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)
07:00 PM - Community Open Mic (Lifelong)
COMMUNITY OPEN MIC NIGHT
Join us for a fun evening of showcasing our community's talents! Whether you have a poem, a song, a skit, or something else entirely, come claim your 3-4 minutes on the mic. You can perform in any language. No oppressive attitudes will be tolerated. Please review our Conduct Policy (coming soon) before signing up to perform for the Open Mic. The evening event will be co-MC'd by poets and YFFFL organizing committee members Dovid Forman and freygl gertsovski.
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.
