MUSIC DANIEL SUGARMAN

YIDDISH IS undergoing a major revival and, this summer, London will be alive with the music and words of the mamaloshen. The Jewish Music Institute’s biggest ever summer programme offers everything from dancing up a storm with a freylekhs or a khosidl, intensive language courses, or taking in a film about the literary genius of the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem.

“We’ve got extra tutors on board to accommodate everybody who’d like to come along,” said Ilana Cravitz, director of the Klezfest music course.

“The more that we have, the more fun it is for everybody.”

The JMI celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and started offering a summer programme in the early 2000s, and, except for a brief hiatus in the early 2010s when the Institute was relaunching, it has gone from strength to strength ever since. Previous attendees usually come back the next year, and they often bring newcomers with them.

Gil Karpas, the JMI’s events manager, talks about the huge range of people coming, “from Jewish 18-year-olds fuelled by a thirst for knowledge of their origins, to octogenarians wanting to connect with the culture of their home lives.”

The growth rate may well be due to the JMI making sure that whether you’re a first-timer or an experienced attendee, you’re made to feel welcome. But Cravitz suggests, the success that the