The Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes (YFFFL) is a new three-day arts and cultural festival in town taking place April 25-27, 2025 at the Lifelong Community Center downtown and other venues.
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.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, APRIL 25
04:30 PM - Not Written on Water: The Movement to Recover Women Who Wrote in Yiddish - A Lecture (Cornell U.)
07:00 PM - Community Potluck, Instrumental Klezmer Jam, Shabes Songs (Lifelong)
SATURDAY, APRIL 26
10:30 AM - Yiddish Nature Walk (Stewart Park; leaves from Lifelong at 10am)
02:00 PM - Dough: Sweet & Savory - A Jewish Cooking Workshop (Lifelong)
04:30 PM - Zingeray - A Yiddish Song Workshop (Lifelong)
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.
07:00 PM - Community Open Mic (Lifelong)
SUNDAY, APRIL 27
11:00 PM - Jewish Paper-cutting Crafts Workshop (Lifelong)
02:00 PM - Yiddish Folk Dance Workshop & Klezmer Dance Party (Library Place Community Room)
FESTIVAL SUPPORTERS
We thank our partners: Klezmer Ensemble at Cornell University and Jewish Studies at Cornell University 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.
