National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Presents July Programming

(New York, NY)—National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Folksbiene)—led by Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, and Dominick Balletta, Executive Director—continues its virtual entertainment series Folksbiene! LIVE throughout July, featuring Great Yiddish Monologues (Eyner Aleyn) on July 1; The Great Yiddish Theatre Quiz (Vos-Ver-Vu) on July 7; an interview with theatre historian (and former President of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation) Louise Kerz Hirschfeld by Budd Mishkin on July 15; Maida Feingold Living Room Concert on July 22; and Rachel Policar’s Lullabies and Love Songs from my Living Room on July 29.

Throughout the summer, also tune to the weekly 15-Minute Yiddish lessons led by Motl Didner and weekly Living Room Concerts by Zalmen Mlotek. Additionally, Folksbiene launched a user-friendly playlist system at nytf.org/live so audiences can more easily search through more than 20 hours of Yiddish and Jewish-themed programming to entertain themselves this summer.

Launched in March, Folksbiene! LIVE is an online celebration of Yiddish culture, featuring livestreamed theater, American Jewish performers, concerts, lectures, talks, and other events. Programming provides inspirational and entertaining experiences as cultural and arts venues across the country and world remain closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Folksbiene is excited to present - on Wednesday, July 15 at 1:00 PM - a one-time only interview with Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, former President of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, where she supervised publications, directed educational programs, spearheaded philanthropic endeavors, and oversaw exhibitions, including The Hirschfeld Century: An Al Hirschfeld Retrospective at the New-York Historical Society. Among her many accomplishments throughout a storied career, she was instrumental in securing the ultimate Broadway tribute for her late husband – the renaming of the Martin Beck Theatre to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. She was a Tony Award nominator, served on the board of Robert Wilson’s The Watermill Center, and along with her husband Lewis B. Cullman, was designated a New York City Living Landmark in 2012.

All Folksbiene! LIVE programs are now presented at 1:00 PM. Subscribe to Folksbiene’s newsletter and catch up on past episodes at nytf.org/live.

Details for each event are below:

Great Yiddish Monologues (Eyner Aleyn)

Wednesday, July 1 at 1:00 PM

Comic and dramatic monologues from Moyshe Nadir, Mikhl Rosenberg, and selections from The Dybbuk by S. An-Sky. Featuring Motl Didner, Lea Kalisch, Rebecca Keren, and Eli Rosen.

The Great Yiddish Theatre Quiz (Vos-Ver-Vu)

Tuesday, July 7 at 1:00 PM

An amusing quiz show prepared and hosted live by Yiddish theatre personality Mikhl Yashinsky. Register at: https://nytf.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9Ytfrg0lTGGj4xqUXB71Ug

Budd Mishkin Interviews Louise Kerz Hirschfeld

Wednesday, July 15 at 1:00 PM

Television and radio personality Budd Mishkin talks with Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, former President of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, about her life and career. At The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, she oversaw exhibitions, supervised publications, directed educational programs, and spearheaded philanthropic endeavors.

Maida Feingold Living Room Concert: Sing Out For Peace and Justice

Wednesday, July 22 at 1:00 PM

Versatile Soprano Rachel Policar starred as Goldele in the Off-Broadway debut of Folksbiene’s Drama Desk-nominated The Golden Bride. Her concert will be performed in Yiddish and Hebrew, all with English supertitles.

Rachel Policar’s Lullabies and Love Songs from My Living Room

Wednesday, July 29 at 1:00 PM

Rachel Policar, who starred in Folksbiene’s Drama Desk-nominated The Golden Bride, returns with Yiddish theater favorites. Special guest appearance by Cameron Johnson, who co-starred in The Golden Bride and most recently appeared in Folksbiene’s award-winning Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.

15-Minute Yiddish

Wednesday, July 8, and Tuesday, July 14, 21, and 28 at 1:00 PM

A weekly lunch and learn with Folksbiene Associate Artistic Director Motl Didner, where adults can learn the basics of Yiddish conversation—no Yiddish experience necessary—in 15 minutes!

Zalmen Mlotek’s Living Room Concerts

Thursdays at 1:00 PM

Zalmen Mlotek’s weekly Living Room Concerts features:

● Fourth of July special: Songs of America: Di Goldene Medine

● July 9: Yiddish Theatre Favorites

● July 16: Songs of Yiddish Summer Camps: Part 1 (Songs of Camp Sboiberik and Camp Hemshekh)

● July 23: Special Requests and Dedications

● July 30: Special Requests: Part 2

Bios of participants (in alphabetical order):

Matthew “Motl” Didner is the Associate Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Associate Director of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (Winner of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards) directed by Joel Grey, Co-director The Golden Bride (Drama Desk Award Nominated: Outstanding Revival of a Musical and Outstanding Direction of a Musical). Other directing credits include The Sorceress, Fyvush Finkel Live! (Drama Desk Award–nominated: Outstanding Musical Revue), Robert Brustein’s The King of Second Avenue, The Megile of Itzik Manger, The Pushcart Peddlers, The Marriage Contract. Yiddish coach An American Pickle starring Seth Rogen, The Immigrant at George Street Playhouse, and, New York City Opera’s Angels in America. Motl was an inaugural Translation Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center and teaches Yiddish language classes and theater workshops at the Workers Circle.

