Comedian Peter J. Fogel has worked or appeared on more than 20 television shows and has performed on cruise ships and at comedy clubs, performing arts centers and Las Vegas theaters. He is currently the national touring star of “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m in Therapy.”
(Two shows: 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.)
Comedian Peter J. Fogel has worked or appeared on more than 20 television shows and has performed on cruise ships and at comedy clubs, performing arts centers and Las Vegas theaters. He is currently the national touring star of “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m in Therapy.”
(Two shows: 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.)
The East Valley JCC in Chandler will present its first Klezmer Fest in January 2019, which features two community events.
The screening of the documentary “The Last Klezmer: Leopold Kozlowski, His Life and Music,” followed by a musical performance by the film’s director and Klezmer expert Yale Strom, will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10 at Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler.
A Klezmer Music Festival will take place noon-5 p.m. at the East Valley JCC, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. The event will feature musical performances by Yale Strom, the Rural Street Klezmer Band and Jerusafunk.
The music festival will also include a Yiddish experience, with genealogy workshops, Yiddish poetry readings and songs, lectures and crafts. There will also be children’s activities, such as inflatables, face-painting and a petting zoo, as well as a Kosher Jewish Food Experience.
Tickets for the Jan. 10 event are $15. Tickets for the Klezmer Music Festival on Jan. 13 are $15, adults, $5 children up to age 12.
To purchase tickets, visit evjcc.org/klezmerfest or call 480-897-0588. Group tickets are available for $12 each for groups of 12 or more.
The Center for Holocaust Education and Human Dignity of the East Valley Jewish Community Center will host a daylong program commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Registration is required for all programs. To register, click here. All programs are free except for the Open Beit Midrash guided tour, which includes a kosher lunch. To make a payment, click here.
- Self-guided tours (Noon-3 p.m.): “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Bedzin Ghetto” is an exhibit created by the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University that tells the story of young people in the Jewish ghetto of Bedzin, Poland, before, during and after the Holocaust. Reservations are required.
- Guided tour and lunch (11 a.m.): Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, will lead a tour of the above exhibit as part of Open Beit Midrash. The cost is $14, which includes a kosher lunch following the tour. Reservations are required by April 29.To register, click here. To make a payment, click here.
- Screening of “Shalom Italia” (1 p.m.): This documentary by Tamar Tal Anati tells the story of three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis. Their quest, full of humor, food and Tuscan landscapes, straddles the boundary between history and myth, both of which really, truly happened. Reservations are required.
- Teacher’s workshop (4-5:30 p.m.): In this free workshop, Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, will lead a tour of the exhibit and discuss how to approach stories from the Holocaust with students. The program is geared toward teachers who teach high school or college students. Reservations are required.
- Yom Hashoah ceremony (6 p.m.): Procession of survivors and their descendants and a candle-lighting ceremony; presentation by Holocaust survivor Marion Weinzweig, author of “Lonely Chameleon”; presentation by Bjorn Krondorfer, who will share his story about finding out as an adult that his father was a German soldier at a slave labor camp in Poland; and reading of names, Mourner’s Kaddish, El Maleh Rachamim led by Rabbi Michael Beyo. Reservations are required.
Partners of this East Valley JCC program include The Martin-Springer Institute of Northern Arizona University, Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley and the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation.
The East Valley JCC and the City of Chandler will host the annual Klezmer Fest from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, at the East Valley JCC, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler.
Lively and upbeat, klezmer is the traditional Jewish folk music of Eastern European Jewish communities. Over time, the style of music has grown to include instrumental music, Yiddish vocal music and modern fusion music that combines klezmer with world music such as Afro-pop, rock or hip hop.
This music festival will also include a Yiddish Experience that includes workshops and lectures focusing on topics such as genealogy and the Yiddish language. In addition, there will be children’s activities, such as inflatables, face-painting and a petting zoo, as well as kosher pizza and salads available for sale by Brad’s Mobile Pizza Oven.
Local bands include Jerusafunk, a nine-piece ensemble from Phoenix that blends traditional klezmer music with American Funk and other world music genres, such as jazz, salsa and samba; the Rural Street Klezmer Band of Temple Emanuel of Tempe that plays traditional Jewish soul music inspired by Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Yiddish theater and American jazz; Zaftic, whose rich and succulent sound is a mixture of Turkish, Arabic, Baroque, Irish and jazz; and Klezmerkaba, an 11-piece band from Tucson whose repertoire consists of klezmer pieces steeped in Eastern European tradition, as well as familiar Jewish, Yiddish and Israeli pieces from different eras and ethnicities. The festival will conclude with a massive jam session featuring all the musicians.
Tickets are $15 adults, $5 children up to age 12.
Visit evjcc.org/klezmerfest.