The name The Kultura Collective is inspired by the Kultur-Lige, an interwar collective that promoted Jewish culture and community across Eastern Europe. At the height of its reach and impact, it was destroyed by both the Soviets and the Nazis. The intention was to find a name that reflects the focal point of our collective work: the universality of culture and at the same time the uniqueness of Jewish culture.

‘Kultura’ translates into the word ‘culture’ in Ladino, Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, and Polish. The transliteration of Kultura into the Hebrew language in the proposed wordmark positions the collaborative in a uniquely Jewish space: tying the collective to Israel and the Jewish world. ‘Kultura’ is therefore a fitting word to convey the breadth of Jewish cultural influences which we hope to embrace within our collaborative.

The choice of Kultura Collective as the name for this platform allows us to draw inspiration from an important period in Jewish cultural history as a starting point for focusing upon the breadth of Jewish culture in a contemporary context.

Contemporary Jewish culture embraces the rich Jewish culture of Sephardic, Mizrachi, Ashkenazi, North and South American and beyond. The aspiration of the Kultura Collective is that these cultural traditions be honoured and celebrated. The Kultura Collective enables Jewish arts, culture and heritage to transform and enrich more lives across Toronto and beyond.