Semer Ensemble

October 5th, 2023

Ashkenaz is excited to welcome Germany’s Semer Ensemble back to Toronto, following tour de force performances here in 2016 and 2017.

Festival Flashback

Highlights from the last Ashkenaz Festival

Upcoming Events

Semer Ensemble

October-05

Semer Ensemble Workshops

October-06

Semer Ensemble

Venue: Lyric Theatre, Meridian Arts Centre

Category Music
Ashkenaz is excited to welcome Germany’s Semer Ensemble back to Toronto, following tour de force performances here in 2016 and 2017.

Semer Ensemble Workshops

Venue: Toronto Holocaust Museum

Germany’s Semer Ensemble will be hosting a program of workshops on Friday October 6, 10:30am-3pm, at the brand new Toronto Holocaust Museum (4588 Bathurst St).

Past Events

Summer Jam Concert Series

PULKES BAND

BURNING OFF THE PAGE

KARAOKE

VISHNIAC

SHTTL

Yiddish Cinema and the Holocaust

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: July-07, 2023

Summer Jam Concert Series

Venue: Earl Bales Park

Category Music
Ashkenaz and Magen Boys Entertainment are teaming up for the first time this summer to present a FREE concert series bringing downtown music festival vibes to North Toronto. The three-show series at Earl Bales Park is inspired by the 50th anniversary of the legendary July 1973 “Summer Jam at Watkins Glen” Raceway in upstate NY, a massive one-day festival that drew a record crowd of over 600,000 (more than Woodstock!).

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: June-06, 2023

PULKES BAND

Venue: TD Village Stage

Category Music
Pulkes is a Balkan-Klezmer band that was formed in 2018 within the walls of the city of Jerusalem. The band has already performed in a variety of festivals around the country and around the world. : InDNegev, Expo 2020-Dubai, Tower of David, festivals tour in Canada and more.

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: June-06, 2023

BURNING OFF THE PAGE

Venue: Innis Town Hall

This captivating documentary showcases the work and life of Celia Dropkin, writer of erotic poetry in Yiddish that both shocked and delighted readers in the 1920s and 30s.

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: June-06, 2023

KARAOKE

Venue: Earl Bales Park

Winner of the Audience Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival and nominated for fourteen Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars) including Best Film.

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: June-06, 2023

VISHNIAC

Venue: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Director Laura Bialis (Rock in the Red Zone) and producers Nancy Spielberg and Roberta Grossman (Above and Beyond, Who Will Write Our History) take us on a journey through the various chapters in the life of photographer Roman Vishniac.

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: June-06, 2023

SHTTL

Venue: Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Photographed in a shtetl that the production team constructed outside of Kyiv, this single-shot film is entirely in Yiddish.

Ashkenaz Archives

Past Event: May-05, 2023

Yiddish Cinema and the Holocaust

Venue: Jackman Humanities Building

Category Litterature
The last ten years has seen the release of new films with Yiddish dialogue that address Holocaust memory. This talk examines these films and the role that the Yiddish language plays in framing the Holocaust and its aftermath.

The Ashkenaz Foundation celebrates global Jewish music, arts and culture that embraces the past, present and future.

Through its biennial festival and year-round programming, Ashkenaz showcases the work of leading contemporary artists from Canada and around the world working in music, film, theatre, dance, literature, craft and visual arts.

The Ashkenaz Festival is one of the largest and most prestigious showcases of Jewish music and culture anywhere in the world. Since 1995, the festival has taken place biennially at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto’s premier venue for the presentation of world and folk culture and for the meeting of diverse communities through the arts. Originally founded as a showcase for Klezmer and Yiddish music and culture, the Ashkenaz Festival has evolved over the years into an eclectic showcase of global Jewish art and culture, encompassing not merely the traditions of eastern Europe, but also Sephardic, Mizrachi and Israeli culture, and all manner of cross-cultural fusion. The Festival is offered 90% free to the public and attracts a multicultural audience of over 60,000 people. Nowhere else in the world does so large and diverse an audience come together to experience Jewish cultural arts. Though strongly focused on music, Ashkenaz is a multidisciplinary festival, including dance, theatre, film, literature and talk, visual arts, and kids/family programs. Ashkenaz usually features over 80 performances and 200+ individual artists, hailing from across Canada and around the world. Over the years, Ashkenaz has presented artists from over 25 countries and 6 continents.