How do we tell our family’s story? Join the Museum of Jewish Heritage for an afternoon celebrating family (mishpachah in Hebrew) and the stories and culture that we inherit. The 2024 Mishpachah Festival explores the evolution and multifaceted cultural legacies of Jewish immigrant experiences. Physically set overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Festival takes on extra meaning as we mark one hundred years since the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act and its reverberations for global Jewry. This year’s festival provides opportunities for adults and families of all ages to engage with genealogy, learn Jewish languages and reflect on how we tell our individual and collective stories.
Festival Schedule:
Genealogy: Explore Your Roots with JewishGen and the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Center
12:00-5:00 p.m.
Throughout the day, consult with experts from JewishGen and visit the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Center to gain insight into your genealogy and learn about resources available to further research your family’s story. Expert talks to be announced!
Documenting Family Stories
12:00-3:30 p.m.
Filmmaker Richard Kaplan will guide young and old in jumpstarting your family’s oral legacy project. Enjoy an opportunity to document your family’s own story of immigrant experiences that future generations will treasure. Adults and children of all ages can take part by drawing pictures, composing insightful questions, learning interviewing techniques or recording voice or video interviews with family.
Guided Tour: Courage to Act
12:00-1:00 p.m. and 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Take a behind-the-scenes look at “Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark” in a tour of the exhibition with curator and project director Ellen Bari. Bari is an award-winning museum exhibit curator, multimedia producer and children’s book author. For adults and children aged nine and up.
Language Workshop: Yidish far der gantser mishpokhe / Yiddish for the entire family
1:15-2:15 p.m.
Join Kolya Borodulin, master teacher and Director of Yiddish Programming at the Workers Circle in New York for instant Yiddish. Learn 50 words in 50 minutes in this participatory workshop for the entire family.
Language Workshop: Ladino
2:30-3:30 p.m.
More details to come!
In Concert: Galeet Dardashti’s “Monajat”
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Galeet Dardashti performs her multi-sensory project and album, “Monajat,” inspired by old and haunting recordings of Jewish prayers chanted by her late grandfather, Younes Dardashti, a famous master singer of Persian classical music in 1950s/60s Iran. A vocalist, composer, anthropologist and composer, Dardashti remixes samples of her grandfather’s legacy recordings and reinvents the ancient ritual of Selihot. This powerful work features original music performed by an acclaimed ensemble of Middle Eastern and jazz musicians accompanied by dynamic video art.
