The Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival JFEST returns even stronger with new partnerships and venues that go from Balboa Park to Downtown, to La Jolla, Encinitas, and Carlsbad, reaching different corners of the county through great artistic programming. The 2023 edition will run from Thursday, June 1 until Sunday, July 16 celebrating three consecutive decades of performances that explore Jewish history, people, and ideas across San Diego with a wonderful schedule that will include virtuoso music, theatre, dance, and fine arts featuring the return of favorites like Grammy-nominated singer and touring band member with the legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen, Perla Batalla in House of Cohen: The Songs of Leonard Cohen and the return of the original theatrical piece Women of Valor, honoring six incredible women and how they have inspired the community. JFEST will also feature a special one-show-only reunion concert of the musical Witnesses, a moving production inspired by the diaries of 5 teenagers who died in the Holocaust. Recognized this year by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle as “Outstanding New Production” happening at the Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla. The debut of Eco-Jewish Play Fest, 7 plays. 24 hours to create. 1 night to enjoy! taking place in Coastal Roots Farm located in Encinitas for a full session of short new play creation, as well as The Whole Megillah New Jewish Play Festival celebrating new plays that are “unapologetically” Jewish that will be performed at The Old Globe and Carlsbad’s New Village Arts. Continuing with the theatrical line-up, "Hereville" playing at The Old Globe and New Village Arts involves a time-traveling, monster fighting orthodox Jewish girl. Theatre Dybbuk: "The Merchant of Venice" (Annotated), or "In Sooth I Know Not Why I Am So Sad" is a play from sixteenth century England that touches on how antisemitism and other prejudicial beliefs operate in our world today, to be performed at the Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla. The Congregation Adat Yeshurun, La Jolla will host the Festival Keynote: Judaism and Art with one of the world’s preeminent Jewish thinker and educator Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. In the musical section of JFEST, Jewish music takes on the flavor of cultures from Spain, Persia, Portugal, Romania, and many more in the 22nd Klezmer Summit: The World of Jewish Music happening at The First Universalist Unitarian Church of San Diego. “Neshama” – Music of the Soul, the community-wide musical concert that celebrates the deep connection of us all and Yale Strom’s "RECORDIALLY YOURS, LOU CURTISS, with a pre-show presentation on Jews and Folk Music at Digital Gym CINEMA, Park & Market, San Diego.
