December 26-31 2004/5765
The Hudson Valley Resort and Spa
Kerhonkson, New York
2004 marks the 20th edition of �KlezKamp: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program.� And while this is our birthday celebration, KlezKampers are the ones who receive the gifts.
Our theme, �Doyres/Generations,� explores how Yiddish culture �and KlezKamp � is passed through generations featuring KlezKamp doyres: Chana Mlotek and son Zalmen, mother/daughter Elaine Hoffman-Watts and Susan Watts, Anita Norich and father Isaac, Pearl Sapoznik and son plus others. Our anniversary gives us a chance to dip into our archives to show rare classroom videos of beloved KlezKamp teachers no longer with us, and to also issue a special commemorative 2-CD anthology highlighting 20 years of our incomparable staff concerts.
We are pleased to offer this year, expanded vocal music and Yiddish language programs and welcome new staff including choral director Eleanor Epstein, Parisian Yiddish language instructor Yitskhok Niborski, Canadian-Yiddish author Chava Rosenfarb and actor Hy (�Khayim�) Wolfe who will be interviewing and performing with Yiddish theater greats Mina Bern, Shifra Lerer and David Rogow. And as always, we honor the great klezmer masters of our generation German Goldenshteyn, Paul Pincus and Pete Sokolow.
A change is our new home: the fully restored classic Catskill resort, the �Granite Hotel� in Kerhonkson, New York. Now called the �Hudson Valley Spa and Resort� (http://www.hudsonvalleyresort.com), a $30 million renovation has created the seemingly impossible: Hilton quality in a heymish Catskill location, a hotel, as my mother would say, mit ale pistshefkes (�with all the extras�), including wireless internet access, full health club, spa, indoor pool and luxuriously appointed guest and classrooms. The kitchen, headed by Executive Chef /Culinary Institute of America graduate Edward Kelly, produces abundant traditional regional favorites with attention given to vegetarian and children�s menus, all under the strict supervision of Rabbi Gershon Kreuser of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
While much has changed, what has not is our commitment to creating an inspiring cornucopia of all things Yiddish: our full instrumental, vocal and dance program, klezmer jams, multi-tiered language sessions, history, literature, translation workshops, plus our unbeatable children�s and teen program. Evening events� many of which are open to the public and broadcast on local public radio outlet WJFF (90.5 FM/ http://www.wjffradio.org) include after dinner family activities, concerts, cabarets, and dancing to live music �til all hours.