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A 4,000-person Yiddish sing-along will take place in Central Park this summer
(New York Jewish Week) — This summer, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to hear their favorite Yiddish songs under the stars — and sing along at the same time.
“New York Sings Yiddish,” a free concert of Yiddish music featuring The Klezmatics and more, will be performed in Central Park on June 14 at 7 p.m. as part of Capital One City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage series. There have been other Yiddish concerts as part of this longstanding, free-of-charge NYC summer tradition. But this year, for the first time ever, the concert will be a massive sing-along — the Yiddish lyrics to each song will be projected onto a giant screen and accessible through a QR code on audience members’ phones.
Presented in partnership with the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene and the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and supported by the the Workers Circle, a slew of well-known Yiddish musicians are slated to perform, including, Joshua “SoCalled” Dolgin, Lea Kalisch, Cantor Magda Fishman, Sara Mina Gordon, Cantor Netanel Hershtik, Elmore James, Daniel Kahn and Eleanor Reissa.
“It’s completely new this year,” Workers Circle CEO Ann Toback told the New York Jewish Week of the sing-along. “It used to be an organic sing-along because the audience had grown up on many of these songs. Today, we’re really looking at new generations, many of whom are interested in Yiddish and love Yiddish music or, or are intrigued by Yiddish music, but they didn’t grow up on these songs. How much fun is it that this year’s concert is providing a tool so we can continue this tradition of coming together and singing these inspirational inherited songs?”
In addition to audience participation, the concert — arranged by Zalmen Mlotek, musical director at the Folksbiene, and klezmer superstar Frank London — also celebrates the launch of the newly digitized Yosl and Chana Mlotek Song Collection. The project from The Workers Circle digitized five anthologies of Yiddish songs from Chana Mlotek, the longtime ethnomusicologist at YIVO who died in 2013, and her husband, Yosl, who worked as the education director for the Workers Circle and managing editor for the Forvertz, who died in 2000. (And, yes, Yosl and Chana Mlotek are the parents of the Folksbiene’s director.)
“On this special evening, New York will celebrate its Yiddish heritage and soul with some of our most brilliant musical stars — and under the stars,” Zalmen Mlotek said in a press release. “We invite all New Yorkers to come together in Central Park for a wonderful concert filled with Klezmer artistry and Yiddish theater gems for a memorable night.”
Entrance to the free, two-hour concert is first-come, first-served, with doors opening at 6 p.m. Attendees should enter at the Central Park entrance on 72nd St. and 5th Ave. Find more information here.
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The post A 4,000-person Yiddish sing-along will take place in Central Park this summer appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.