Rome Sentinel

Jewtica festival highlights Jewish culture and heritage with music, food

By Mike Jaquays STAFF WRITER

“You don’t have to be Jewish to love Jewtica!” promises festival director Joe Silberlicht.

The annual Jewtica festival returns for the second year from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at the Jewish Community Center of Utica, 2310 Oneida St. The event is free to the public and celebrates the city’s Jewish culture and heritage.

“Jewtica is a festival celebrating Jewish culture,” said Victor Pearlman, executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of the Mohawk Valley. “There will be an emphasis on music, food, and customs. There will be an emphasis this year on ‘What does a Jew look like?’ In America, most Jews came here from Europe and have white skin, but around the world, a majority of Jews have dark skin.”

There will be mouth-watering Jewish food, with kosher options available.

“It’s not a festival without food, so we’ve added a number of local food vendors to our roster ... in addition to old favorites like pastrami sandwiches, kugel, and kosher hot dogs, we’re very excited to expand beyond the traditional Eastern European Jewish traditional foods,” said Silberlicht.

The guest chef for this year is Beejhy Barhany of Tsion Cafe in Harlem. Silberlicht said she will be demonstrating and sharing some of her Jewish Ethiopian cuisine and telling stories of both her exodus from Ethiopia and the fascinating history of her Harlem restaurant ... where Malcolm X was once a waiter.

New York City-based Paul Shapiro’s Ribs & Brisket Revue plays a rocking mixture of jazz, Jewish music and rhythm ‘n’ blues at 1:30 p.m. for 75 minutes. Talented local musical artists fill the bill, including the Broadway Babes from Rome and Live Noah from Utica.

“We love to play outdoors at festivals and I hear this one will have pastrami and brisket,” Shapiro said. “(It’s) worth the drive from Manhattan just for that! Make sure you come; you will not be disappointed!”

Shapiro said his Ribs & Brisket Revue particularly enjoys finding areas where African- American and Jewish music come together, as there was a lot of that in the 1940s and 1950s. Cab Calloway, probably the biggest pop star of his era, sang “Ot Azoy” (“That’s the Way”) in Yiddish and chanted like a cantor, Shapiro said.

Other jazz musicians have also covered songs that had Yiddish verses in them, Shapiro noted, and jazz musicians reveled in the music of George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.

“When I was watching ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ I realized that a lot of the music they used in the show we were already playing,” he said. “So with the addition of some great selections, we morphed into ‘Ribs & Brisket Plays the Music of Mrs. Maisel.’ We’ve added several numbers by the great duo The Barry Sisters. Did you know their last name was originally Beigelman?”

There will be adult beverages for guests who are 21 and older; fun kid’s games and educational activities; local vendors; live food demonstrations where guests can learn to make shakshuka; the chance to chat with local rabbis; and many more Jewish-centered activities.

“We’ve also expanded the number of booths you can visit at Jewtica,” Silberlicht said. “We expect over 30 vendors and informational booths, including from the Safe Haven Museum in Oswego and from all of the Mohawk Valley synagogues. The event is very kid-friendly too, with games and activities for all ages and a visit from the Utica Zoomobile.”

Guests of all faiths and backgrounds are welcome and encouraged to attend. The Jewtica event will take place outdoors on the large front lawn of the JCC. There is limited parking at the JCC, with more parking available at Temple Emanu-El, 2710 Genesee St,, along with free shuttle service to the event.

The second event promises to be the best Jewtica yet.

“We learned a lot from hosting our first-ever Jewtica last year, and hope that what we’ve learned will make this year’s event even bigger and better,” Silberlicht reflected.

“One of our major goals is to familiarize local residents with Jews and Jewish culture, thereby reducing ignorance and helping reduce incidents of anti-semitism which are on the rise in the U.S. and around the world,” Pearlman said. “It brings our community together.”

For more information, visit www.jccutica.net or find Jewish Community Center of Utica on Facebook. For more on Paul Shapiro’s Ribs & Brisket Revue, visit www.paulshapiromusic.com.

Front Page

en-us

2023-06-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://romesentinel.pressreader.com/article/281719798966002

Rome Sentinel Co.