Jüdische Musik- und Theaterwoche Dresden

The "Jüdische Musik- und Theaterwoche" is a festival that presents new contemporary Jewish culture in Europe following two criteria: Jewish culture is flourishing again in Europe and should not be always confused with Israeli culture. Jewish themes are the starting point to create innovative performances by using interesting artistic means and to deal with more general cultural issues that address also a non-Jewish audience. The festival wants to create a new perception of Jewish issues.

Artistic commitment

Starting from 2013, the festival has tried to focus its attention to more experimental and avant-garde production. Jewish productions are very often characterized by a very traditional way of performing and the audience is used to attend performances with Jewish themes that confirm their stereotypical images of Jewish culture, like Klezmer concerts or Singer's stories in the Shtetl at the beginning of the twentieth century.

On the one hand, the festival wants to be a lively platform for young Jewish artists who live in the twenty-first century and use a contemporary artistic language to deal with Judaism and in the way they come of a strictly Jewish environment defining themselves as Jews living in Europe and being a part of a broader artistic scene, in which Judaism is just one aspect.

On the other hand, the festival looks for innovative artistic productions that present Jewish themes in an innovative way, such as, for instance, the interactive performance "GOG/MAGOG 3: Israel" by the international art-collective internil, which was shown in the festival in 2018.

The last important artistic choice within the festival is the so-called "Israel-Lounge". Too often, non-Jewish Europeans consider Judaism and Israel as one and the same thing. The Israeli cultural landscape is extremely innovative and experimental and the festival wishes to give space to this creative country. Productions coming from Israel have their own space within the festival and they are not declared as Jewish but as Israeli. In 2018, for instance, the festival hosted the filmmaker and director Gilad Baram with his documentary "Koudelka shooting Holy Land".

Community Involvement

One of the main goals of the festival is to create a positive access to Jewish themes in Dresden and Germany. The most widespread association that non-Jewish Germans have with Judaism is the Shoah and the guilt for the destruction of European Jewry. The festival wants to try and create a "normality" so far as the presence of Jews in Germany is concerned. Within the festival there are different kinds of events. There are theatre and music performances where the audience does not participate in an active way. At the same time, one very important strand of events are participatory, where people of different ages learn actively about Jewish themes. In recent years, the audience was mainly composed by people between 50 and 70, who wanted to attend more traditional Jewish events. Since 2013, the festival has been trying to reach a broader audience and especially a younger one.

A very successful event every year is the "Mischpoke-Tag", a day for the whole family but especially for children, in which they can learn more about the Jewish tradition. In 2018, the festival organized, among other events, a puppet theatre for children, a workshop dealing with the main Jewish holidays and a reading of a childrens book about two friends in Jerusalem - one is jewish, one is muslim.

For adults there were two introductory courses in Hebrew and Yiddish as well as a dance-class for traditional israeli dances.

While movies and documentaries are a relevant part of our festival, we always invite the filmmakers to a discussion with the audience after the screening. In 2018, we had the pleasure of hosting the director Gilad Baram and the editor Elisa Purfürst of the documentary "Koudelka shooting Holy Land" as well as the director Dalia Castel of the roadmovie "Jerusalem for cowards".

These are just some examples of the interactive activities that take place during the festival. The goal is to let non-Jewish people learn more about Judaism so that this rich and long culture is not just reduced to the Shoah, and so that being Jewish in Germany can be seen as a part of normal life again.

Another important aspect for the festival within the community is that it collaborates with some of the biggest theatres and museums in the city of Dresden, like the Hygiene-Museum or the Staatsschauspiel Dresden. These collaborations are very important means to establish the festival in the cultural landscape of the city and the region.

By inviting productions from very well-known national theatres, like the Deutsches Theater Berlin or the Gorki-Theatre in Berlin (planned for 2019), the festival aims to attract an audience which is aware of the quality of the productions of such big theatres and which is not primarily interested in Jewish themes. In this way, the festival manages to create synergies between the different interests of the collaborating institutions.

European and International Engagement

Every year the festival invites artists from all over Europe as well as from Israel.

Since 2014 year, the festival collaborates with a small Jewish festival in Teplice, in the Czech Republic. The idea is to create a "triangle" between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic in order to permit artists to move across these borders.

Jewish culture is not bound to a specific country: in its roots, it is already very near to the idea of the European community.