Toast 18 years of KlezKanada

CELIA BRAUER

I arrived early at the Jewish federation building in Montreal on a muggy Monday afternoon in August, so I watched people gather slowly. Some spoke in tongues other than English: French, Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish and some Slavic languages. Everyone came with suitcases or packs and many were carrying instruments, from the smaller violins and clarinets to the more cumbersome accordions and cellos. A large transport bus rolled into park and people started piling their belongings on the sidewalk.

Like many of the others, I discovered some old friends and introduced myself to people I didn’t know. As time progressed, the crowd grew and so did the noise. More people met and greeted each other, loaded their luggage onto the bus and entered to choose a seat. The journey had just begun. For the next week, more than 350 people who had traveled by car, bus, train and plane came together at KlezKanada, a celebration of Ashkenazi Jewish culture set in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal. We sang, danced, told stories, laughed, cried and reveled in the precious resurgence of eastern European language, music, art and literature in the New World.

This past summer was the 18th, or chai, year of this innovative gathering, which was founded by Montrealers Hy and Sandie Goldman. It has grown over time and is now one of the larger events of its kind that emphasizes a workshop component. It exists alongside the long-running KlezKamp and the mostly language-focused Yugn Truf in New York and the smaller KlezKalifornia in San Francisco. Add to this major music festivals in Weimar, Germany, and Krakow, Poland, as well as Ashkenaz in Toronto.

KlezKanada draws different international stars every year, such as singers Theodore Bikel, Michael Alpert, Shura Lipawsky, Joanne Borts and the late Adrienne Cooper. Writer and humorist Michael Wex is a regular, as are Eugene Orenstien, Hankus Netsky and Iztik Gottesman, all well-known Jewish studies mavens. First-rate groups such as the Klezmatics are regulars; their trumpeter and pianist, Frank London, acts as festival artistic director. World-class performers and artists who attend include Marilyn Lerner, Lisa Gutkin, Cookie Segelstein, Yaela Hertz, Christian Dawid, Alan Bern, Michael Winograd and Dan Blacksberg. Honestly, there are too many to mention! Recently the roster incorporated a Sephardi component, which involved the elder Ladino singer Flory Yagoda and Toronto cantor Aaron Bensoussan. Then there is the wonderful flipside of this resurgence – a young klezmer group from Russia called OPA! and comedian Shane Baker who came from a middle-class non-Jewish upbringing and became a Yiddish theatre sensation in New York. There is the soulful Anthony Russel, a young black opera singer who has found his calling singing old Yiddish melodies, as well as the indomitable klezmer rapper Josh Dolgin aka Socalled who got his start by attending KlezKanada with his parents when he was a teen.

There are opportunities to follow workshops from Tuesday to Friday throughout the day. These are taught by masters in their field; people who sing and play on CDs many of us have in our homes. There are sessions for all kinds of instruments and song, classes to learn Yiddish, workshops in writing, poetry and film. All week long, a stream of films and lectures happens continually, some offered in Yiddish. There is also a chance to participate in visual art and crafts with an eastern European flavor. Truly there is something for everyone. This means that one of the big “stresses” at KlezKanada is deciding between a host of possibilities each hour! If the extensive programming ever becomes overwhelming, however, participants can literally chill out at the swimming dock or take a canoe onto Lac Long.

On a typical day, one can start with a nature walk with Gottesman, who teaches the names of plants in Yiddish, and end the day in a similar way, gazing at the stars. During mealtimes in the dining hall, the noise levels rise considerably, as people gather to eat and discuss the day’s events. Diners might be sitting next to both participants and staff from many major cities in Canada and the United States, or from Europe, Israel and South America. There is a tea dance on the retreat centre deck late every afternoon where musicians jam and people are led around in various formations of line dancing by Yiddish dance master Steve Weintraub.

Special concerts are held every evening – some short ones before supper and a major event afterwards. On Thursday, there is a celebratory dance and party. After every concert comes more line dancing and music jamming. If, after all this, participants still want more, they can attend KlezKabaret until the wee hours, where individuals and groups informally perform whatever they desire. (The other great stress of the week is realizing that by deciding to sleep at night you are missing out on lots of action!)

Shabbes (Shabbat) is so sweet, it continues to delight from one year to the next. It starts with a “backwards march” before supper – a unique creation of KlezKanada where the whole camp walks backwards from the lake to the dining hall, singing a niggun and playing their instruments. It truly is a sight to behold. Then there are services – both traditional and egalitarian – followed by a sumptuous meal. One year, a wonderful moment for me was experiencing Bikel, whose records were popular in my house when I was a child, chanting the bracha over the wine for hundreds of people dressed in their Shabbes best. Then there is the singing table, a magical event where niggunim are sung by candlelight. For Motzei Shabbes there is an amazing student concert where participants perform what they have been practising in workshops all week. Then at midnight, dramatist and artist Jenny Romaine and her cast present a community play. This year, it was on the theme of Akeidat Yitzhak (the Binding of Isaac) but emphasizing Hurricane Sandy and the issue of climate change.

One of the very wonderful things about KlezKanada – aside from the unbelievable programming – is the people involved. A third of the participants are scholarship students under age 35, which creates a lovely atmosphere of intergenerational sharing. There are groups called KlezKinder and Teenager in Lvov. By the time all of us return home at the end of the week, many new friends have been made.

This last summer was the fourth year I attended. The first time, I ventured across the country without knowing what to expect, but I assumed that since I grew up speaking Yiddish in Montreal, I love klezmer music and I had also attended camp in the Laurentians for most of my youth, that I would find a place somewhere. I was right and now, as one of the regulars, I annually look forward to this shot of eastern European Jewish culture. I feel at home at KlezKanada because there are many people like me attending who also grew up speaking Yiddish at home. Both my sisters attend, as well. I love the mountain venue and all the childhood associations this has for me.

There’s also a deeper reason I travel so far for this experience. KlezKanada is a vital celebration of the culture that once strongly existed in the original homeland of anyone who has Ashkenazi parents and grandparents. This is something hard to appreciate very often in the 21st century, so, wherever it comes alive, I am drawn like a moth to a flame. Today, the Old World with its language and culture is too often shrugged away as lost history. Tragically, this once-rich reality lies tattered in the grand scheme of all things Jewish. Does it have to continue this way? I don’t think so. It is imperative that gatherings like KlezKanada continue, as they help contemporary Jewish culture see the light of day and allow it to evolve and grow as time goes on in a way that offers support to the continuation of our ancestral connection. All generations can appreciate such tsuzamenkumen, coming together, unabashedly. Mir zainen do! – We are here! – and we can enjoy our birthright and add a few more modern layers with pride.

Will I return again next year? Mit Got’s hilf! – With God’s help! – and I would recommend others with any interest in such a cultural infusion to attend in future years. My advice is, register early: the best-kept secret in Jewish Canada is out and the accommodation fills up quickly!

Celia Brauer is a local visual artist, writer and educator. She grew up in Montreal in a Yiddish-speaking home and loves the culture of the Old World.

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