YUNG Yidish WIEN

07/05/2026

Seven events coming up in YUNG YiDiSH WIEN this May and June! Check them out and RSVP through our website www.yungyidishvienna/events!

06/05/2026

A participatory event dedicated to the Hassidic tradition of Nigun: singing wordless spiritual melodies as a community. Guided by our young-artist-in-residence for 2026 the singer and voice teacher Mika Ehrlich,

We will begin with simple body and vocal work, followed by an introduction to the tradition. Through hands-on experience, we will learn melodies and explore how we can sing and develop them together. The space is open to everyone, with no previous experience required. We invite you to help create a communal voice and experience the power of Nigun! After the appr. 75-minute event YUNG YiDiSH WIEN remains open for informal shumes/chat until 10pm.

Entry is FREE donations welcome (suggested donation: €9), RSVP obligatory through our website for entry and ID's will be checked on the door.

Mika Ehrlich: Artist-in-Residence at YUNG YiDiSH WIEN for 2026

This year, we are making our spaces available as an inspiring environment for the development of a contemporary opera by Mika Ehrlich (born 1995), a student in the MWD MA program in Contemporary Arts Practices, "Improvisation/Composing-Performing." She is a young Israeli dramatic soprano, multidisciplinary performing artist, and educator living in Vienna, Austria. Since 2025, she has been doing her Master's studies at the MDW University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, specializing in contemporary performance practices as a composer and performer. A passionate Yiddishist, she is a champion of both classical music and the Jewish-European musical tradition: the linguistic and musical heritage of her ancestors. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Voice from the Israel Conservatory in Piano and from the Jerusalem Academy of Music. She has performed as a soloist in opera productions in Israel and Europe and has specialized in Jewish music in recent years, performing in both Yiddish Klezmer and classical styles. As an opera singer, she performs in recitals, opera and operetta concerts in Vienna, Israel, Germany, Lithuania, and Italy, including at the Leipzig Wagner Festival in 2025 and the UN Festival in 2024. As a Yiddish singer, she regularly participates in Jewish festivals, events, and concerts in Vienna and throughout Austria. In 2022, she debuted in Vilnius, Lithuania, with her first staged chamber opera, "A'heym," an opera in Yiddish that blends Jewish traditions with contemporary performance practices.

A participatory event dedicated to the Hassidic tradition of Nigun: singing wordless spiritual melodies as a community.

06/05/2026

21 May 8PM in DRUZI Yiddish Ukrainian orchestra in YUNG YiDiSH WIEN! Don't miss this unique opportunity to hear these seven amazing musicians!

Rooted and restless, DRUZI performs music born from the ancient meeting of cultures in the Ukrainian lands — old time dance tunes, lyrical ballads, polyphonic songs, modern ethno-folk, and Hasidic devotional melodies woven into a single, emotionally vivid journey.
The ensemble's accomplished musicians draw on centuries of shared tradition from a land that has always been a crossroads of empires — home to Jews, Greeks, Tatars, Ruthenians, Poles and more. As the historical heartland of both Hasidic music and klezmer, Ukraine is one of the most important homelands of Ashkenazi Yiddish culture, and DRUZI brings this legacy to life.
Born in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the ensemble unites displaced Ukrainian musicians with collaborators from across Europe and the United States, offering audiences a chance to experience the cultural richness of a country many know only through news stories about war.
Two fiddles, accordion, and voices that never stop singing: the sound is earthy and droning, funky and fierce, and at its best, a full-bodied celebration of everything human beings can share with one another.

Druzi is a collective - the Vienna leg of our Spring 2026 tour features:

Craig Judelman (Berlin/USA) - violin
Nataliya Kasianchyk (Vynnitsa/Warsaw) - domra
Alëna Kandyba (Minsk/Vilnius) - Cello
Sasha Lurje (Riga/Berlin) - Vocals, Drum
Shaun Williams (RO/USA) - Accordion
Olena Yeremenko (Lviv/Warsaw) - Violin

Tickets: €18 payable on the door (€15 for YYW members; under 18 FREE); RSVP obligatory through our website for entry and ID's will be checked on the door.

A band of Ukrainian and Jewish musicians celebrating their shared heritage

29/04/2026

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for the

3rd University of Vienna Summer School in Contemporary Yiddish Language and Culture (Beginner/ Lower Intermediate)
31 AUG -4 SEP 2026
University of Vienna, YUNG YiDiSH WIEN

Registration is now open for the 3rd University of Vienna Summer School in Contemporary Yiddish Language and Culture (Beginner/ Lower Intermediate) (https://international.univie.ac.at/summer-and-winter-schools/univie-summer-schools/).
The School is sponsored by the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies and the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the Universität Wien, their students and employees benefit from a reduced fee of €50. You can find more information and register at: https://www.yungyidishvienna.org/summerschool2026 Any questions, please email [email protected].

At this unique University of Vienna summer school, beginner and lower intermediate students will have the opportunity to learn Yiddish language and (Central Eastern) European Jewish history and culture.

The school draws on our extensive previous research into Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish and on the experience of native speaker teachers who grew up immersed in a a Hasidic Yiddish speaking cultural environment. Our vision is to introduce beginner and lower intermediate students to this new emergent variety of Yiddish, which is the native vernacular of up to a million people worldwide, while maintaining a continuity with Standard Yiddish language and culture.

Grammar classes in the mornings, seminars and activities in the afternoon, evening cultural events.

Native-speaker and expert teachers: Eli Benedict, Mendy Cahan, Katerina Kuznetsova, Eidel Malowicki and Kriszta Eszter Szendrői

Beginner and Lower Intermediate levels: both certified as a University of Vienna module (6 ECTS)

The course fee is €275, with most students and staff of the Universität Wien and CEU Jewish Studies are eligible for a reduced fee of €50. Eligibility is determined during the registration process.

Register early as places are limited! Registration is now open on our website:
https://www.yungyidishvienna.org/summerschool2026
Contact email: [email protected]

25/04/2026

Lecture Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Speaker Olga Kartashova Abstract: In the aftermath of the Second World War, Jewish institutions set out to identify and pursue N**i perpetrators—often before states themselves had developed the capacity or will to do so. While such efforts are oft...

23/02/2026

Tomorrow at YUNG YiDiSH WIEN!

Lecture Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Speaker Olga Petrova The topic of Ukrainian-Jewish relations is riddled with controversies and negative stereotypes, where the history of anti-Jewish violence and pogroms, particularly of the revolutionary period of 1918-1921 and of the Holocau...

14/01/2026