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Virginia-based Yiddishists pull off first Yiddish culture festival in Richmond
Virginia’s capital city is having a few big inaugurals this January. Not only will Richmond see the state’s first female governor installed; it will also be seeing the state’s first-ever Yiddish cultural festival.
Richmond Yiddish Week (RYW), running from January 10 – 16, will feature Yiddish music, poetry, dance and film. The grassroots festival, co-founded by two Virginia-based Yiddishists, Samantha Shokin and Daniel Kraft, has been in the works for the past six months.
Shokin, a seasoned veteran of Jewish cultural programming, originally set out to organize a concert for Brooklyn-based musicians (and Yiddish cultural power-couple) Ilya Shneyveys and Cantor Sarah Myerson, who are currently on tour with their new Yiddish musical project, Electric Rose. With a concert and workshop in the works, Shokin then decided to expand it into a longer event series and reached out to the only other Richmond-based Yiddishist she knew: Danny Kraft.
Kraft, a poet and Yiddish translator, also holds a Master’s from Harvard Divinity School and currently works at Yetzirah, a nonprofit devoted to spreading and cultivating Jewish poetry. Shokin reached out about collaborating on an event series, and Kraft suggested further program ideas, including a Yiddish poetry lecture/workshop, a Yiddish storytime event at the public library and a screening of the 2022 Ukrainian-Yiddish film SHTTL.
Shokin, who has worked for many years at Jewish cultural nonprofits in New York City, told the Forward that she felt a Yiddish cultural festival needed to be “on solid footing and meet high standards, in part out of a sense that Yiddish language and culture are not always accorded the care and respect they deserve.”
To that end, she formed a nonprofit LLC for the festival, obtained a fiscal sponsor and secured partnerships and co-sponsorships from local universities, eateries and community organizations, including event security assistance from Richmond’s Jewish Federation.
As far as Shokin and Kraft know, this festival is the first of its kind in the Old Dominion. (A brief fact-check only found evidence of an evening of Yiddish music in Richmond way back in 1981.) Richmond Yiddish Week is the latest in a growing number of new Yiddish cultural festivals popping up across the country— and notably, outside the New York Metro Area: Yiddish Folklife Festival of the Finger Lakes, Midwest Yiddish Fest, Seattle Yiddish Fest, KlezCummington, KlezmerQuerque, and hopefully District of Klezmer in our nation’s capital.
Richmond Yiddish Week hasn’t even begun, and the organizers have already been getting inquiries about doing it every year.
“People are asking me if this is going to be an annual thing,” Shokin told the Forward, “and it depends on the success of this one. This was an experimental pilot project, and we’ve already accomplished so much more than I expected.”
The full festival schedule, including registration links, can be found here.
The post Virginia-based Yiddishists pull off first Yiddish culture festival in Richmond appeared first on The Forward.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.