Ashkenazi Vernacular Cultures of Latin America

Conference October 2026

The 2026 conference focuses on Ashkenazi vernacular music cultures in Latin America and examines how Yiddish, German-Jewish, and Eastern European musical traditions were preserved, adapted, and transformed through encounters with Latin American genres and performance contexts. Particular attention is given to processes of cultural hybridisation in urban centres such as Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Montevideo, including the circulation of Yiddish song, klezmer, and theatre music and their interaction with tango, samba, bossa nova, and related styles. Combining scholarly and artistic research, the meeting explores how music articulates migration and social concerns, and it considers the roles of musicians, cultural mediators, literatures and institutions in shaping these transnational soundscapes.

Program (PDF)

Program 2026

Sunday, October 18
10:00–10:15	Welcome and Introduction Prof Dr Susanne Zepp-Zwirner and Prof Dr Diana Matut
10:15–11:00	Argentine Yiddish Theater in its Golden Age: A Journey Through Archival Findings (in Spanish) Prof Dr Susana Skura and Prof Dr Sylvia Glocer
11:00–11:20	Break
11:20–1:00	Round Table: Artistic Research on Yiddish and Latin American Music Alan Bern, Mark Kovnatskiy, César Lerner, Marcelo Moguilevsky, Leila Schütz; Moderator: Prof Dr Diana Matut
1:00–2:30	Lunch Break
2:30–4:15	Film Screening: The Exile of the Musicians Q&A with Producer Prof Dr Sylvia Glocer
4:15–5:00	Break
5:00–7:00	Concert: Yiddish Tango. Jewish Music from Latin America Alan Bern, Mark Kovnatskiy, César Lerner, Marcelo Moguilevsky, Leila Schütz

Monday, October 19
10:00–10:45	Intergenerational and Transnational Migrations of Melodies in Cuban Yiddish Literature Prof em Alan Astro
10:45–11:30	Dancing Across Borders: Jewish Musicians, Yiddishkeit and the Tango Scene in Early-1900s Buenos Aires Dr Amalia Ran
11:30–12:00	Break
12:00–1:00	From Shabbat to the Arrabal: Ashkenazi and Porteño Sonorities in César Tiempo Prof Dr Ruth Fine
1:00–2:30	Lunch Break
2:30–3:30	Lecture (ZOOM): Bernardo mitn Fidl: Ashkenazi Vernacular Instrumental Culture in Argentina, 1930s to 1970s Ilana Cravitz
3:30–4:15	Mexican Popular Music in Yiddish Literature and Ashkenazi Communal Life Dr Tamara Gleason Freidberg
4:15–4:45	Sound Installation “Mo(u)rning” by Prof Dr Liliana Ruth Feierstein and Juan Pablo Martini
4:45–5:15	What Rhymes with Scholem? Translating Borges’ engagement with the Kabbalah Prof Dr Yitzhak Lewis
5:15–5:45	A Song for the Unheard: Music and Advocacy in Matilde Alba Swann’s Poetry Prof Dr Susanne Zepp-Zwirner
5:45–6:00	Outlook and Conclusion of Conference