Generation J is for all young people who want to explore Yiddish culture and build new Yiddish futures together. Whether you’re a native Yiddish speaker or you’re new to the Yiddish alphabet; you’re religious or secular; you’re Jewish, of another religion or none; you’re a seasoned klezmer musician or just discovering the world of Yiddish culture – there’s a place for you in Generation J.

Because of the way our funding sources work, you must have an address in Germany, France, or Poland to register for Generation J, and you must be under 31 years old on April 6, 2026. Your nationality doesn’t matter.

YES! Generation J is proof that something doesn’t need to be exclusively Jewish to engage deeply with Jewish culture. We co-create and celebrate Yiddish culture while fully including those of us who are Jewish, those of us who are not, and those of us who don’t fall neatly into these categories. Generation J is not only a program about Yiddish culture, but about culture in Yiddish. It’s our vision of a community that is steeped in Yiddish culture while being radically open and inclusive.

Sign up here by January 31, 2026!

If we have more signups than we can accommodate, we’ll unfortunately have to say no to some participants. We’ll confirm your participation by mid-February at the latest.

We ask participants to chip in €100 each to help cover expenses, but if that would be difficult for you, let us know and we can figure something out. Generation J is funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ program and the Franco-German Youth Office, which allows us to cover almost all the financial costs of participating. That includes your accommodation and food during the program and all workshop and museum/event entrance costs. It also includes your travel costs: from your home (in Germany, France, or Poland) to Paris, from Paris to Weimar, and back home again from Weimar.

Although Generation J is mostly free, the “cost” to you as a participant is the commitment you make to be an active part of the community. Generation J is about building a community together, and for that to work, everyone needs to be fully part of it. That means committing to show up to the group events and be a part of community discussions.

The program includes workshops, excursions, and plenty of unstructured time to hang out with other participants and develop your own ideas. There will also be many moments when more than one activity is taking place and you can choose what interests you most. A few of the activities include language workshops; Yiddish singing workshops; a walking tour of Jewish Paris; cooking together; conversations about migration and identity; a cabaret; a Yiddish movie night (with subtitles!); and much more. There’s also room in the program for participants to lead their own activities, so bring your ideas!

Creativity is crucial to Generation J. And we believe everyone is creative – whether or not you think of yourself as an “artist.” During the program, all participants will develop their own creative project, with guidance from the faculty mentors. You’ll take part in a mentorship group, led by one of the faculty mentors, where you’ll have the chance to talk about the program content in a smaller group and get inspiration and feedback for your project. Your project can be anything you want it to be: a song, a podcast episode, a translation of a Yiddish poem, visual art, standup comedy, a research-based project, a walking tour design, a recipe, a monologue…anything that grows out of the conversations and thoughts you have during Generation J! There is no grading, no passing or failing, and no right or wrong answer. You don’t have to be a professional or even have any experience in the format you choose for your project. It’s meant to be a beginning and an exploration, not a polished final “product.”

Many people need specific accommodations that we might not have yet considered. Please let us know in the registration form about any needs or requests you may have – whether physical accessibility, time for prayer, hearing assistance, kosher food, gender-neutral bathrooms...If you’re unsure, feel free to contact us directly at generationj@othermusicacademy.eu.

You can participate in Generation J even if you don’t know all (or any) of the languages we’ll be using. Yiddish, German, French, Polish, and English will definitely be around. We believe in the power of the arts to communicate across language barriers. This is how we learn to listen and converge. If you’re unsure, feel free to contact us directly in German, English, Yiddish, or French.

No – in fact, Generation J is designed as a two-week program, so all participants will take part in both weeks. (If this really isn’t possible for you, please let us know when you register and we’ll do our best to work something out – but those participating in the full program will have priority.)

The program is open for all — religious or secular; reform or orthodox; Jewish, of another religion or of no religion. We’ll do our best to make space for everyone’s observance. On shabbes, there will be an adjusted program to be inclusive of observant participants. If you have questions about this, be it kashres, prayer times, time to observe non-Jewish holidays — feel free to contact us!

Feel free to reach out to us via email (generationj@othermusicacademy.eu) or check out our Instagram account (@generationj_).