Broadway Ala Carte, the Professional Theatre-in-Residence at the Rosen Theatre at the Y, is proud to announce that Broadway legend, PAUL GEMIGNANI, has been named its 2008 Arts Ambassador.

Reserved seats are $45 in advance. All artists subject to change. Please call Broadway Ala Carte at 973-595-0100, Ext. 226.

A CELEBRATION OF YIDDISH  IN AMERICA AT WAYNE Y - MAY 18TH
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Plans are in the making for the 2nd Celebration of “Yiddish in America” to take place on Sunday, May 18, 2008 from 11 AM to 5:30 PM at the YM-YWHA of North Jersey.  Reserve the date on your calendars and Palms now so you won’t miss it! And if you’d like to help plan and carry it out, see the contact information below.

The lobby and pathways of the Y will be transformed into an early 1900’s Lower East Side motif while costumed characters mingle with visitors and street musicians create a fraylacheh (party) atmosphere.   There’ll be a Magic Show, a Puppet Show, a “Yiddish” petting zoo and pony rides, and lots of craft projects for kids.  The Y will be filled with “store fronts” of vendors selling knishes, kugle, pickles, art, books, music, Judaica, clothing, “chachkis” and other zachen (things).  There’ll be food supplied by the Tel Aviv Café and The Kosher Nosh and booths offering various activities and games.  Come play Yiddish bingo.  Renew your wedding vows in Yiddish.  Do Yiddish aerobics and Simon Sez.  Go on a scavenger hunt to collect all the pages of a Yiddish glossary.  Bring any old Yiddish letters or documents you might have and we’ll translate them.  Donate Yiddish books to the National Yiddish Book Center.  We’ll deliver them for you.  In addition, children from our local Hebrew and Day schools will perform Yiddish songs along with singer and cabaret star, Naomi Miller.

And, of course, there will be main stage shows:

The goal of THE JEWISH PEOPLE’S PHILHARMONIC CHORUS, whose members range in age from 20 to 80+, is to reveal the power and beauty of Yiddish choral music – from exciting oratorios and comic operettas to labor anthems, beloved folksongs, and popular tunes.  Committed to strengthening Yiddish as a living language, the JPPC has also taken a bold step by commissioning and premiering new Yiddish choral works by modern composers such as Bella Gottesman, Josh Waletzky, Mark Zuckerman, and its conductor, BINYUMEN SCHAECHTER.   In the last few years, the JPPC has performed in places as diverse as Shea Stadium in front of 50,000 Met fans, Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, West Point Military Academy, Ground Zero, and at the North American Jewish Choral Festival.  Their first CD, Zingt!  A Celebration of Yiddish Choral Music, was hailed by the Jewish Forward as one of the "Fab Five Finds" in its 2006 Chanukah Gift Guide.

Enjoy the hilarity and the exuberant songs of the young professional actors OF THE FOLKSBIENE YIDDISH THEATRE in their musical revue, “Mama’s Lukshen Kugel.”  Everyone who saw their last revue “Macht a Tzimis” knows what the tzimis is all about.  This is an energetic, talented group of actors and singers who have come to the Yiddish world in their twenties and thirties and are passionate about finding their artistic expression through performance in the Yiddish language.  All skits and songs are translated in overhead supertitles.

Feel like jumping out of your seats?  Then get ready for MARGOT LEVERETT AND THE KLEZMER MOUNTAIN BOYS - an all-star band combining the best of bluegrass and Klezmer and adding vocalist NAOMI MILLER to the mix.  The resulting medleys and improvisations are at once raw, funny, soulful and foot-stomping.  Said Clive Barnes  in the Associated Press:  “this joyous Lower East Side hoe-down… is an absolute charmer.”  Rhythm Magazine raved: "Margot Leverett is one of the finest clarinetists to emerge from the Klezmer revival...Leverett's clarinet, crying with sorrow or bursting with shouts of joy, speaks with the highly inflected vocabulary of the great players to whom she pays tribute."

How do we pass down the Yiddish to our children and grandchildren?  The goal of the Festival is to demonstrate the vibrancy of the Yiddish language and to foster pride in its culture.  In the mind of Naomi Miller who is a child of Holocaust survivors and who is again producing this Festival at the Y, keeping Yiddish alive pays homage to her parents and the countless Jews who perished in the Holocaust.  It also pays tribute to the thousands of Yiddish speaking immigrants who fled persecution to find freedom in the Goldene Medina - America.

Come and learn!  Come and have fun with Yiddish!

For additional information or for those wishing to be part of the Planning Committee, please contact:

Cheryl Wylen at (973) 595-0100 ext 228


Naomi Miller at (973) 615-8431


Harvey Miller  at (201) 289-4027

This Festival is made possible from private donations as well as grants from the Judy and Josh Weston Philanthropic Fund, and the Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council at Passaic County Community College, through a general operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State. 

Thanks to all who have donated.