Experience An All-Star Third Seder – An Online International Yiddish Cultural Celebration

On Sunday, April 12, at 2PM, a consortium of Jewish cultural organizations will present a "Third Seder", an unprecedented online international Yiddish cultural celebration featuring leading contemporary performers of the Yiddish and Klezmer stage. The "Third Seder" is produced by Rabbi Avram Mlotek, co-founder of Base Hillel, and Moishe Rosenfeld, founder and president of Golden Land Concerts & Connections.

"While we hunker down in our homes physically separated from our community, we are blessed with the technology to carry on the tradition of a driter seyder, and once again share our yontev and culture with as much of our international Yiddish community as we are able to reach through this unprecedented event," Rabbi Avram Mlotek said.

The celebration of Yiddish culture, song, and dance will be livestreamed on April 12, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, on Avram's Mlotek Facebook, https://bit.ly/2xQifSY, or www.rebrand.ly/thirdseder. Details about the event can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1141566199523498/.

Performing-to date-will be: Joanne Borts, Alejandra Czarny, Sarah Gordon, Daniel Kahn, Shura Lupovsky, Frank London, Sarah Mlotek, Zalmen Mlotek, Eleanor Reissa, Joyce Rosenzweig, Steven Skybell, Lorin Sklamberg, Susan Abbe Watts, Michael Winograd, and Steven Weintraub.

The Third Seder is co-sponsored by: Adrienne Cooper Fund for Dreaming in Yiddish, Ashkenaz of Toronto, Base Hillel, Congress for Jewish Culture, Festival for Jewish Culture in Warsaw, The Forward, JCC Manhattan, Jewish Labour Bund, Kleztival of Brazil, KlezKanada, Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, Penina Zylberman Yiddish Cultural and Educational Foundation Inc., Sholem Aleichem College, Vaybertaytsh, The Workers Circle, Yiddish New York, Yiddish Summer Weimar and Other Music Academy, Yiddish Artists and Friends Actors Club, Yiddish Book Center, Yiddishkayt Initiative, Yiddish Theatrical Alliance, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and YungYiddish.

It's entirely free, but Rabbi Mlotek is asking viewers to donate to the United Community Services of Westchester.

"Our Yiddish world has a unique perspective on Peysakh, which offers us so many symbols and sources of inspiration for our very being," Rabbi Mlotek said. "The Jews of Eastern Europe endured much oppression and were part of many struggles, culminating with the khurbn of World War II. One of the most heroic struggles in Jewish history, the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, began on the first seder night in 1943, and has ever since become indelibly woven into the story of Peysakh and our family sedorim."

He added, "In New York, The Workers Circle (formerly Arbeter Ring), under the leadership of Yosl Mlotek, established a gala 'Third Seder', which annually celebrated the Yiddish community's resilience and commitment to carrying on. For many years, these were held in the magnificent Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria, with choirs and dancers, and Yiddish celebrities offering a powerful assertion of "es vet a poyk ton undzer trot - mir zaynen do."

The April 12 event will incorporate many of the songs and poetry that appeared in the traditional "Third Seder", following the Passover seder narrative moving from slavery to redemption, from persecution to freedom.

But, Rabbi Mlotek said, "The way that we get there will be different. There will be songs that people know, and songs that people don't know. It will be wonderful, expanding what it means to be Jewish and to practice Judaism and Yiddishkeit."