By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
Yiddish culture will be highlighted at Secular Jewish Circle of Puget Sound’s upcoming fundraiser, From the Shtetl and Beyond: A Celebration of Jewish Stories, Music and Humor, on Feb. 28 at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island.
“It’s an offering to the Jewish community to get a flavor of shtetl life,” says storyteller D’vorah Kost, who performed at SJC’s first Shabbat gathering this fall.
Kost will narrate the program in the character of her Yiddish grandmother, Bubbe Fanny. Kost developed the Bubbe Fanny character in a solo movement storytelling piece, What is the Voice of Your Grandmother…is the Voice of the Rocks, the Trees, the Seas. That piece was performed at Klezcamp in New York, and the National Jewish Agenda conference in Los Angeles, as well as in Seattle.
“My expectation is that people are moved from a deeper, inner place,” says Kost about the upcoming event. “A lot of the program has a lot of humor in it.”
Kost has been performing around the region for more than 20 years. Since coming to Seattle in 1978, Kost has created and performed in solo and ensemble movement theater/mime pieces, including the anti-nuclear mime, Four Minutes to Midnight and Sarah and Hagar, a choreopoem about Arab/Jewish reconciliation that she has also performed in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Kost also leads singing and dancing, tells stories and teaches children at Kadima and Congregation Eitz Or. A clinical social worker, she currently leads therapy groups for elders at Northwest Hospital and teaches Yoga at Greenwood Senior Center.
“Yiddish is missing from Jewish learning and it’s real important to keep it alive so we don’t lose our culture,” says Sheila Fox, another experienced Yiddish entertainer in the area, who will excerpt her one woman show, The Life and Times of Molly Picon into a 10-minute segment of songs and tales about the actress’ life and career.
“Molly Picon was a pretty incredible person,” says Fox. “She traveled all over the world doing Yiddish theater and she started out in vaudeville.”
Picon, who bares a remarkable resemblance to Fox, was a daring performer. She would do somersaults in a ball gown and bring up social commentary that was not normally talked about, says Fox. She was also one of the first women to cross-dress in the theater.
“She’s very inspiring to me because she performed well into her 80s,” says Fox.
Fox has appeared in musical theater, cabaret and festivals. Her New York and Russian appearances with world-renowned music director Zalmen Mlotek and singers Adrienne Cooper and Clare Barry of the Barry Sisters have given Fox’s performances an insightful connection to the history of Yiddish music and culture.
As lead singer of Seattle-based quartet the Kosher Red Hots, Fox’s warmth and enthusiasm stirs people to join her in singing and dancing.
“Sheila Fox is a powerful singer who engages audiences with her eloquent and theatrical vocal style,” says Malya Resnik Muth, organizer of the SJC event.
Fox’s childhood, spent living among native New Mexicans, many of whom stem from Sephardic ancestry, gives her an intimate appreciation of Ladino song and culture.
Judy Moise, Emily Gitelman, Mitch Gitelman and Judi Schrager will also tell stories at the fundraiser. Surrounding these stories will be klezmer music performed by two former members of the Kosher Red Hots, Laurie Andres and Carl Shutoff.
“And I will get my wish, to perform Lori Laitman’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly with my musical partner Kimm Stammen, in a Jewish venue and in a program of Jewish culture,” says Muth, a classically trained singer who has been performing around the Puget Sound for 15 years. The six-song cycle for soprano and saxophone is based on the poems of children who lived in Terezin, the “model” ghetto and concentration camp in Prague set up by the Nazis to deceive the Red Cross. This will be its Seattle premiere.
The SJC is a community that celebrates Jewish culture and heritage in a non-religious setting through cultural and educational activities, holiday observances and by improving the world through social activism. The proceeds from this fundraising event will support SJC programs.
“It’s a great way to bring the community together,” says Fox. “I think this can grow to an annual event.”
From the Shtetl and Beyond takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 28 at the Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 E Mercer Way, Mercer Island. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased in advance by sending a check to PO Box 33315, Seattle, WA 98133-0315. Tickets purchased at the door will be $30. Call 206-528-1944 or visit www.secularjewishcircle.org.