Nu? Yiddish in All Art Forms
“Nu?” A little Yiddish word that nudges you into action. And with an open mic, there are no more excuses. “Nu? Yiddish in All Art Forms” is a stage for Berlin’s Yiddish community to show each other and our friends what we’ve got up our sleeves: our works in progress, side projects, secret talents.
A living culture across the arts
I launched this interdisciplinary open mic series in March 2025 in partnership with Shtetl Berlin. It quickly drew international attention with a review in the Forverts/Forward. In its first four-event season in spring-summer 2025, it has already featured performances and presentations of original songs, poetry, instrumental music, dance, fiction, theater, comedy, hip hop, performance art, painting, nonfiction, circus, food, and more as well as group activities such as Yiddish singalongs and crowd karaoke.
Inspirations
Our fresh format built on the success of previous events such as the Third Seder Zingeray at the 2024 Shtetl Berlin festival, a Shmues un Vayn open mic at a Yiddish.Berlin exhibition that August, the Midnight Cabaret at Yiddish Summer Weimar, and the UK’s Yiddish Open Mic Café. Since the first event, we have already inspired a similar open mic in Kraków. We hope these opportunities will encourage more Yiddish art to be created and performed around the world.
The role of Yiddish and other languages
The events are moderated in Yiddish, but the acts themselves are in a mixture of languages (often including English) and we welcome audience members who have never experienced a Yiddish-speaking space. All word-based art forms are provided in both Yiddish and English versions, using a combination of supertitles, bilingual readings, printouts, and digital versions to read along.
We translate Yiddish texts into English, but also other languages into Yiddish. The first season also included contributions in German, Spanish, and Polish – presented alongside Yiddish and English versions.
In the future, funding permitting, we would like to add German translations of all content into the mix to make the format more accessible to audience members who don’t speak Yiddish or English.
Press
“Nu” is one of these Yiddish words that has various meanings, like a call for somebody to do something: “Nu? Come on!” But it can also have a more curious implication, as if to say: “What’s next? What do you have to say?” These two connotations of nu describe, in a nutshell, the concept of Berlin’s first Yiddish open mic series, “Nu? Yiddish in All Art Forms,” which was launched in the Galerie ZeitZone, an artists’ venue, on March 18. In essence, it’s a call for people not to be shy, to get on stage and show the audience what they can do. The only rule is it has to be related to Yiddish.
Basics
- Format: A Yiddish+ open mic/cabaret series in Berlin featuring all art forms
- Duration: 2-3 hours, usually 10-15 acts with an intermission. Each act is up to five minutes.
- Languages: Moderated in Yiddish, all text-based presentations available in both Yiddish and English, sometimes alongside other languages
- Audience: Berlin’s Yiddish community and their friends and neighbors
- Location: Berlin
Dates
Currently on pause while we fundraise for a second season.
Past
Season 1 in spring 2025: 16 April (Third Seder), 24 May, 5 July
Support us
We are searching for financial and other support to continue this series, and are open to a variety of possible partnerships and arrangements together with Shtetl Berlin.
Our main costs are translation, coordination, venue rental, and sound tech. We would very grateful for direct financial support to help us cover these costs in season 2, but also in-kind donations/volunteered time from Yiddish translators, sound techs, project managers, and/or venue owners.
If you are interested in supporting the project in one of these ways, please send me a message.