The Shtetl Berlin Yiddish Culture Festival kicked off on Dec. 6 with a Montreal-style bagel-making workshop led by Laurel Kratochvila, the American-born owner of Berlin’s Fine Bagels. Klezmer musicians and artists filled the static periods with Yiddish tunes and poetry while the bagel dough rose. American Jewish musicians such as Daniel Kahn and Craig Judelman—as well as performers from Montreal—followed up with workshops on Yiddish song and instrumental workshops. A few days later, on the first day of Hanukkah, Shtetl Berlin—formerly known as Shtetl Neukölln—launched its annual festival of Yiddish music and culture. Now in its fourth year, the two-day festival also streamed online in its entirety for the first time this year, due to the pandemic, attracting over 350 registered participants from five continents.
