The 19th "Singer's Warsaw" Jewish Culture Festival is set to get under way in the Polish capital on Saturday and run until the end of next week.
The annual event, which takes its name from Nobel Prize-winning Polish-Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, will see a more than weeklong feast of music concerts, film screenings, exhibitions, culinary workshops and more.
Among the highlights of the festival this year is an opening cantorial concert at Warsaw’s Nożyk Synagogue, featuring performers including Nachman Turgeman and Netanel Olivtsky from Israel.
A host of international performers are expected to entertain audiences, among them Ukrainian musician Natalia Utesheva Kasyanchyk.
'We are not indifferent to what is happening around us'
The Warsaw-based Shalom Foundation, which is the main organizer of the annual event, said on its website that "although Singer’s Warsaw is a cultural festival, we are not indifferent to what is happening around us, and this year we decided to invite more artists from Ukraine, as well as artists who support our neighbors in their projects."
The Shalom Foundation's Hanna Pałuba has told public broadcaster Polish Radio that her foundation has been working with a large number of Ukrainian musicians and artists since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that many of them would take part in this year's festival, "playing music and performing on theatre stages, either solo or as part of groups."
Festival attractions also include debates, activities for children, meetings with writers, artists and historians, and plays performed by actors from Warsaw’s Jewish Theatre.
19th Jewish Culture Festival in Warsaw: This year's "Singer's Warsaw" festival will be held in the Polish capital from August 27 to September 4. Image: Press kit
Gołda Tencer, the founder and artistic director of the festival, has said the event is “a bridge connecting tradition and modernity.”
The festival is held in various venues around the Polish capital every year, but primarily in a part of the city that was once the hub of Warsaw's Jewish community.
This year's event opens on August 27 and runs until September 4 to offer a wealth of opportunities to explore and celebrate Jewish culture and tradition.
Public broadcaster Polish Radio is a media partner of the event.
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Source: IAR, polskieradio.pl, shalom.org.pl