Klezmer “without” ICE

On behalf of the organizers and artists behind Klezmer on Ice, welcome to the 4th annual winter festival of Yiddishkeit in Minnesota. Our goal is to grow icy roots of community; fostering active learners and participants in this rich tradition and constantly evolving, contemporary, and diasporic Jewish identity.

The name “Klezmer on Ice” is meant to playfully honor the unique, weird, and creative culture of the South Minneapolis community in which our festival is rooted, but it is not lost on us that the name of our festival may come off as tone-deaf given the ongoing violence and terror being inflicted on our community by federal agents including ICE.

In addition to countless lives torn apart, we are grieving the murder of community members Renee Nicole Good z’’l, Alex Pretti z”l, and the death of Victor Manuel Díaz z”l in ICE detention.

Coming from a history of pogroms, holocaust, and catastrophe, we are well aware that lawless police forces are antithetical to everything we stand for as Yiddishists. In the Yiddish language, Klezmer on Ice or "klezmer on eyz" translates directly to klezmer WITHOUT ice. In this spirit, we dedicate this year’s festival to all immigrants and refugees who have built flourishing life in America, and will continue to do so long after we turn the page on this shameful chapter of our history.

Mir veln zey iberlebn! We will outlive them!

We invite you to join us in a joyful celebration that aims to strengthen the bonds of our Yiddish community and our many resilient artistic and cultural communities that make Minnesota great. We are looking forward to a weekend of workshops, talks, concerts and more in which we deepen our connections with one another – that is what keeps us safe.