Maida Feingold has entertained audiences around the country with her unique interpretations of folk songs both in Yiddish and in English with a special emphasis on songs of social significance. She appeared on radio station WEVD in New York in a popular SingAlong series, as well as numerous appearances on WEVD’s Forward Hour, in addition to programs for groups in the New York metropolitan area, summer Yiddish music festivals in Central Park and Lincoln Center, and a tour around the U.S. with the Yiddish troupe headed by Ben Bonus and Mina Bern. For several summers, Maida was the folk singer in residence at a Jewish adult camp in upstate New York.

Louise Kerz Hirschfeld retired as President of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation - which continues to honor her late husband and his art – upon the May 2015 opening of The Hirschfeld Century: An Al Hirschfeld Retrospective at the New-York Historical Society – the most ambitious Hirschfeld exhibition ever mounted, with a comprehensive and historic companion book, written by David Leopold. In her role with the Foundation, Mrs. Kerz Hirschfeld oversaw exhibitions, supervised publications, directed educational programs, and spearheaded philanthropic endeavors. Other key exhibitions under her charge included Al Hirschfeld: A Celebration of Hollywood and Broadway at the Huntsville Museum of Art; Brits on Broadway at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum; Hirschfeld on Tennessee Williams, a centenary exhibition in New Orleans; and Hirschfeld’s Hollywood at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. One of the most exciting and rewarding ventures she pioneered under the Foundation’s continuing guidance is the collaboration with the New York City Board of Education to produce The Al Hirschfeld Project, a curriculum for teaching the arts in New York public schools. During her earlier career as a theatre historian, she organized and created many exhibits such as The Theatre of Max Reinhardt and The Demille Dynasty, and worked in television production as a research consultant for major networks, museums and award winning producers. Mrs. Kerz Hirschfeld has also spent her time as a photographer and her work was exhibited at New York’s Leica Gallery. In collaboration with her then Foundation Co-Chair, Arthur Gelb of The New York Times, as well as producer Rocco Landesman, she was instrumental in securing the ultimate Broadway tribute for her late husband – the re-naming of the Martin Beck Theatre to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. She was a Tony Award nominator for three years and served on the board of Robert Wilson’s The Watermill Center. She and her husband Lewis B. Cullman were designated as New York City Living Landmarks in 2012. They have sponsored programs on WNET’s Treasures of New York featuring The New York Botanical Garden and were major contributors to the inaugural season of PBS NewsHour Weekend.

Lea Kalisch, born and raised in Switzerland, is a New York City and Minneapolis based actress, singer and dancer with a “chassidishe neshume.” Lea starred in several Off-Broadway Yiddish plays. In 2019, Lea performed her one-woman show In Love With A Dream! in the U.S. and Switzerland, showcasing original material that spans from aggressive English rap to sultry Yiddish. In January, she released her provocative debut music video “Eshet Chayil of Hip Hop.” During the stay-at-home order, Lea's been creating funny self-produced quarantine videos found on her IG @leakalisch.

Rebecca Keren is a private educator and Rabbinical candidate. She has performed with National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene several times. A longtime collaborator with Elizabeth Swados, she has performed at LaMaMa ETC, JCC Manhattan, The Actors' Temple, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, and more. BFA: NYU-Tisch.

Budd Mishkin has been a broadcast journalist for almost forty years. He joined CBS News Radio in March 2019 as an anchor/correspondent. Budd spent 25 years as an anchor/reporter for NY1, New York City’s 24-hour television news channel. He was one of the station’s founding journalists in 1992. In 2003, he created NY1’s weekly series One on 1 with Budd Mishkin, profiling influential and intriguing New Yorkers from a wide range of fields. From 2003-2017, One on 1 profiled 400 prominent New Yorkers: poets and politicians, athletes and artists, the old timers and the rising stars. In 2012, the New York Press Club honored One on 1 with Budd Mishkin with its coveted Reverend Mychal Judge Heart of New York award. Mishkin has also created and hosted close to 100 nights of conversation at some of the most prestigious venues in New York and beyond, including the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, for which he has interviewed Joel Grey and the creative team behind the Theatre's production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish and, more recently, Broadway producer Manny Azenberg.

