Whether you’re a lover of music, film, theatre, or anything Jewish arts and culture, there is something for you to enjoy this summer and fall! 

For thousands of Jews in our city, Jewish arts and culture is central to their identity and connection to community. UJA’s Kultura Collective proudly supports a network of Jewish arts, culture, and heritage organizations across our city. Through strategic grants, organizations have the opportunity and means to develop creative projects that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.  

A number of programs are launching throughout the summer and beyond. Here are just a few of the incredible granted projects, including:  

• An outdoor screening of Israeli film Karaoke, presented by the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. This free, fun event will feature an interactive live karaoke set led by Ashkenaz Foundation, followed by the screening. Due to the Air Quality Advisory, the event for June 7 was cancelled. We will post the rescheduled date later in the summer!
• A performance by the Pulkes Band at the Toronto Jazz Festival, in a series of concerts presented by Ashkenaz Foundation. This Israeli band takes listeners on an intoxicating Klezmer-Balkan journey, covering a diversity of genres from Afrobeats to Eastern European melodies. Learn more here.  
• Knock Knock, a play produced by Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. Taking to the stage in October, this award-winning Israeli show tells a story about parenthood, friendship, love, and sacrifice. Get tickets now.  
• The fourth and final instalment of The Shoah Songbook will be performed live on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2024, at 8 PM in the Greenwin Theatre, presented by the HGJTC and the Committee for Yiddish. The 60-minute concert will feature some of the highlights of the first three instalments as well as newly discovered works that are currently being curated. Learn more here.
• The third-place winner of the 2021 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition, Camp, with the support of the Miles Nadal JCC, will culminate in a public staged play reading at the Leah Posluns Theatre at the Prosserman JCC. Camp juxtaposes and weaves together two 15-year-old girls’ experiences – Greta in a concentration camp and Lilah at a Jewish sleepover camp – through monologues, prayer, and song.
• The Christie Pits Riot 90th Commemoration Project will directly engage nearly 5000 students from the TDSB and other regional school boards during the months of May and June, for Jewish and Italian Heritage months respectively. Students from grades 8 & 10 will learn about the Christie Pits Riot through an immersive site-specific experience that combines history and drama. Learn more and volunteer here.
• The Koffler Gallery, in partnership with Swiss Architect Manuel Herz and Canadian historian and curator Robert Jan van Pelt, announce the world-premiere exhibition of The Synagogue at Babyn Yar: Turning the Nightmare of Evil into a shared Dream of Good. A public engagement program will accompany the gallery installation show and will offer a series of focused events to contextualize and help audiences unpack the intertwined layers of urgent concerns and references that underpin the exhibition. Learn more about the exhibition here.

There’s much more in the pipeline! Keep up to date with all that will be happening in the Jewish arts, culture, and heritage scene in Toronto by subscribing to our mailing list, or following us on social media.