Yiddish music lovers, this one’s for you: A free outdoor Yiddish music concert and singalong is once again happening in New York City this summer.
“New York Sings Yiddish,” presented by Capital One, City Parks Foundation and the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, makes a triumphant return to Central Park SummerStage on Monday, June 30.
This all-star celebration of Yiddish music and culture will feature performances from a host of Jewish music all-stars, including klezmer legend Frank London, rapper-singer-dancer-actor Lea Kalisch and klezmer-punk troubadour Daniel Kahn.
Zalmen Mlotek, the artistic director of the NYTF, will be the evening’s musical director — a role he previously played in 2023, the last time SummerStage hosted a Yiddish music concert.
“This is the exact moment that Jews and their allies should be coming together in song, in celebration and in solidarity,” Mlotek told the New York Jewish Week, pointing to the rise in antisemitism in New York City and around the world. “Gathering to sing in difficult times is an inherently Jewish activity . . . as well as an act of resistance, resilience and defiance.”
Artists at New York Sings Yiddish 2023 mesmerized crowds with their musical performances. (Courtesy of Merissa Blitz/City Parks Foundation)
Free outdoor Yiddish concerts are a longstanding tradition in New York City. Moishe Rosenfeld, the president of Golden Land Concerts and Connections, told the New York Jewish Week that he’s producing Yiddish summer concerts for more than 40 years.
Rosenfeld said that these summertime shows date back to 1968, when Yosl Mlotek — the renowned former education director of the Workmen’s Circle, who’s also the father of the NYTF’s Zalmen Mlotek — organized a concert at the the Central Park bandshell “featuring many of the superstars of Yiddish theater.”
Two years ago, the NYTF upgraded this tradition by including an official singalong element, adding a giant screen with projected lyrics, which were also accessible on attendees phone’s via QR code.
At that concert, which aslo also celebrated the launch of the newly digitized Yosl and Chana Mlotek Song Collection, some 2,500 attendees of all ages sang and danced the hora, and cheered wildly for a standout performance of “Chiribim, Chiribom” by Yair Keydar, then 10, and his mother, Cantor Magda Fishman. (The duo will be back this year.)
Performers and audience members also celebrated the 95th birthday of celebrity sex therapist Ruth Westheimer, where the entire crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to her in Yiddish, Hebrew and English. (Westheimer died the following summer.)
In 2023, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who was celebrating her 95th birthday, was brought onto the stage by organizer Zalmen Mlotek. (Courtesy of Merissa Blitz/City Parks Foundation)
This summer, “New York Sings Yiddish” — which will be emceed by Eleanor Reissa, a singer and Tony-nominated actress and director — will feature a number of new performers, including former “Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish” star Steven Skybell, who’s currently playing Herr Schultz in Broadway’s “Cabaret,” Cantor Daniel Mendelson, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Riki Rose and more.
The concert, according to Erika Elliot, SummerStage’s executive artistic director, will “present some of the most exciting voices in Yiddish music.”
“This is more than a performance,” Mlotek said in a statement. “It is a celebration of Yiddish spirit and tradition, sung together by thousands of voices in one of the world’s greatest parks.”
“New York Sings Yiddish” will take place on Monday, June 30 at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the concert begins at 7 p.m. Click here for more information.
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