Klezmer Musicians Travel "Home" to Krakow
Narrated by Theodore Bikel

The strong spiritual beat felt so vibrantly in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, mysteriously compels some of the best international Klezmer musicians to return each year in search of the roots that gave life to their passion of celebrating and performing klezmer music. In exploring that magical energy of Kazimierz and its resonance throughout the city and population in the context of the annual Krakow Festival of Jewish Culture, this documentary focuses on why this place continues to draw world-renowned Jewish musicians and artists.

Musical and visual images from live music concerts blend with backstage scenes, rehearsals in New York City and Kazimierz, and spontaneous "jamming" sessions with local Krakowian street performers. A classic Yiddish legend bookending the film together with depictions of workshops on klezmer and chassidic singing and dancing, Jewish cooking, paper cutting, and Yiddish language add expression to the story of the centuries-old magnetic attraction of Jews to Krakow.

Viewers of Klezmer Musicians Travel "Home" to Krakow are certain to join musicians and audience members as they are swept into the full spectrum of experiences and emotions on their journey "home" to Krakow. 

The documentary is narrated by famous theatre, film and television actor Theodore Bikel. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Tevye when Fiddler on the Roof made its Broadway debut in 1967 and over 2000 times since, Bikel has acted in more than 30 movies and countless theatre performances, the latter including the original Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. A co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival, Bikel is also an accomplished musician.

A Jewish Telegraphic Agency review written by internationally acclaimed author and reporter Ruth Ellen Gruber and reprinted in worldwide Jewish newspapers stated: "The film celebrates Eastern European Jewish music and shows how it has been reinterpreted since the Holocaust, and it examines the role of the Krakow festival in this regard... Friedland and Fissel use concert footage and interviews with performers s well as other commentators, including [festival organizer Janusz] Makuch, Shevach Weiss, who at the time was Israeli ambassador to Poland, and Polish Jewish intellectual Konstanty Gebert... They all attempt to analyze the ironies of presenting Jewish culture in a non-Jewish context but also discuss their own, often highly ambivalent, personal feelings regarding the phenomenon."

Klezmer Musicians Travel “Home” to Krakow is currently airing on many PBS stations nationwide; please check the broadcast schedule page for more details.