparations.

Yet somehow, when we sit down and I look around the table at the faces of our family and friends, the candles lit and the flowers providing a brilliant flash of springtime to what is often a dreary winter day, I'm always ready. Peysakh always happens.

And so it will be on Sunday, as I stand at the Epes Center greeting old friends and welcoming new participants or running the staff meeting that afternoon. Despite how it feels today, I'll be ready. And KlezKamp will happen.

Genuck mit di goyische nahkes, already...

Ah, Yultide in Texas.

The weatherman informs me that I might want to close the windows tonight as it may get down to a chilly 55 degrees after midnight, brrrrrrr. While the majority of my neighbors are all rushing around buying each other crap for Christmas that any of them could readily do without, I find myself headed out to the shed to locate my trunk of "New York" clothes.

Regular Kampers may have noticed that I show up nearly every year in the same outfit, so I guess it's only fair to explain to you that the hat, gloves, coat, scarf, long britches, and long handle underwear that you will see me in year after year has all only ever been used for one week at a time, over the course of maybe 12 years now. This ritual of breaking open the old Army surplue locker and pulling out this cold weather ensemble portends yet another great week of fruendschaft un Yiddishkeit, the sort of which your Okie born KK Staffer appreciates greatly.

So as they say around these parts, "if the good Lord's willing, and the creeks don't rise (or the flights canceled due to snow,) we'll be seeing you all real soon."

MR

KlezKamp 23: מאַמע-לשון Mame-Loshn: Women in Yiddish Culture

To understand the centrality of women in the world of Yiddish, one need only look to our title for this year’s theme, the coziest and most intimate expression used to describe our language: Mame Loshn: Mother Tongue.

For from its earliest incarnations one of the first books published in Yiddish was the Tzena-Rena (a translation for women of Torah lore, prayers and commentary) -- to the unprecedented number of women on today’s klezmer bandstands, the contributions of women to the vitality of Yiddish culture are undiminished.

To celebrate this tradition, KlezKamp whose staff is 51% women - focuses on heroines such as poet Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman and veteran drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts, both winners of the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Folklife Award. (Elaine, along with daughter Susan Watts, will be recording a new CD during KlezKamp, another in our “A Living Tradition” anthology series.) We also welcome dance historian Judith Brin Ingber and legendary nonagenarian pianist Shirlee Paul, and welcome back literary scholar Anita Norich.

Beyond the Mame Loshn theme, KlezKamp offers its vast array of Yiddish arts including multi-tiered music classes, an expanded vocal program, all-Yiddish offerings, more general interest classes and our second-to-none KlezKids program and teen theater troupe.

Our venue, the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa, offers luxury in the Catskill tradition, with a kitchen run by celebrated Culinary Institute of American graduate Chef Ed Kelly under the shtreng Glatt Kosher hashgokhe of Ha-rov Gershon Kreuser.

Now in our 23rd year, KlezKamp continues to innovate and inspire as a model for the vigorous and widespread resurgence of Yiddish culture around the world. Be one of thousands who, over the years, have made KlezKamp the Capitol of Yiddishland.

More KlezKamp photos

Here are more KlezKamp 2006 photos by Rill Wex:

http://flickr.com/photos/44225293@N00/sets/72157594475966617/

Watch as it happens...

Ain't technology grand?

Meredith Holch and Dan Peck uploading the German tribute video to YouTube.

See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5JrABKGQRo

Articles about KK from the Algemeiner Journal

Interesting articles about this year's KlezKamp from our friends at the Algemeiner Journal:

יידיש Yiddish: http://www.algemeiner.com/generic.asp?id=2759

English: http://www.algemeiner.com/generic.asp?ID=2776

Hebrew: http://www.shturem.net/index.php?section=news&id=11768&lang=hebrew

Forshpayz/Nokhshpayz - Who has time to eat?

Wednesday evening saw presentations discussing very different aspects of Yiddish culture and klezmer music.

