7th FestivALT | 23.06–2.07.2023

The term Doykait is a Yiddish word that can be understood as “Hereness” or the “here and now”. It was an idea popularized during the interwar periods by the Bund (Jewish Socialist Party) and it was most commonly connected to the struggle for Jewish rights and cultural autonomy wherever Jews were living. For the Bund, this meant advocating for the strengthening of Central and Eastern European Jewry. We have titled our 2023 FestivALT “Doykait” as a lens for considering our program, and in a sense, our organization as a whole. Since our inception in 2017, our focus has been to foster and cultivate a uniquely authentic contemporary Polish Jewish identity; one that comes from the nuances inherent in the doykait of modern Polish Jewry. Today, Polish Jewish culture is often understood mostly through the prism of pre-war nostalgia or the Holocaust. At the same time, the presentation of contemporary Jewish culture tends to be from places outside of Poland such as Israel or America. At FestivALT, our focus is on conversations unique to this part of the world that address the complexities of contemporary Jewish Poland and Europe. As Central and Eastern Europe’s Jewish communities evolve, there are unique, nuanced identities emerging, and at FestivALT, we create a platform for artists and thinkers to explore the doykait of Jewish Poland today.