Open Call – Yiddish Culture Weekend 2026

For more than twenty years, JMI’s Summer Schools have been a meeting place for learning, music-making, language, and community.

In 2026, we are taking a deliberate pause in the current format in order to reimagine the programme for the future.

This is not a step away. It is a moment to reflect carefully on how the Summer Schools can evolve — artistically, structurally, culturally and sustainably — so that they return in 2027 renewed, integrated, and built for the years ahead.

We believe that taking time now will allow us to safeguard and carry forward what has been built over decades with care and responsibility.

But 2026 will not be quiet. Instead, this year we are placing the spotlight on our community.

Yiddish Culture Weekend 2026 is a concentrated, community-led celebration of Yiddish language, song, music, and cultural life in the UK.

This interim year is about opening space, inviting ideas and celebrating the richness that already exists within our community.

What this includes

• A full day of workshops and learning at SOAS
• Artist-led events across the weekend
• Grassroots initiatives shaped by the community

We are inviting proposals from musicians, educators, scholars, organisers, creative and cultural practitioners.

If there is a workshop you have long wanted to teach, a conversation that needs to happen, a concert you wish existed, a gathering, screening, dance class, early morning or late-night session that could bring people together — this is the moment.

Open Call – Two Strands

Teaching & Workshops
(SOAS – Sunday 30 August 2026)
Masterclasses, lectures, participatory sessions, cultural explorations.

Community-Led Events
(Weekend Programme Friday 28 – Monday 31 August 2026)
Concerts, talks, screenings, jam sessions, experimental formats, collaborations.

Deadline for submission: Sunday 8 March, 11:59pm

Selected proposals will be notified by mid-March and programme will be announced late March.

2026 is a year of gathering and activation.
2027 will mark the return of a reimagined Summer School model.

We look forward to building this next chapter together.