Zalmen Mlotek is an internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theater music as well as a leading figure in the Jewish theatre and concert worlds. For the past 20 years, he has been the Artistic Director and conductor at Folksbiene. He brought Yiddish-Klezmer music to Broadway and Off-Broadway stages with the Tony-nominated Those Were the Days and Drama Desk-nominated Amerike – The Golden Land. He serves as Music Director for most Folksbiene productions, including the recent New York Times Critics Pick The Sorceress and Drama Desk-nominated musical The Golden Bride. His music can be heard in over two-dozen recordings and films and he has taught and performed all over the world and worked with countless singers. His vision brought the critically acclaimed award-winning Fidler Afn Dakh (Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish), directed by Joel Grey, for which he served as music director, to New York City.

Versatile Soprano Rachel Policar has been described as ”spectacular” (LA Times), “arresting” (SF Classical Voice), “silver‐voiced” (Lighting and Sound America) and “a natural comedienne” (Broadway World) for her recent performances, including her Off-Broadway debut with Folksbiene as Goldele in the Drama Desk-nominated The Golden Bride. 2019/20 included Libby Larsen’s Barnum’s Bird workshop at Circle in the Square theatre on Broadway, 4th Place Winner (American Traditions Competition), Tyler Young Artist (Opera On the James) and a headlining soloist in St. Petersburg Opera’s Holiday Sparkle Cabaret Series. Postponed for COVID-19, Rachel will be seen in concert as Rosabella, Most Happy Fella (CoroLirico NJ) Autonoe, NYC workshop of Lord of Cries (Santa Fe Opera and American Lyric Theatre) and Leah, Lori Laitman’s Uncovered workshop (City Lyric Opera) once it is safe to return to the stage. Career highlights include Lisetta, Rossini’s La Gazzetta (Pacific Opera Project), Pamina, Magic Flute (Southern Illinois Music Festival), Marietta, Naughty Marietta (LOONY), Goldele, Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi (City Lyric Opera), Adina, L’elisir d’amore (North Shore Music Festival), Gilda, Rigoletto (Anchorage Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera), and, Gretel, Hansel and Gretel (Dayton Opera, Knoxville Opera in Schools). @rachel.policar

Eli Rosen, a native Yiddish-speaker raised in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn, serves as the managing director of New Yiddish Rep as well as a Yiddish cultural consultant for film and television. Past credits include producing, translating and appearing in Hanoch Levin Squared, as well as appearing in Waiting for Godot, Awake and Sing!, The New York Times’ Critic's Pick God of Vengeance, and Rhinoceros (in his own critically-acclaimed Yiddish translation), as well as his one-man-show The Drunk Cantor, based on the monologues of Maurice Schwartz. Film/TV credits include the Netflix series Unorthodox, Minyan, and The Binding of Itzik.

Born in Detroit and educated at Harvard, Mikhl Yashinsky is an actor-director, writer, and Yiddishist. He recently appeared with the Folksbiene in the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Joel Grey, and in The Sorceress (a New York Times Critic's Pick), for which performance he was hailed by the Times for giving a “keen, if malevolent, psychology” to the title role. His Detroit Opera House production of The Happy Prince was praised by Opera Magazine, which wrote that “in a clear staging by Yashinsky, the work had a joyful presentation.” Yashinsky taught Yiddish at the University of Michigan, and upcoming publications in the field include his translation of the memoirs of theatrical pioneer Ester-Rokhl Kaminska (Syracuse University Press), and In eynem (Yiddish Book Center), a groundbreaking new Yiddish textbook he co-authored. In 2019, he was named to the Forward 50, the historic newspaper's annual list of the year's most "influential, intriguing, and inspiring" American Jews.

About the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene

Now celebrating its 105th season, Tony Award-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) is the longest consecutively producing theatre in the U.S. and the world's oldest continuously operating Yiddish theatre company. NYTF, which presented the award-winning Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey, to sold out audiences before it moved to Off-Broadway uptown, is in residence at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek and Executive Director Dominick Balletta, NYTF is dedicated to creating a living legacy through the arts, connecting generations and bridging communities. NYTF aims to bring history to life by reviving and restoring lost and forgotten work, commissioning new work, and adapting pre-existing work for the 21st Century. Serving a diverse audience comprised of performing arts patrons, cultural enthusiasts, Yiddish-language aficionados, and the general public, the company presents plays, musicals, concerts, lectures, interactive educational workshops, and community-building activities in English and Yiddish, with English and Russian supertitles accompanying performances. NYTF provides access to a century-old cultural legacy and inspires the imaginations of the next generation to contribute to this valuable body of work. Learn more at www.nytf.org.

About the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York's contribution to the global responsibility to never forget. The Museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The third largest Holocaust museum in the world and the second largest in North America, the Museum of Jewish Heritage anchors the southernmost tip of Manhattan, completing the cultural and educational landscape it shares with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Currently on view is the acclaimed exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. While the Museum's facility is temporarily closed, please visit mjhnyc.org and social media to learn about online programs and resources.

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