It is my pleasure to invite you to participate in the cultural experience of a lifetime. KlezKanada, Canada’s internationally renowned summer festival of Jewish/Yiddish culture and the arts, is gearing up for its B’Mitzvah year! KlezKanada’s goal is to foster Yiddish and Jewish cultural and artistic creativity as both an ethnic heritage and a constantly evolving contemporary culture and identity.

Our program provides 100 scholarships to students, who might otherwise not be able to participate, giving them the opportunity to attend KlezKanada at a considerably reduced cost. We actively seek students with interest in a wide variety of areas including music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film, writing and Yiddish studies. The scholarship students are a vital part of the KlezKanada community – this is an opportunity not only to work with many of the best teachers of Yiddish music and culture in the world but also to make friends and form artistic partnerships that will last you a lifetime. Believe me, KlezKanada is truly, honestly a magical place. From the deeply rooted song traditions of Theodore Bikel to the contemporary creativity of New Yiddish Culture, KlezKanada offers no end of choices.

A couple of things of note:

2008 marks the return of the David A. Stein Memorial Filmmaking Scholarships. This is an opportunity for emerging filmmakers who are given the task of documenting the festival, archiving the performances – both the planned, and the spontaneous, – and exploring KlezKanada through the camera’s eye. These scholarships are fully funded by the Stein family in memory of the late Toronto filmmaker David A. Stein.

Please note that our application procedure has changed slightly. ALL applicants are requested to submit the supplementary materials: a small portfolio, a letter of interest and a photograph. For further details, please refer to the application form.

Download the 2008 application.

 
All applications must be received no later than May 1st, 2008. We will notify all successful applicants by June 1st. A waiting list will be established once we have reached our maximum number of scholarship recipients.

I look forward to receiving your application and to welcoming you to the 13th annual KlezKanada! Please feel free to contact me with any questions.