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From live music to traditional cuisine, events showcase richness of Jewish life
By: Ellen Braunstein
Jewish culture festivals are vibrant celebrations of Jewish heritage offering immersion in a day filled with Jewish music, art and ethnic kosher cuisine. They are also opportunities for Jews to come together and engage in Torah, mitzvot and Jewish heritage.
In recent years, Chabad-Lubavitch centers around the country have begun sponsoring these annual summer festivals. This year, due to rekindled Jewish awareness and inspiration after Oct. 7, festival organizers are expecting even bigger crowds than normal.
Festival organizers are hard at work planning Chabad’s fourth Jewish culture festival in St. Charles County in Missouri on Aug. 25. The community of 6,000 Jews is 40 minutes west of the larger Jewish community in nearby St. Louis.
The year’s festival embraces the spirit of togetherness. “It has been a difficult year for the Jewish nation, and people want to be together,” said festival organizer Bassy Landa, who directs the Chabad Jewish Center of St. Charles County with her husband, Rabbi Chaim Landa.
“This is a joyful opportunity for our county to celebrate our diversity and support our growing St. Charles Jewish community,” she said.
New this year is a shuk, where visitors will experience the sights, smells and tastes of an open-air Israeli market. Participants will be able to purchase fresh produce, baked goods, sweets, jewelry and Judaica. Visitors will also enjoy live Jewish music anchored by Rogers Park Band, a popular American Hasidic rock duo. Jewish recording artist Tali Yess will also be bringing his music to this year’s festival.
Last year, 3,000 people attended—up from 1,000 at its start four years ago. This year, organizers expect upwards of 4,000 attendees at the Lewis and Clark Boat House parking lot along the Missouri River.
Jenna “Bracha” O’Shea is directing 80 volunteers and staff at the St. Charles festival. “Each year, we’ve gotten bigger and added programming to make sure we have something for all ages and all community members, Jewish and non-Jewish. I would call it a community unity project.”
The Jewish community in the area was small when she was growing up. “Now there is much more diversity in our county. Growing up, I thought I was the only Jewish person in St. Charles County,” said O’Shea, who works as a nurse practitioner on a local college campus.
“This is a beautiful way to come and be with your Jewish neighbors, experience some of their traditional foods, music, dancing and crafting,” she said.
From the West Coast …
Some community festivals have already been held. Silverlake Chabad in Los Angeles sponsored their annual festival on July 21 at Sunset Triangle Plaza.
Rabbi Mendy Ceitlin, director of Silverlake Chabad with his wife, Mushky, remarked that it’s a way to come together and celebrate Jewish culture. “It’s been really good because a lot of people haven’t seen so many Jews come together and some may feel isolated.”
Well over 2,000 people attended, compared to 700 when it started three years ago. “It was packed, tons to eat and to see,” said Katie Guastini, a volunteer for the Chabad Silverlake center. “Jews and non-Jews were having a good time.”
Guastini, a digital marketer, promoted the festival and helped secure vendors. There was everything from kosher vegan Indian food to barbecue, among other specialties, served from food trucks and booths.
Nissim Black, an American-Israeli rapper and songwriter was the headliner. Duvid Swirsky, founding member of the Jewish rock band Moshav, performed.
Los Angeles has the second-largest Jewish population in the United States, but it’s also very spread out. “So, getting everyone together knowing you’re in a safe place, celebrating all that we love about our culture, is so important,” Guastini said.
With the recent rise in antisemitic incidents, the Jewish community has been on the receiving end of “many adverse messages, and it’s really been an isolating time,” Guastini said. “So just seeing what we have to be proud of and finding that community was so important. I absolutely attribute that need right now to why our festival is so big this year.”
… to the East Coast
Over on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, Chabad of the Vineyard hosted a Jewish festival on July 22 in West Tisbury. It’s the second year for this festival.
In addition to singer Matisyahu, the lineup also featured klezmer music by the Klezwoods.
Acclaimed Chef Hudi Riven led the festival’s high-end culinary experience, showcasing a broad selection of gourmet kosher foods. Naama Shefi, Jewish Food Society founder and co-author of a new cookbook, The Jewish Holiday Table, engaged in lively conversation with Lou Cove, founder and president of CANVAS, a collaborative fund dedicated to supporting the 21st-century Jewish cultural renaissance.
The food stations highlighted the cuisines of Northern Africa, the Lower East Side, Jerusalem and Vilna.
Numerous Jewish artists, many of them island residents, displayed their work.
About 800 people attended. “It was incredible. Everyone really enjoyed it,” said Hadassah Alperowitz, who co-directs Chabad of the Vineyard with her husband, Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz. “It definitely gave people a real pride for Judaism, and it was such a beautiful public display. Not only did people enjoy themselves, attendance showed that being a part of it means we’re not going to back down given Oct. 7 and the palpable rise in antisemitism.”
Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz expressed disappointment on social media that the local newspaper, rather than focus on the hundreds of attendees of all ages enjoying themselves at the festival, instead highlighted the six protesters who stood outside. “With or without media,” Alperowitz wrote, “we will go on, bigger and better, and continue doing what we do best: enriching Jewish life, building community, strengthening Jewish pride and identity and hosting meaningful, compelling and fun programming on this precious island.”
Alperowitz said in an interview with Chabad.org: “We want to build Jewish community on the island. There’s a lot to worry about, but if we want Judaism to continue for future generations and we want our children to embrace Jewish heritage as strongly as we do, then being Jewish needs to be fun. Being Jewish needs to be meaningful and needs to be the best experience possible. These festivals give us joy and energy and life and vitality into being Jewish on Martha’s Vineyard.”
