The Blind Beggar, archival inkjet print, 2023
Photo by Jackie Langelier
Costume by Jill Spector
Doikayt (Hereness) is a multimedia performance art project that stages live, character-driven performances at Jewish sites across Eastern Europe to explore themes of loss and healing through a diasporic lens. The project will reanimate Yiddish folktales and revitalize Ashkenazi performance traditions in the lands where Yiddish culture once flourished but was nearly extinguished by genocide.
The first performances will take place June 27-July 2, 2023. The artwork will be staged as a week-long event on the streets of Kazimierz (the Jewish district) and introduce audiences to a contemporary reimagining of The Seven Beggars, a famous hasidic tale by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.
For each day of the performance, Julie Weitz will embody a different beggar and be accompanied by a queer cast of Jewish diaspora artists, including Moriel Rothman-Zecher + Ira Khonen Temple + Anna Lublina. Our vibrant reimagining of Nachman's cryptic tale will invite audience participation and combine poetry, music, movement, and art to reveal how each beggar’s impairment is actually a blessing in disguise.
June 27- July 2
Galicia Jewish Museum
Krakow, Poland