SOLANA BEACH, California — Does COVID have you feeling cut off from your lansmen? Are you having a hard time remembering the taste of your Bubbe’s kneidlach? When is the last time someone read you The Wise Men of Chelm or you listened to a sweet tear-inducing klezmer violin? Well, you are in for an amazing treat! Now, thanks to the first International YI Yiddishfest, you can enjoy several days crammed with more Yiddishkeit and Jewish art and culture than you can shake a lulav at!
Already in progress and continuing through September 13, the YIddishkayt Initiative (YILoveJewish.org) is hosting a virtual festival that encompasses a taste of everything Yidden. More than 35 online events include geshmach cooking demonstrations, concerts, films, singing, staged readings, a Holocaust commemoration, klezmer by San Diego’s own Yale Strom, discussions, lectures, a world-premiere play, and so much more! Major American and International celebrities gather to entertain your Jewish soul and share simcha and provocative ideas. The froelich action-packed programming promises to have something for everyone and as long as you’ve got a device you’re invited to tune in for free!
In a phone interview, I was able to speak with produced playwright and veteran CBS-TV executive, Sherri Heller. Her plays have been produced, as have her one-acts, comic revues and monologues Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, in top regional theaters, cabarets and in festivals across the nation. Her comedy writing credits include such greats as Joan Rivers, Jay Leno, and Phyllis Diller.
The Yiddishfest committee sought out Heller and asked her to share her world-premiere play, My Mother, My Sister & Me. This coming of age story is set in the summer of 1969 with echoes of the political and social climate of the day. It is viewed through the lens of a Jewish girl, Holly, growing up in the Bronx. When I asked Heller if the play was autobiographical she shared that all playwriting must be autobiographical to some extent, further stating, “the Bronx is like Velcro; it just doesn’t leave you.”
My Mother, My Sister & Me enjoyed its New Jersey regional premiere at the Bickford Theater in Morristown, New Jersey. The show broke all house records and won rave reviews. Broadway’s Loni Ackerman (Cats, Evita, Rockford Files and Annie) portrays the role of Sylvia Fenster, the grandmother who is the glue for all seven characters as they experience the turmoil and changes of that monumental summer. This seminal period saw Chappaquiddick, the Manson trials and the Vietnam war. The play incorporates the national climate and echoes of the period as the US put the first man on the moon and experienced Woodstock.The characters also undergo a change in their Bronx neighborhood. Middle class Jews of the day, flocked to the Grand Concourse, shopped at Alexanders, and gobbled up ice cream at Jahn’s, while wealthier Jews moved to the suburbs in white flight.
Richard Kline (Three’s Company) is the director. Staged readings of the play have been performed by the late Valerie Harper (Rhoda, The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Lucy DeVito (Deadbeat, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Kelly Bishop (Gilmore Girls, Dirty Dancing). The play has been further developed with the goal of moving it forward to New York City or top regional theaters with both Ackerman and Kline in place.
Heller proudly told me that the production values are very high for this play and that despite the Hollywood Squares format of Zoom, it is an actor’s equity professional production and this is the first virtual premiere of the play. My Mother, My Sister & Me will air from 12 noon to 2 pm on September 13th, the last day of the festival, but will continue to be available for viewing for the ensuing four days.
With this star-studded, far-reaching programming, streaming from 7 countries, it truly does feel like there is something for everyone. To paraphrase the 1970’s ad for Levy’s Jewish rye bread, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Yiddishfest!”
For more information vist, YILoveJewish.com and https://yiddishfest.org/
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Eva Trieger is a freelance writer based in Solana Beach, California. She may be contacted via eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com
Thanks so much for this information, Eva! By the way, my husband is from the Bronx and it definitely has not left him!
It’s true.
“the Bronx is like Velcro; it just doesn’t leave you.” Now I miss my Grandma’s kreplach.(and a lot more).
Such a great headline. You would have made a great advertising copywriter.