The afternoon forshpayz was a fascinating discussion of our theme, Hasidish Yiddish, by the vibrant young editor of the Algemeiner Journal, the major Yiddish weekly of the Hasidic community, Yosef Yitzkhok Jacobson. Jacobson gave a bilingual Yiddish-English talk before a large group of rapt KlezKampers tracing his own recent history as the new editor of his newspaper and his effort to incorporate and, indeed, introduce its readers to the richness of Yiddish literature.
It is the Algemeiner Journal that is reprinting great works by writers, such as Peretz and Mendele (as well as new writing by important contemporary Yiddish cultural figures from the secular world) in its pages and on its website. He encouraged KlezKampers to contribute to the literary and political dialogues which are found in its pages and, by his presence and by his words, did much to build the bridge between worlds of Yiddish lovers that need not be estranged. Y.Y. Jacobson is a charming and charismatic man who has the will, the position and the ability to be a truly transformative, historic figure in the world of Yiddish. We who heard him speak could not help but be inspired to work together with him in service of our mutual love of Yiddish language and all parts of its culture. We were honored to have Y.Y. Jacobson at KlezKamp and look forward to working together with him well into the future.

Y.Y. Jacobson (2nd from right) continues the discussion with KlezKampers after his talk on Wednesday evening.

After dinner , there was a vigorous and animated nokhshpayz discussion on the theme of Klezmer in Germany, led by Heiko Lehmann. Staff and KlezKampers from Germany, joined by American KlezKamp faculty who have lived and played in Germany, described their experiences playing in Germany, their personal experiences and motivations and answered the "unspoken" questions that were finally articulated from the audience. The session was punctuated and illustrated by wonderful performances from Sanne Moricke and Christian Dawid and by singer/accordionist Katherina Muether.

These presentations started discussions that went on well into the night and which are certain to continue through to the next KlezKamp and beyond. KlezKamp....it's not just music, that's for sure.

More photos of KlezKamp 2006

Bob Blacksberg's photos of KlezKamp 2006 can be found at www.rblacksberg.com/KlezKamp06/.
Thanks, Bob!

A great student concert!

Thursday night's student concert was so impressive. It is amazing to see how students who had never played together before came together in four sessions to present wonderful klezmer and Yiddish music, as well as dance. Apologies to the groups whose pictures did not make it into this collection:

Youth Orchestra

Mike Cohen Ensemble

Traditional Ensemble

Traditional Ensemble

Michael Winograd Ensemble

Community Chorus

Fidl Kapelye

Adrianne Greenbaum ensemble

Goldenshteyn Repertoire ensemble

Ray Musiker ensemble

Dobe Ressler ensemble

Mandolin Orchestra

I'm missing photos of the Electric Klezmer Band (how much do I love that there was a 90 year old in the Electric Klezmer Band!), the wonderful Interpreting Jewish Dance class's performance of Der Rebbe Elimeylekh, choreographed by the great Felix Fibich, and of some of the other ensembles. We'll fill in the blanks soon.

It was a great night.

The Lobby of Yiddishland

You can get a sense of the informal activity at KlezKamp from these views from the lobby. What you can't sense here is the constant hum of voices, the folks playing the piano and singing along, the plink of the tsimbl as Pete Rushefsky teaches his students, the laughter, and all the other sounds of KlezKamp. We're lucky that we can take over the entire hotel for KlezKamp, allowing us to create our own little Yiddishland.

The view from above:







The ride and announcements board, ably administered by our Minister of Information, Hartley Wynberg:



The displays from the craft classes, including these amazing works from Adam Whiteman's papercutting פּאפּירשניט classes:







Staff and KlezKampers hanging out:







And Mitch Mernick in his lobby base, broadcasting Radio KlezKamp 24 hours a day during KlezKamp, adding to our pleasure immeasurably. At KlezKamp, any radio on the hotel grounds can pick up Radio KlezKamp and listeners can hear klezmer music, interviews with KlezKampers, live concerts and KlezNews (put together by youngsters in the children's program). It is an amazing effort by Mitch for which we are all grateful.

It's Sunday morning-- Have you done your KlezKamp Crostic yet?

Among the features of this year's KlezKamp Zhurnal is the crostic puzzle created especially for KlezKamp by Rick Winston. The Zhurnal was in the registration folder you received upon arrival at KlezKamp. It is available in PDF form on the KlezKamp website's Zhurnal page, for those of you who weren't at KlezKamp yourself. The crostic puzzle alone may be downloaded as a pdf here. Rick Winston, a former KlezKamper himself, is the proprietor of the Savoy Theater in Montpelier, Vermont. This puzzle is a treat and is well worth the effort, even if you have never done a crostic puzzle before.

KlezKamp in the Yiddish Forward

Read an article about KlezKamp 2006 in the Yiddish Forward here.

