Prague -- New Kosher Shop

There's a new kosher shop in Prague, which Dinah Spritzer writes about in the New York Times. It is located in the Old Jewish Quarter at v Kolkovne 4, around the corner from the kosher King Solomon restaurant, which is run by the same management, the Gunsberger brothers.

As only a few thousand Jews currently live in Prague, the store initially targeted temporary residents who struggled to find Passover staples like matzoh and gefilte fish. But now the Günsbergers want their deli to be a hot spot for anyone seeking a taste of something Jewish, like rugelach (stuffed and rolled pastries), babka (cakes filled with chocolate, cinnamon-nut or almond paste) and kishka (beef intestine stuffed with matzo meal).

“We are especially popular with kids going to schools in New York who are spending a few months here,” said Michal. “They don’t care about the kosher part, but they love that we have Israeli cookies and huge pickles.”

The shop also carries a mix of packaged products like crackers, goat cheese and (milk-free) chocolate from France, Britain, Israel and the Czech Republic.

Read full story here

Hungary -- Bankito festival coming up

My latest article for JTA looks at Budapest's progressive Jewish music scene, as a sort of preview to this year's Bankito Jewish culture festival, held near Budapest August 5-8.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to Bankito -- I'm going to southern Italy with my father and brother to attend a conference on the art work that my mother carried out in a small Calabrian village in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the Bankito line-up looks good -- and fun.

Jewish fusion music key to Budapest’s ‘Jewstock’ festival

By Ruth Ellen Gruber · July 22, 2010

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Flora Polnauer, 28, tilts back her head, half closes her eyes and hums a few bars of a song by her hip-hop/funk/reggae band HaGesher. The song is "Lecha Dodi," the Shabbat evening prayer -- sounded over a Yiddishized version of the Beatles song "Girl." It's just one of the many unconventional songs of the band, whose vocalists rap their own lyrics in Hebrew, Hungarian and English.

"It's modern Jewish music because it's influenced by Jewish things, but it's not the replaying of old Jewish songs," says Daniel Kardos, 34, a composer and guitarist who plays with Hagesher and several other bands. "I pick up many things and mix them."

Hagesher is one of about half a dozen bands in this city of European Jewish cool blending jazz, hip hop, rap and reggae with Israeli pop and traditional Jewish folk tunes and liturgy to form an eclectic urban sound.
"It's a big mix of contemporary Jewish musical identity," said vocalist Adam Schoenberger, the son of a rabbi. "All of us find Jewish culture very important. Hagesher is a platform for us to articulate musically our different musical interpretation of Jewish cultural heritage."

As the program director of the popular Siraly club, whose dimly lit basement stage is a regular venue for Hagesher and other groups, Schoenberger, 30, is a leader in Budapest's Jewish youth scene. He is also one of the organizers of Bankito, sometimes referred to as "Jewstock" -- a youth-oriented Jewish culture festival Aug. 5-8 on the shore of Bank Lake, north of Budapest.

Bankito includes concerts, exhibitions, performances, workshops, seminars and lectures, a poetry slam, sports events, movies, and Jewish and interfaith religious observances. A number of events at this year's festival will highlight Roma, or Gypsy culture, and focus also on social and civic issues such as the rights of the Roma and other ethnic minorities.

Music is a highlight of Bankito. Hagesher, the Daniel Kardos Quartet and other Jewish bands such as Nigun and Triton Electric Oktopus will perform. "We're at a fascinating moment in Jewish music: It's hip again," said Michigan's Jack Zaientz, who authors the Teruah Jewish music blog. "There's an amazing gang of musicians who are young, smart, urban and Jewish, and making their Jewish identities a core part of their music and stage identities."

Read full story at jta.org

Lviv Klezmer Festival next Sunday

    




The second "LvivKlezFest" will take place Sunday in and around the inner Jewish quarter of L'viv, near the ruins of the Golden Rose synagogue -- a final late-night concert will take place in the square next to the ruins.

Participating bands come from Poland, Germany, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine, and there will be workshops, guided tours and other participatory events as well as concerts.
It's wonderful to the the (rather crumbling) district used in this way.



Here's the press release:

The Festival of Klezmer music “LvivKlezFest”  will welcome its guest for the second time on July 25, 2010 from 10.00 a.m. until 23.00 p.m.

You will enjoy the theatrical Jewish wedding procession on the streets of medieval Jewish quarter which will be adorned by playing of  Klezmer groups from different countries. Then the ceremony will fluently turn into a great long-lasting gala-concert on the ancient square near the legendary synagogue “Golden Rose”.

You will be also offered the master-classes on Jewish dance and handicrafts, walking tours in Jewish quarter and, certainly, you will taste traditional Jewish cuisine.

Those who will visit this big holiday of Jewish culture in Lviv  in the very heart of Eastern Galicia will get unforgettable feelings due to the combination of natural scenery in conjunction with unique Klezmer music.

The Festival is organized and supported by  All-Ukrainian Jewish Charitable Foundation  “Hesed-Arieh” (Lviv),   “Joint Center”(Kiev), Company of Emotions “!Fest”(Lviv).

ALL LOVERS OF JEWISH MUSIC, DANCES AND SONGS ARE WELLCOMED!

The Schedule of «LvivKlezFest-2010» (July 25, 2010)

10.00–13.30     Every half-hour free tour walks in  the Jewish quarter  of the city (the tour walks will start  from the cafe "Diana", Rynok square)

from 12.00  -  Theatrical performance "А hаsеnе in Galitsie" - "Jewish wedding-party in Galicia" accompanied by  Klezmer orchestras - (cafe "Diana", Rynok square); Treating, master-classes on Jewish handicrafts  -  (Br.Rogatyntziv street); Jewish workshops - (Staroyevreyska street).

14.30–23.00    Gala-concert ”Muzl Tov!” - “Happiness”! with participation of klezmers from Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Poland (Arsenalna square, across the  synagogue “Golden Rose”).