The 15th 'Singer's Warsaw' Jewish Culture Festival started in the Polish capital on Saturday with events dedicated to the Warsaw Ghetto poet Władysław Szlengl. The festival will run until September 2.
Concerts, performances, film screenings, exhibitions, literary meetings and culinary workshops are some of the attractions of the event held annually in Warsaw.
The highlights of the first day include a guided tour down Waliców Street where Szlengl lived, a concert by actors from the Jewish Theatre, an exhibition entitled 'A window on Waliców,' as well as a performance by Israeli band El Hameshorer.
The official opening of the festival will take place on Sunday with a cantorial concert, 'The Lemmers,' performed by Yaakov 'Yanky' Lemmer, Shulem Lemmer, Menachem Bristowski and the Kolot Israel choir.
Other musicians due to perform during the festival include Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza, an Austrian duo Jasmin Meiri-Brauer and Jannis Raptis, the Oleś Brothers and Theo Joergensmann as well the international Kenneth Dahl Knudsen's quintet.
An important point of this year's event will be a Tuesday ceremony commemorating the patron of the festival, Isaac Bashevis Singer, who 110 years ago lived with his family in a building on Krochmalna Street. Festival organisers and Warsaw's City Hall plan to place a plaque dedicated to Singer on the building where he lived.
The festival is organised by the Shalom Foundation in cooperation with the Jewish Theatre. The various events will take place at the temporary headquarters of the Jewish Theatre in Warsaw at Senatorska Street, the Warsaw Garrison Command Club, as well as the Kwadrat Theatre, the Austrian Cultural Forum, Iluzjon Cinema, Nożyk Synagogue, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN and around the Grzybowski Square area.
The Polish Press Agency (PAP) is media patron of the festival.
A detailed program of the event is available at the website: www.festiwalsingera.pl
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP