Simcha is one of the three largest festivals of Jewish culture in Poland. This year, it comes of age.
'What do eighteen-year-olds do when entering adulthood? They look to the future with enthusiasm, but become interested in the taste of the past: where they come from, who their ancestors were. Wroclaw was the centre of the reformist, progressive Jewish movement. It is home to the oldest Jewish tomb sculpture and this is where the District of Tolerance was created,' stress the organizers.
The Jewish roots of Wroclaw
Simcha's organizers want to invite the residents of Wroclaw on a remarkable journey through the history and culture of the Jewish Wroclaw - both the past and the present.
'We'll talk about the old times, and the quite recent; about the people who left centuries ago and those we will meet at the Festival. We will talk about cantor David, Abraham Geiger, Jacob Rotbaum and Jerzy Kichler, about Mira Żelechower-Aleksiun and Bente Kahan. We will listen to the songs, which cantor Moritz Deutsch composed in the nineteenth century for his choir of the White Stork Synagogue,' says Stanislaw Rybarczyk, artistic director of Simcha.
The festival's programme is packed with concerts, lectures, workshops, activities for children, and meetings with culture. On the square in front of the Synagogue a Jewish fair will also be organized, with exhibitors selling kosher and ecological food, as well as handicraft.
Feminine Yiddish from Sweden and Sephardic Balkans
The festival will start on Saturday, May 28, with a Klezmer Havdalah, starring the energetic and rock Klezmafour. On Monday, we go on a journey around the Mediterranean with an instrumental band from Krakow, Legend of Kazimierz.
Israeli cantor Yoseph Schwarz will perform during the grand gala concert, together with the Choir of the White Stork Synagogue conducted by Stanisław Rybarczyk. He will take the audience along to the world of Jewish liturgical music.
Swedish singer Louis Lyne, along with ensemble DI YIDDISHE KAPELYE will present to the audience a feminine, subtle version of singing in Yiddish. The artist was involved in the project "Women in Yiddish Poetry." She performs traditional songs, as well as her own compositions.
On the other hand, the halfway point of Simcha will be marked by a meeting with Serbian ensemble Shira U'tfila. The musicians will be our guides through the remotest corners of the musical tradition of the Habsburg Empire, to find the lost Balkan sounds of Sephardic Jews.
A musical show of Kujawsko-Pomorski Impresario Musical Theatre entitled "The Parry Sisters" will be presented for the first time in Wroclaw during Simcha. It is a story about dreams, told in jazz and swing, with songs in English, Polish and Yiddish, superb acting and a deep message.
Workshops and meetings with culture
This year, there will also be workshops, lectures and themed meetings. There will be workshops of the Yiddish and Hebrew language, and a lecture about Ladino - the language of the Jews from the area of today's Spain. The festival will offer meetings with celebrities of Wroclaw's Jewish cultural community, historical discussions about the role of Jews in building Breslau and the post-war Wroclaw, and the idea of an open dialogue, through which the Wroclaw's District of Four Denominations was born.
Jerzy Kichler will also talk about the White Stork scandals, i.e. the titbits of the former everyday life remembered by the walls of the synagogue, Vasco Kretschmann - about the Jewish museum collections of Wroclaw, and Prof. Bożena Muszkalska about the cantors of Wroclaw synagogues.
A special meeting will be devoted to the figure of Jakub Rotbaum, an outstanding Jewish director and painter, who created, together with actress Ida Kaminska, the theatre life of the post-war Wroclaw.
Feasting and dancing
Traditionally, there will be there extremely popular culinary workshops with Malka Kafka, a restaurateur and the hostess of the "Kosher Macher." This time Malka will introduce us to the world of flavours of German Jews Yekke, at the same time reviving the culinary traditions of her grandparents. We will cook the Kirschsuppe, with fresh cherries, sour cream and cold home-made noodles, Pellkartoffeln Myth Linseed und Kwark, or potatoes in herbs with cold pressed linseed oil, and home-made cottage cheese, and Königsberger Marzipan, i.e. marzipan cookies.
In the courtyard of the synagogue will be held daily dance workshops. On late evenings, you can enjoy film screenings. We'll see videos from the Warsaw International Film Festival Jewish Motifs, and the screening of the film "Kosher Friendly" by Benny Brunner and Joseph Rochlitz, dedicated to the rebirth of the Jewish community of Wroclaw.
Simcha for younger audiences
Children will experience the magic of Jewish culture through theatre activities featuring the Yiddish language, as well as workshops in music and dance. For the first time in the history of the festival, the Simcha Academy will be held, dedicated to the students of Wroclaw junior and high schools. Together with a guide, the young people will discover the history of the former Jewish quarter, and above all, its once hard-beating heart - ul. Włodkowica, the repertoire of the former Jewish theatre, rebuilt with great effort after the war, as well as stories of their own families, the Jewish and non-Jewish, who came to Wroclaw from many parts of Europe. The fruit of the joint creative work will be a photo exhibition, a theatre performance and a short video.
As every year, Simcha will end with a reflection. Rabbi David Besok will hold an open service in the synagogue, and a traditional Shabbat dinner.
More information at: www.simcha.art.pl or www.facebook.com/festiwalsimcha
