Yiddishkayt (organization)
| Founded | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Aaron Paley |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus | Yiddish culture, Yiddish language, Jewish history, Education, multiculturalism |
| Location | |
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Key people
|
Abbie Rottapel Phillips, President; Rob Adler Peckerar, Executive Director |
| Slogan | "Making the past present." |
| Website | yiddishkayt.org |
Yiddishkayt is a Yiddish cultural and educational organization, based in Los Angeles, California. Its offices are located in the Pellissier Building above the Wiltern Theater in the Koreatown District of Los Angeles. Its name refers to the cultural concept of yiddishkayt, (literally "Jewishness" or "Yiddishness"), which the American Jewish critic Irving Howe described not in religious terms, but rather as a humanism based in a "readiness to live...beyond the clamor of self." According to the Yiddishkayt website, the organization seeks to "inspire current and future generations with the artists, writers, musicians, performers, filmmakers, philosophers, and social justice activists whose yiddishkayt — their particular form of critical and compassionate engagement with humanity — emerged from the Jewish communities of Europe as they developed in constant contact with their non-Jewish neighbors."
Since its founding in 1995, Yiddishkayt has become the largest organization devoted to Yiddish culture west of the Hudson and has produced six Yiddish festivals, a high school Yiddish language education program, two cultural fellowships — one for young adults and one for adults ages 50 and over — 30 Los Angeles premiere, 16 US premiere and 5 world premiere presentations devoted to Yiddish culture, 10 cross-cultural performances, and partnerships with over 25 organizations and venues, including the Workmen's Circle, REDCAT, UCLA, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. In 2009 and 2010, Yiddishkayt was named by Slingshot Fund as the "50 of the most innovative organizations in Jewish life today."
In 1995 cultural festival organizer Aaron Paley — founder of Los Angeles nonprofits Community Arts Resources (CARS) and CicLAvia — produced a one-day festival of Yiddish culture that attracted close to 6,000 people, launching Yiddishkayt Los Angeles as an organization.
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