At home after KlezKamp and finally getting out from under the kind of sleep deprivation usually associated with religious cult indoctrinations or prisoner interrogations and a vocal croak eerily identical to Froggy the Gremlin's...
This was an exceptionally amazing KK on so many levels. While as per other years, nearly 60% of the attendees were there for the first time, a regularly reoccuring miracle. Our demagraphics have shifted in the most amazing way: we were excited to be host to more young, articulate and exciting musicians (like trumpeter Ben Homes and mandolinist Eric Stein) and to Jews who are part of more Orthodox communites where Yiddish is spoken -- and read -- on a regular basis. This broader footprint makes the context of the living Yiddish culture which we champion all the more exciting and viable. Highlights for me: playing in the German Goldenshteyn memorial concert; recording Ray Musiker's new CD in yet another converted hotel bedroom (this time room 4112) along with Aaron Alexander, Jim Guttmann, Alex Kontorovitch, Ken Maltz under the leadership of Pete Sokolow and recorded by King Django. The music (a mix of great traditional tunes, an unpublished Yiddish theater song by Abe Ellstein and some Ray originals) was amazing and we'll have the CD out later in 2007; my interview with old pal Andy Statman before a packed house. Speaking of Andy: another great high point was grabbing my banjo and sneaking away with him and Mark Rubin on bass and guitar, for a breathtaking ride through Andy's amazing bluegrass mandolin playing.... (and you haven't lived until you've heard Andy sing tenor harmony on bluegrass standards like Don Reno and Red Smiley's "I Know You're Married")...Had a blast at my book party, a gossamer thin excuse to play tunes with Rubin and Cookie and to zhloke (drink) Steve Weintraub's amazing martinis.. Thanks mucho to the jaw droppingly wonderful Faith Jones for organizing it. Of course, there are always those things I meant to do which didn't happen like a midnight screening with MIchael Wex of the new all Yiddish Hasidic heist film "Der Gesheft.' Maybe at the next KlezKamp, which, I am happy to say, we are already planning for December 23-28 2007.

A few favorite shots from KlezKamp 2006

A grandfather and grandaughter take a turn on the dance floor.

Music teacher Mark Rubin and KlezKamp founder Henry Sapoznik, rather than having a fit when someone began playing "Fiddler on the Roof" in the lobby (as most of the rest of us did), decided to join in the fun with some atypical dancing.

Dance instructor Steve Weintraub on duty as barkeep for Henry's book launch. The man has a costume for everything.

Henry's mom Pearl Sapoznik and Living Traditions associate director Sabina Brukner's Aunt Regina at lunch. These two "kvellniks" (older relatives of KlezKamp faculty) are surrogate-family to me and my partner: since we moved to New York and are far from our own families, it is the KlezKamp extended circle which has taken us in. Both Pearl and Regina have had us over at pesach, with food of a quality and magnitude that can only be hinted at. You may not have realized that the potato kasha soup the hotel served this year was made from a recipe Pearl gave the chef last year.

Jenny Romaine, leader of the teen theatre workshop, and Frank London, trumpet teacher, with the mitzvah kinder, who played a major role in the videos the teens shot. You can count on Jenny to have some of the stranger Jewish toys and costumes.

Day Four Sleep Deprivation

It's one thing when people choose a quiet moment when the lobby is relatively empty to catch a few zzz's. Jenny Romaine, who was leading the teen theatre workshop, managed to fall asleep as Anna Schnur-Fishman and Adrienne Cooper conducted an animated conversation not two feet away (below).

The Littlest Klezmorim

Thursday evening, as Kamp is winding up, is the chance to check out what other people have been doing all week. For the under-five crowd, KinderNest is a chance to make and wear costumes, and to bang on drums. Some slightly older children help out with providing the melody.

Then the older children get a chance to perform the traditional final-evening play. This year, in keeping with our Hasidic theme, the play involved a test of faith and a barrel of shmaltz herring. Thanks to Michael and Rill Wex for writing the script.

After dinner the much-anticipated teen performance takes another look at our theme. Our hosts were Sabu and Jonathan.
All the teens did amazing work writing their script, shooting and mixing footage for the video sequences, and performing as they explored I.L. Peretz's "Gilgul fun a Nign" (The Transmigration of a Melody) in ways Peretz could not have imagined.

New Klez Kamp Videos

Michael Wex and Andy Statman in the staff concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZU0gin4AAs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbUVV4FaUI8