Chicago YIVO
Summer Festival of yiddish culture 2026
other than the special opening night,
All events are in person across Chicago area libraries
Special Opening Night Performance
GLYK Presents: Goles Glikn
with Gay Little Yiddish Kolektiv
Thursday, June 18th at 7:00pm
at the NeoFuturarium, 5153 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, 60640
Join GLYK for a show that asks: What’s an authentic Jew and how do you become one? What’s the relation between art and life, representation and reproduction? And what the **** are we doing in Chicago? This show will feature excerpts from Sholem Asch’s marranage melodrama Maranen and Paula R.’s (Prilutski) high-art send-up Aktor.
Maxwell Street Klezmer Quintet
Sunday, June 28th at 3:00pm
at the Northbrook Public Library, 1201 Cedar Lane Northbrook, IL 60062
Audiences of all backgrounds and ages will enjoy the variety, virtuosity, and humor of a Maxwell Street Klezmer Quintet performance.
An Afternoon of Yiddish Nostalgia
with Bibi Marcell and Gail Mangurten
Sunday, July 12th at 3:00pm
at the Northtown Public Library 6800 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60645
Bibi Marcell and Gail Mangurten will play Yiddish soul music that will warm your hearts and make you want to clap and sing along!
Tales from Jewish Tradition: Wise Women, Rebbes, Demons and Shmendriks
with Susan Stone
Wednesday, July 29th at 7:00pm
at the Highland Park Public Library, 494 Laurel Ave, Highland Park, IL 60035
Join award winning professional storyteller, Susan Stone, as she tells Jewish stories with humor, passion, and skill. Tales from many sources; Jewish folktales, Chasidic tales, as well as from her life. New tales added this year!
Yiddish Folklore and Photographs from Interwar Poland
with Sheila Jelen
Sunday, August 2nd at 3:00pm
at the Northbrook Public Library, 1201 Cedar Lane Northbrook, IL 60062
A lecture on Menachem Kipnis (1878–1942), a Jewish East European ethnomusicologist, folklorist, and photographer, whose stories and photos portray record a world destroyed in the Holocaust.
Trio Controverso Klezmer Concert
with Annette Bjorling, Kurt Bjorling, and Joseph Spielberg
Monday August 10th at 7:00pm
at the Wilmette Public Library, 1242 Wilmette Ave, Wilmette, IL 60091
Annette Bjorling (harp) and Kurt Bjorling (clarinet) with Joseph Spielberg (bass-fidl) cordially invite you to a concert of old and new favorite klezmer tunes.
Music of My Heart
with Pavel Roytman
Sunday, August 16th at 3:00pm
at the Skokie Public Library, 5215 Oakton St, Skokie, IL 60077
Cantor Roytman sings a selection of Yiddish, cantorial, Ukrainian, and original songs.
The KlezMeydlekh
with Shirlee Todd, Gail Mangurten, and Irina Kaufman
Sunday, August 30th at 2:00pm
at the Morton Grove Public Library, 6140 Lincoln Ave, Morton Grove, IL 60053
The KlezMeydlekh is a trio of women who vocally and instrumentally perform both traditional klezmer and Yiddish songs as well as Jewish music with a modern flare, incorporating creative arrangements with international and American influences.