Shtetl Berlin Festival 2026

What is Shtetl Berlin?

Shtetl Berlin is an association that has been holding Berlin's Yiddish music and culture scene together for years – with monthly Neuköllner Klezmer Sessions, workshops, dance evenings, and an annual festival. The word shtetl referred to the small Jewish market town in Eastern European Jewry, where the Yiddish language, Klezmer music, and religious traditions shaped daily life. In Berlin today, the name stands for an open, multilingual community that keeps this tradition alive and develops it further – with musicians from Germany, Poland, Ukraine, the USA, Israel, and Hungary.

The 2026 Festival

The 2026 edition is the largest to date: six days of continuous programming from Tuesday, June 9th, to Sunday, June 14th, 2026. It opens on Tuesday evening in the Grüner Salon of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and concludes with the traditional closing jam at the ufaFabrik in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. In between, concerts, workshops, lectures, a Shabbat party, a dance evening, a Klezmer brunch, and a children's program are spread across several Berlin venues – including the Nikodemus Kulturkirche in Neukölln.

Muzsikás and the Lost Jewish Repertoire

The highlight of 2026 is the concert by the Hungarian ensemble Muzsikás with their program Maramaros - The Lost Jewish Music. Since the 1980s, Muzsikás has reconstructed Jewish Klezmer repertoires in remote Carpathian villages of Transylvania and Maramureș (today Romania/Ukraine) that seemed lost due to the Shoah and subsequent migration – recorded with informants from the Romanian and Roma traditions who had played with the last Jewish musicians before the war. Their concert in Berlin is a historic event.

Workshops, Dance, and Brunch

On Saturday and Sunday, there will be workshops for Yiddish singing, Klezmer instrumental playing, and dance – open to all levels, from beginners to professionals. In parallel, there will be a lecture series on the Jewish history of Berlin and Germany, as well as curated spotlights on individual guest artists. The traditional Klezmer brunch on Sunday morning has been a Berlin insider tip for years – relaxed atmosphere, live music, kosher and vegetarian cuisine.