The 2024 Mishpachah Festival: A Celebration of Heritage, Genealogy & Immigration
What does it mean to tell a family story? Join the Museum of Jewish Heritage for an afternoon celebrating family (mishpachah in Hebrew) and the stories and culture that make up everybody’s lives and histories.
The 2024 Mishpachah Festival: A Celebration of Heritage, Genealogy & Immigration explores the evolution and multifaceted cultural legacies of Jewish immigrant experiences. Physically set overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Festival takes on extra meaning as the Museum marks one hundred years since the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act and its reverberations for global Jewry. The Mishpachah Festival will take place on Sunday, May 12th, from 12-5pm, and is free to attend with registration.
This year’s Mishpachah Festival provides experiences and activities for adults and families of all ages, including: opportunities to consult with experts from JewishGen and visit the Museum’s new Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Center; a Yiddish language workshop for the entire family to learn 50 words in 50 minutes taught by Kolya Borodulin, Director of Yiddish Programming at the Worker’s Circle; guided tours by Ellen Bari, Project Director and Curator of Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark, the Museum’s first exhibition for ages 9 and up that tells the remarkable story of the rescue of the Danish Jews during the Holocaust; and a conversation reflecting about what it means to inherit important family stories with 3GNY, an organization founded by grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.
The Mishpachah Festival also features a performance by Galeet Dardashti of her multi-sensory project and album, Monajat, inspired by old and haunting recordings of Jewish prayers chanted by her late grandfather, Younes Dardashti, a famous master singer of Persian classical music in 1950s/60s Iran. A vocalist, composer, anthropologist, and composer, Galeet Dardashti remixes samples of her grandfather’s legacy recordings and reinvents the ancient ritual of Selihot. This powerful work features original music performed by an acclaimed ensemble of Middle Eastern and jazz musicians accompanied by dynamic video art.
Stay tuned for more family-friendly programming, and updates to the Mishpachah Festival schedule at the museum’s website!
The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. As a place of memory, the Museum enables Holocaust survivors to speak through recorded testimony and draws on rich collections to illuminate Jewish history and experience.
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