Yiddish Food Fest celebrates Jewish traditions with food and music
CHEYENNE — The annual Yiddish Food Festival is back in Cheyenne for its 18th year of celebrating Jewish culture through music, food and experiences this Sunday.
Each year, Mount Sinai Synagogue brings in new foods and activities for the city to enjoy at the festival. Traditional Jewish foods like pastrami sandwiches, bagels with lox and cream cheese, challah bread, bisochos (Spanish-Jewish cookies), kugel (baked casserole), hamantaschen (filled pastries), chicken soup with matzoh (flatbread) balls, cabbage rolls and potato knishes will be for sale.
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Volunteer and congregation member Jeff Weinstein, who was born and raised in Cheyenne, said that they “start preparing food for the festival around nine weeks in advance,” even going as far as “renting out freezers” for the occasion.
“People come for the food, but stay for camaraderie. The food is the draw,” Rabbi Moshe Halfon told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “The thing about Cheyenne ... is people really enjoy sharing culture and music [with each other].”
Cheyenne is full of Jewish culture, with some of the first settlers in 1867 being of Jewish descent.
The Yiddish Food Festival began with a woman named Rosalyn Baker, who served as a director on the board of Mount Sinai Synagogue. She started several successful fundraising events, including the Yiddish Food Festival. It was inspired by a Greek Festival that the Greek Orthodox Church in Cheyenne started many years earlier.
Mount Sinai wanted to do something similar, so they reached out, and the church was eager to help. The Greek Festival had attendees buy drachma (Greek currency) to buy their food, so the Yiddish Festival has people buy shekels (Israeli currency) to buy the food from the sale.
A percentage of the proceeds from the event goes to local charities, like Family Promise and/or the COMEA homeless shelter, as well. Any leftover food from the event will be given out at the synagogue’s Fourth of July barbecue celebration.
Anyone in attendance will get a walking tour of the synagogue courtesy of volunteer Jason Bloomberg, taking visitors to the synagogue’s two sanctuaries and around the “shul.”
About 40 volunteers help every year to set up, pass out food and clean up after the festival. In past years, “the turnout has been anywhere from around 600 to 800 people that pass through,” Board President Dave Lerner said. Lerner has been with the synagogue since 2012.
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Mount Sinai Congregation hosting the Yiddish Food Festival on June 25, 2023 in the social hall.
One volunteer, Lila Gallensky, well loved by the community, makes strudels for the Yiddish Food Festival every year. She makes strudel from scratch in a tiny kitchen in her home. The congregation members have tried to replicate the recipe, but say, “It never turns out as good as hers ... It’s the best strudel,” and is a hit at the festival every year.
Music is also a big part of this yearly festival. A klezmer band from Denver, called the Klez Dispensers, will perform on stage in the social hall. There will be space cleared in the hall for dancing, and guests will be encouraged to get up and join. There will also be space to sit outside of the synagogue.
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Klezmer music band the “Klez Dispensers” performs in the social hall at Mount Sinai Congregation on June 25, 2023, for the Yiddish Food Festival.
Klezmer music began in Europe with musicians that would travel all over the world to perform at weddings and other social functions. The main instruments used are violins and clarinets, and it’s heavily inspired by jazz, known for being soulful and lively. The musical “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin would both be examples of klezmer music, proving it can be both upbeat and somber, as well as instrumental and vocal.
Rabbi Halfon, who’s been with Mount Sinai Congregation for about three years, is not only set to join the band on stage and perform some Middle Eastern/Arabic music with them, he’s also going to host an “Ask the Rabbi” program and answer any and all questions surrounding Judaism, Mount Sinai and anything guests are curious about.
The band will play around two or three sets, with breaks in between for the “Ask the Rabbi” session and folk dancing.
The event is “supposed to be fun,” Rabbi Halfon said. “It’s a celebration of culture, not religion ... People of different background come in ... Everyone can enjoy themselves, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Anybody who’s curious enough to try new foods, learn about the synagogue, and immerse themselves in music and a culture is welcome.”
