Over a hundred events showing the richness of Jewish culture are held this year during the fifth Festival of Jewish Culture called 'Singer's Warsaw'.

Joanna Najfeld reports

Concerts, recitals, theater plays, exhibitions, old and modern movie screenings, Jewish song and dance workshops, Yiddish language lessons, Hebrew handicraft and writing classes, art workshops for kids and Jewish cooking corner for moms, a scholarly conference, literary evenings, open air shows and parties - all that is on the menu of Singer's Warsaw 2008.

Katka Mazurczak is a young Jew living in Warsaw. Apart from her job at Polish Radio External Service Hebrew Section, she is part of the Forum of Young Yiddishists. She will be giving a lecture on that language during the festival:

'Me and my friend will give a lecture about blogs written in Yiddish or blogs written about Yiddish from all around the world. Every lecture is open, everybody can come. So I suppose people who are interested in Yiddish, they learn the language, or speak it, or are interested to hear about it, will come.'

Jewish artists from Israel, Germany, Austria, Sweden, the USA and Canada arrive to Warsaw for the event. A concert by the Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir inaugurated the festival. Hebrew liturgical music will be played at the Warsaw Synagouge, says Gołda Tancer of the Shalom Foundation.

'Next to great theatrical performances and concerts we will also stage the best Klezmer musicians. This event has a soul. Everyone says that it's nice and warm here. And this is what I care about.'

Klezmer music is what Katka Mazurczak recommends a lot. It is growing in popularity in Poland, not only among Jews:

'I'm very very eager to listen to the concert by Chava Alberstein, one of my favorite Israeli singers, she also performs in Yiddish. I learned a lot of the language from her songs; and also Frank London, one of the best performers of Klezmer music.'

As part of the celebrations, participants of the festival will mark the 85th birthday of Szymon Szurmiej – founder and head of the Jewish Theater in Warsaw. He says Jewish culture must be treasured, as it is very much connected to the Polish culture:

'These cultures influenced each other. And this is our task - not only remember this, but also show living Jewish culture as part of the Polish culture.'

For more on Singer's Warsaw festival go to singersfestival.pl.