Roots, Resistance, Resilience: Anniversary Festival & Concert

Boston Workmen’s Circle is thrilled to host Roots, Resistance, Resilience: Anniversary Festival & Concert to celebrate 30 years of secular Jewish culture, education, Yiddishkayt and social justice. The day will feature an intergenerational and interactive festival, concert and reception.

We are proud to honor Jenny Silverman, Dove Kent and Sherry Mayrent for their transformative leadership within the Boston Workmen’s Circle, Jewish social justice community and contributions to Yiddishkayt music and culture.

Festival (2-4 p.m.)

• Radical DIY swag printing station
• Photo booth
• Yiddish word games
• Interactive life-size timeline and 3D tree displaying BWC’s secular social justice history over the past 30 years
• Lecture by honoree Dove Kent about white supremacy and anti-semitism (see full description below)
• Presentation by honoree Sherry Mayrent on the preservation of Yiddish culture through music (see full description below)

Concert (4-6 p.m.)

Many of us remember being dragged to Sunday school as young people. BUT WHAT IF your Sunday school experience was transformed by a magical, time-traveling, klezmer-playing, space-station-launching time capsule?! Join us as BWC’s Shule students and our audience are taken on a wild journey through the stories of our roots, resistance and resilience by our Yiddish chorus, radical gragger Purim spiel cast and special guests. Come be a part of the magic-making!

Reception (6-7 p.m.)

Celebrate BWC education director and honoree Jenny Silverman’s retirement, connect with old friends and make new ones!

We are excited to celebrate with you!

Festival Workshop Descriptions

The Mayrent Collection: Yiddish Culture on 78s
Yiddish culture was for much of its history primarily transmitted orally. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the popular culture was flourishing, the parallel rise of the recording industry and the huge numbers of 78 rpm recordings that were produced offer access to the work of generations who never had a chance to transmit their knowledge in person. This presentation explores the Mayrent Collection of Yiddish and Hebrew 78s, one of the most comprehensive such collections in the world, and some of the ways its dissemination can assist and inspire scholars, performers and other collectors of popular and ethnic materials.

There Is No Neutral: Complicity and Targeting in White Supremacy
It is said that there is no neutral position in relationship to white supremacy: either you are targeted or you’re complicit. But what if you’re both? As a multiracial Jewish community, how can we understand our multi-layered relationships to white supremacy? What are the different ways in which we are targeted? What are the ways in which some of us are complicit? How are these forces in relationship? This (brief) workshop will examine these questions and apply them to our work for justice and equity.